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206 COMMUNICA TION THEORY
two given interlocutors. For them, connectivity is more important than
interactivity, and the degree to which a given interaction transcends simple
reaction is decisive here.
As Tanjev Schultz (2000) summarizes their view:

Eventually, in two-way, or reactive, communication one side responds to the
other, but such communication remains reactive unless ‘later messages in
any sequence take into account not just messages preceded [sic] them, but
also the manner in which previous messages were reactive’ (Rafaeli and
Sudweeks, 1997). But Rafaeli also draws a very fine line between two-way
and reactive communication: ‘Two-way communication is present as soon
as messages flow bilaterally. Reactive settings require, in addition, that
later messages refer to (or cohere with) earlier ones’ (Rafaeli, 1988: 119).
Rafaeli’s model suggests that a lot of use of the new technologies is far
from interactive. (210)

As Schultz suggests, two-way communication does not, in itself,
guarantee interactivity. And to extend Taylor’s point, if an exchange does
not develop into a relationship where one utterance becomes a context for
another, the discourse becomes egological. Conversely, reactive commu-
nication is not just typical of broadcast communication, but is possible
within networks.
As we shall see in the next section, it is fanciful to see ‘interactivity’
as a precondition of virtual kinds of community. This is related to a final
problem that is endemic to dominant definitions of virtual community,
which is that it is confined to network forms of community. When instrumen-
tal views of virtual community are critiqued, it becomes clear that broad-
cast architectures also enable such communities. This further dilutes the
historical distinction between first and second media age, although, as we
shall see, the two forms of virtual community have their own specific
dynamics.

Broadcast communities

Virtual community is people all over the world gathered around television
sets to watch the Super Bowl or a world cup match. (Wilbur, 1997: 14)

A primary implication of the contrast between broadcast and network
communication discussed in the previous two chapters is the way in
which the study of communication architectures allows us to reconsider
broadcast as a technical medium of social integration just as computer-
constituted communication networks are today viewed as a medium of
identity and community. As we saw in Chapter 2, broadcast mediums are
not simply conduits for messages, but facilitate institutionalized spectacle
as well as constituting enclosed worlds of representation which may