The SAGE Handbook of Human-Machine Communication

The SAGE Handbook of Human-Machine Communication has been designed to serve as the touchstone text for researchers and scholars engaging in new research in this fast-developing field. Chapters provide a comprehensive grounding of the history, methods, debates and theories that contribute to the study of human-machine communication. Further to this, the Handbook provides a point of departure for theorizing interactions between people and technologies that are functioning in the role of communicators, and for considering the theoretical and methodological implications of machines performing traditionally ‘human’ roles. This makes the Handbook the first of its kind, and a valuable resource for students and scholars across areas such as communication, media and information studies, and computer science, as well as for practitioners, engineers and researchers interested in the foundational elements of this emerging field.

Part 1: Histories and Trajectories

Part 2: Approaches and Methods

Part 3: Concepts and Contexts

Part 4: Technologies and Applications

Dr. Rhonda N. McEwen is the 14th President and Vice-Chancellor of Victoria University in the University of Toronto; Canada Research Chair in Tactile Interfaces, Communication and Cognition; a Professor of Emerging Media & Communication; and a faculty member at the Institute of Communication, Culture, Information & Technology. Dr. McEwen combines communication studies, and applied and behavioral sciences to examine the social and cognitive effects of technologies. Her pioneering approach to communication research employs experimental techniques, eye tracking, observations, sensor data, and interviews to investigate Human-Machine Communication involving children and adults across the user spectrum, including those diagnosed with communication and learning disorders. Journalists from CBS news magazine 60 Minutes covered McEwen’s research in 2012 and 2013, and she has over 47 publications, including articles in Human-Robot Interaction Companion; Information, Communication & Society; Computers and Education; Learning & Instruction; New Media and Society; and information science journals. 

Steve Jones is UIC Distinguished Professor of Communication and Adjunct Professor of Computer Science at the University of Illinois Chicago, USA and Adjunct Research Professor in the Institute for Communications Research at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA. He is editor of New Media & Society and co-editor of Mobile Media & Communication. His research interests encompass popular music studies, music technology, sound studies, internet studies, media history, virtual reality, human-machine communication, social robotics and human augmentics. His research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute, Centers for Disease Control and the Tides Foundation.