Abstract
One new approach to the communication sciences is to analyze them as sciences of the artificial. This involves the consideration of the internal dynamic aspect of the communication sciences from the viewpoint of sciences of the artificial as well as the study of the applied dimension of the communication sciences from the perspective of the sciences of design. Thereafter, the complexity in the communication sciences is taken into account. In this regard, the focus is on the case of Digital Terrestrial Television. The modes of complexity in the communication sciences are seen in the television programming.
This research project is supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (FFI2008-05948).
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- 1.
On this second kind of sciences, cf. Herbert Simon, The Sciences of the Artificial. 3rd ed., Cambridge (Mass.): The MIT Press 1996. On the general characters of “science”, cf. Wenceslao J. Gonzalez, “The Philosophical Approach to Science, Technology and Society”, in: Wenceslao J. Gonzalez (Ed.), Science, Technology and Society: A Philosophical Perspective. A Coruña: Netbiblo 2005, pp. 3-49; especially, pp. 10-11.
- 2.
Cf. Roland Backhouse and Philipe Fontaine (Eds.), The History of the Social Sciences since 1945. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2010.
- 3.
Cf. Robert Clarence Bishop, The Philosophy of Social Sciences. London: Continuum 2007.
- 4.
Cf. Ilkka Niiniluoto, “The Aim and the Structure of Applied Research”, in: Erkenntnis 38, 1993, pp. 1-21; especially, pp. 8-9; and cf. Gonzalez, “La televisión interactiva y las Ciencias de lo Artificial”, in: Maria Jose Arrojo, La configuración de la televisión interactiva: De las plataformas digitales a la TDT. A Coruña: Netbiblo 2008, pp. xi-xvii.
- 5.
Cf. Gonzalez (Ed.), Las Ciencias de Diseño: Racionalidad limitada, predicción y prescripción. A Coruña: Netbiblo 2007. See especially Gonzalez, “Configuración de las Ciencias de Diseño como Ciencias de lo Artificial: Papel de la Inteligencia Artificial y de la racionalidad limitada”, in: Gonzalez (Ed.), Las Ciencias de Diseño: Racionalidad limitada, predicción y prescripción, pp. 41-69.
- 6.
Cf. Niiniluoto, “The Aim and the Structure of Applied Research”, pp. 1-21; and Niiniluoto, “Approximation in Applied Science”, in: Poznan Studies in the Philosophy of Sciences and the Humanities 42, 1995, pp. 127-139.
- 7.
Cf. Arrojo, “Caracterización de las Ciencias de la Comunicación como Ciencias de Diseño: De la racionalidad científica a la racionalidad de los agentes”, in: Gonzalez, (Ed.), Las Ciencias de Diseño: Racionalidad limitada, predicción y prescripción, pp. 123-145.
- 8.
Cf. Gonzalez, “La televisión interactiva y las Ciencias de lo Artificial”, pp. xi-xvii.
- 9.
Cf. Simon, “Satisficing”, in: Douglas Greenwald (Ed.), The McGraw-Hill Enciclopedia of Economics. 2nd ed., New York: McGraw-Hill 1993, p. 883.
- 10.
In the case of television programming these two characteristic should constitute ends differentiated in themselves.
- 11.
Depending on the television about which we are speaking, and about the used support, the seeked end will be different.
- 12.
It is a practice where they control the elements that usually analyze the applied sciences when they are sciences of design, since it starts from certain aims in a design (for example, in a programming), that are seeked through a series of processes (the forms of communication) to reach a few results (levels of hearing, managerial profitability, diffusion, etc.).
- 13.
Cf. Gonzalez, “The Philosophical Approach to Science, Technology and Society”, pp. 3-49; especially, pp. 11-12.
- 14.
An operative function is a habitual assignment of the technology, cf. Gonzalez, “Configuración de las Ciencias de Diseño como Ciencias de lo Artificial: Papel de la Inteligencia Artificial y de la racionalidad limitada”, in: Gonzalez, (Ed.), Las Ciencias de Diseño: Racionalidad limitada, predicción y prescripción, p. 49.
- 15.
Simon, The Sciences of the Artificial, p. 165.
- 16.
Cf. Simon, “Prediction and Prescription in Systems Modeling”, in: Operations Research 38, 1990, pp. 7-14.
- 17.
It is here a parallelism with the applied economics, when he analyzes the management of administration of business firms, an aspect that is relevant for the communication sciences.
- 18.
Cf. Simon, The Sciences of the Artificial, pp. 169-181 and 183-216.
- 19.
Cf. Dominique Chu, Roger Strand and Ragnar Fjelland, “Theories of Complexity. Common Denominators of Complex Systems”, in: Essays and Commentaries 8, 3, 2003, pp. 19-30.
- 20.
Cf. Gonzalez, “La televisión interactiva y las Ciencias de lo Artificial”, pp. vii-xvi.
- 21.
Cf. Arrojo, “Caracterización de las Ciencias de la Comunicación como Ciencias de Diseño: De la racionalidad científica a la racionalidad de los agentes”, pp. 123-145.
- 22.
Cf. Gonzalez, “La televisión interactiva y las Ciencias de lo Artificial”, pp. xi-xvi.
- 23.
Cf. Simon, The Sciences of the Artificial, pp. 169-181 and 183-216; Simon, “The Architecture of Complexity”, in: Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 106, 1962, pp. 467-482. Another influential text is Simon, “How Complex are Complex Systems?”, in: Patrick Suppes and Duncan Asquith, (Eds.), Proceedings of the 1976 Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association, vol. 2. Ann Arbor, MI: Edwards Brothers 1977, pp. 507-522.
- 24.
Cf. Simon, “Complex Systems: The Interplay of Organizations and Markets in Contemporary Society”, in: Computacional and Mathematical Organization Theory 7, 2, 2001, pp. 79-85.
- 25.
Cf. Simon, “Complex Systems: The Interplay of Organizations and Markets in Contemporary Society”, pp. 79-85.
- 26.
Cf. Gonzalez, “Complexity in Economics and Prediction: The Role of Parsimonious Factors”, in: Dennis Dieks, Wenceslao J. Gonzalez, Stephan Hartmann, Friedrich Stadler, Thomas Uebel, and Marcel Weber (Eds.), Explanation, Prediction, and Confirmation. Dordrecht: Springer 2011, pp. 319-330.
- 27.
Cf. Nicholas Rescher, Complexity: A Philosophical Overview. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers 1998, pp. 8-16.
- 28.
Cf. Rescher, Ibid., p. 9.
- 29.
What Rescher meant by “structural complexity” corresponds with that described by Herbert Simon when he talks about architecture “decomposable” or “nearly decomposable”, in: Simon, “The Future of Information Systems”, in: Annals of Operations Research 71, 1997, pp. 3-14.
- 30.
Cf. Rescher, Complexity: A Philosophical Overview, p. 9.
- 31.
Simon, “The Future of Information Systems”, pp. 3-14.
- 32.
Cf. Arrojo, La evolución de la TDT en España: Factores jurídicos, empresariales y de programación. A Coruña: Netbiblo forthcoming.
- 33.
Transmedia is the notion of narrative that spreads across multiple platforms of mass media, with the aim that every platform contributes with something integral to a total trama http://www.scriptmag.com/2010/07/28/transmedia-and-writing-starlight-runner-goes-the-distance/ (access on 2/3/2010).
- 34.
Those audio-visual contents that manage to spread in other formats and in other supports, but these do not have sense by themselves, and it is necessary to experience the set of histories in the different platforms to understand them.
- 35.
Cf. William Bechtel and Robert Richardson, Discovering Complexity. Princeton: Princeton University Press 1993; and cf. Rescher, Ibid.
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Arrojo, M.J. (2013). Communication Sciences as Sciences of the Artificial: The Analysis of the Digital Terrestrial Television. In: Andersen, H., Dieks, D., Gonzalez, W., Uebel, T., Wheeler, G. (eds) New Challenges to Philosophy of Science. The Philosophy of Science in a European Perspective, vol 4. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5845-2_26
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