Recovering the Voice in Our Techno-Social World: On the Phone

by Deborah Eicher-Catt

Overview

Using a communicological perspective, Recovering the Voice in our Techno-Social World: On the Phone identifies voice (phone in Greek) as the essential medium for a re-enchantment of human communication in our highly impersonal techno-social environment. This book is a response to the growing concern by social critics that we are becoming a de-voiced society because of our preferences for hyper-textual, image-based forms of electronic connectivity. Ironically, while we are increasingly “on the phone,” we are sacrificing our vocality within immediate ear-to-ear relations. Framed by the trope of enchantment, Deborah Eicher-Catt argues that the immediacy of the sounding voice calls us and enchants us to make possible productive moments of resonance in which we might cultivate an interpersonal resilience in today’s fast-paced, media-saturated environment. Scholars of media studies, communication, and sociology will find this book particularly useful.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781793605290
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	03/08/2022
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.65(d)

About the Author

Deborah Eicher-Catt is professor of communication arts and sciences at Pennsylvania State University, York.

Table of Contents

Introduction – Speaking and Listening from the Heart

Chapter 1 – On the Phone

Chapter 2 – Our Digital Age of Distraction and our Increasing Techno-Social Dilemma

Chapter 3 – Enchantments and Their Inauthenticity: The Play of Amusements

Chapter 4 – Echoes of the Acousmatic Voice in Cyberspace: The Impersonal Self

Chapter 5 – The Murder of the Phone in Plain Sight: The Voice of Articulation

Chapter 6 – The Enchanting Phone as Phenomenological Event: The Voice of Enunciation

Chapter 7 – The Pivotal Nature of Voice: Interper-sónal Relationality and its Authenticity

Chapter 8 – Resonance, Resilience, and Re-Enchantment: Voicing the Heart of the Matter

Bibliography

About the Author

Editorial Reviews

In this book overflowing with deep learning, profound understanding, and brilliant insights, Deborah Eicher-Catt provides a philosophical study and critique of one of the most troubling aspects of contemporary life in our electronic media environment: the loss of voice and the proliferation of noise and visual distractions that are a consequence of our unhealthy infatuation with our digital devices and mobile technologies.

Lance Strate

Deborah Eicher-Catt profoundly transforms the discourse of human communication, meaning, and technology in her book about voice and human experience. Her writing throughout is at once inviting and incandescent. What is more, this study could not be more timely or more original. As we take note of the fragility of intimate relationships in this era, the discussion of communication technology has tended to be hasty and careless. Eicher-Catt’s book is the first of its kind to systematically address the embodied presence of self and other—it is brilliant and absolutely vital.

Frank J. Macke

Eicher-Catt’s book is an excellent contribution to studies in communication, communicology, semiotic phenomenology, media ecology, sociology, and a brilliant academic resource for students and scholars. Readers will not only be immersed in a deep intellectual journey, but also an enchanting one.

European Journal Of Communication

While appreciating the convenience and functionality of advanced technologies, Eicher-Catt brings our attention back to the immediacy of the actual speaking voice—an originary source of human discourse. It is this source from which we truly experience the sublime, true beauty, passion, music, love—everything that makes us human. A vocal advocate for the crucial role of vocality in our life, Eicher-Catt’s book is original and powerful, her style persuasive and lucid. This book will resonate with all students and scholars of communication, leaving them transformed—re-enchanted.

Igor Klyukanov