Telephone Conversation

Hopper, Robert

ISBN 10: 025320724X / ISBN 13: 9780253207241

Published by Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 1992

About this Item

Large black octavo; xiv, 247 p, b&w illus; 25 cm. Telephone; Communication; Technology; History. Very gentle wear to spine foot & head, extremely little wear to corners, sticker residue to front cover, few faint marks & scratches to covers, else very good. First edition, first printing (full number line).

Seller Inventory # 80945

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Telephone Conversation
• Publisher: Indiana University Press, Bloomington
• Publication Date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 025320724X
• ISBN 13: 9780253207241
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: very good
• Seller catalogs:
  • Science, Technology & Computers

About this title

Synopsis

We are the people of the phone. We measure out our lives in coffee-spoon-sized speech events. Both at home and at work, we conform to the telephone's rhythms as other peoples respond to rhythms of nature, family, or institutions. Telephones are escaping their wires to enter our cars, airplanes, and patios. The call-waiting beep promotes the routing interruption of one phone call by another. Voice mail and the answering machine add monologues to the mix. These telephone machines snare us in their rhythms and routines. We can take control of this situation only by understanding the facts of telephone speaking.In this book, Robert Hopper eavesdrops on the sounds of telephone conversation, the most important yet least examined province of contemporary communication. The telephone is surely the primary electronic medium for interpersonal communication, but we rarely ask how telephones affect our interaction with one another. "Telephone Conversation" describes the interactional organization of talking on the telephone. It provides a detailed examination of this technologically mediated form of social activity. It is not simply a book on telephone communication, it is a rigorous sociology of an important aspect of contemporary life.

About the Authors

ROBERT HOPPER is Charles Sapp Centennial Professor of Communication at the University of Texas at Austin. His books include Children Learning Language: Between You and Me and Human Message Systems.

ROBERT HOPPER is Charles Sapp Centennial Professor of Communication at the Universityof Texas at Austin. His books include Children Learning Language: Between You and Me and HumanMessage Systems.