Diffusion of Innovations

Diffusion of innovation theory tries to make clear how, why and the rate at which news or fresh idea spread through many channels to people. The diffusion of innovation helped the citizens of America in New York and Washington to understand the effects of terrorist attacks in the making and received the information efficiently. The framework used in the diffusion of innovation is the actor network theory (Rogers and Everett, 1962). Although the news was perceived as salient, it diffused rapidly. The attack occurred, but within three hours, all the respondents had heard about the news.

The social choice in the development and diffusion of the news that was capital intensive depended on its technical and functional excellence. The differential aspect in the respondents that were involved in transmitting information was involved. With the news having been perceived, individuals reacted in different ways. This shows that when innovation diffuses, different actors perceive it differently (Wejnert, 2002). The information diffused faster and evoked a sense of patriotism and emotions.

Diffusion of innovation relates to innovation in that any innovation spreads rapidly among the actors involved as the United States attack spread within three hours. It also evokes some emotional reaction from people and result to particular reaction (Everett, 1983). New information always diffuses through a society in that there exist the innovation or the idea itself, the communication channels that innovation will be passed on to other individuals. The aspect of time is also common as the innovation decision period, the rate of transfer ad adoption of the innovation. There also exist forms of the social system, which is an asset of interrelated units that are engaged and involved in joint problem solution for a common objective.

The article on the attacks was a good experience and illustration in clearly highlighting the concept of diffusion of innovation. In the article, there must be a happening or innovation like the attack, channels of transmission and social system or reaction for diffusion of news or idea to occur, as it was in the attack news. We have been at times quick adaptors to aspect of communication but also part of the late majority in some aspects like a response to the terrorist attack. Some aspects of responses to terrorist attacks included trigger in emotions of the citizens, raising the component of patriotism and sympathy to the affected.

According to Greg (2003), diffusion theory can be defined as a set of generalizations regarding the typical spread of innovations within a social system. This theory shows how, why, and the rate at which the coming ideas and technology extend through cultures. This theory for long has remained as the reference in studies. Rogers and Seidel (2002), in their article Diffusion of News in of the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001from Prometheus, defines diffusion and innovation as follows;

• Diffusion - is the process through which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system
• An innovation is an idea, practice, or object perceived as new by an individual or other unit of adoption (p. 2).

Greg (2003) argues that, diffusion is the process through which an innovation is conveyed via a certain channels over time among the members of a social system. As he continues to elaborate each member of the social system approaching his/her owns innovation-decision undergoes the following steps;

1. Knowledge - Person becomes aware of an innovation and has some idea of how it functions,
2. Persuasion - Person forms a favorable or unfavorable attitude toward the innovation
3. Decision - Person engages in activities the guide to a choice to adopt or reject the innovation
4. Implementation - person puts an innovation into use
5. Confirmation - person evaluates the results of an innovation-decision already made

Rogers and Seidel (2002), explains the events of the September 11, in their article shows some of the innovative ideas, which can be applied. Rogers and Seidel in their article, were trying to find out how attack news of the September 11 spread. In doing so they evaluated effectiveness of various channels which were used to convey information among the people. In reference to Rogers and Seidel article, auto messaging can be an effective innovation, which can be applied spread information among the people who use mobile technology.

Auto messaging is an idea, whereby a common message can be send to several people at once. The senders' needs to write the message intended for the group or the list in his/her phone book then forward the message to that group. Research shows that messaging system of communication much faster and can reach many respondents simultaneously. This kind of of communication is only complicated when there is need to give different types of information to various people according to their location.

In some countries, codes are used in messaging strategy to inform people on any breaking news. People receive information on their mobile of any event which is on spotlight. Directions might be given if it is cautious matter, which requires people to take precautions. For instance, if it is a fire break out, people can be told directions to move or flee. Message can also be sent in voice, whereby delivery mode is by voice communication. This kind of messaging is useful because it has higher rate of motivating people to take action.

Messaging and communication strategy requires careful installation and programming. For instance, different breaking news requires different method of conveying. The massaging technology can also be used as a tracking tool, to shows the locations of the sender and receiver of the message. When this system is fully implemented, user can learn it easily and become familiar with it. When there is breaking news occurs, continuous reliable communications that correlate with what is in the real scene are told.

There is careful coordination from the source and the receivers of the message, although sometime a rumor can find its way into the communication channel and spread with the same speed as the real story. In order to succeed in this innovation, determined efforts to diffuse are actually based on the characteristic of the situation. In to convince people perception in regard to a particular innovation it is advisable to plead with opinion leaders.

To follow these opinion leaders is the simplest approach to foment positive attitudes toward creativity.  There is various opinion leaders who change agents should aim at relying on the nature of the system. In most of the communication system are for enhancing interaction between people with common backgrounds. In case some ideas vary from norm are viewed as eccentric and unnecessary.

Multiple recipients messaging technology is appropriate to avoid conveying same massage differently to different people. This is also applicable in cases where instant response is required. It can also be programmed to be sending reminders in specific time intervals. It is also economical to communicate via messaging system compared to calling. Message can also be stored for future reference unlike calls, which if not recorded cannot be referenced.

Primarily, all expression and intonation employed in actual communication can possibly be incorporated in the text message, but often many people who send short messages frequently, tend to ignore this. Rather, they embark on abbreviation, due to ease of writing even the perceived complicated and long phrases and terms using only a few words. This is attained by eliminating all the vowels from a word, and remains only with the consonant.  This practice enables one to convey a lot of information with a very short message.

In conclusion, we can generally agree that, messaging technology is very effective and should be embraced in communication. It has been found that, there is no detrimental effect of messaging application on spelling. Therefore, it is clear that benefits of messaging technology are more compared to its shorting comings.