- Even 3000 years ago, when there people did not have our technologies to communicate they found ways to overcome the principal barrier to communication of the time: great distances.
- Communication evolved so much that nowadays we are able to “internationally communicate” without facing barriers such as physical space. Therefore, it is considered that the “geography of experience” replaced the “geography of space”.
- 1979: date of the first introduction of the concept of “communication”, which shows that the concept is a relatively new one.
- Communication new technologies appeared from human needs, and once used, they transformed the traditional human interactions.
- The ancient world was viewed as an enchanted, mythical and mystical world. This conception started to change at the end of the Middle Age with the development of science, but especially with extension of trade and travel routes that enabled people to know the “unknown” and to realize that the “outside world” was not what they imagined before.
- Originally developed by the Chinese, the art of papermaking was brought to Europe by Arab soldiers, which certainly helped Guttenberg to develop his printing machine. The same way, the secrets of the magnetic compass was brought from Asia to Europe and enabled to develop the telegraph.
- The two first communication technologies that overcame the barriers of space and time were, as a result, the printing press and the telegraph.
- Scientifics and people in general understood the importance of technology, and collectively worked towards the same goals giving birth to the industrial revolution and to the information revolution (during the 19th and 20th centuries).
2. Geography and the mythical world
- Ancient people’s beliefs and worldviews derived mainly from mystifications built around concepts of sacred and profane. These beliefs even appeared illustrated in their earliest maps!
- Foreign places were also believed to be dangerous, frightening and inhabited by horrible monsters.
- Some took advantage of the psychological power carried by those myths and beliefs and encourage rumors about it to spread (ex. Attila, who was then certain to be feared by his enemies).
3. Ancient encounters of societies and cultures
- Greek and Arab philosophers and mathematicians wanted to end up with people’s mythical beliefs and construct a common ground of rational models of knowledge.
- Alexander the Great conquests permit to enhance the geographical knowledge that was then recorded and kept in the library of Alexandria, which was the largest library of the antiquity.
- This knowledge traveled across time and was translated into several languages.
4. Global explorers: migrants, holy people, merchants
- Once migrant pre-agrarian societies shifted to a nomadic life, only caravans, emissaries and armed escorts used to travel, since it was considered dangerous and uneasy.
- In the 15th century Europeans got access to the Greeks knowledge about geography, and their based their travels and research on this knowledge (ex. Christopher Columbus). Adding to that, some travelers played a role in diffusing knowledge about astronomy, mathematics.
5. Mapmakers in the medieval world
- Maps were crucial in the way that they were considered as the “keys to unlocking unknown worlds” and permitted to “make the invisible visible”.
- Maps were also synonyms of power, and were secretly kept by the European royalty. However, the information reflected by maps had more to do with the mapmaker’s view of the world than with the reality.
- Travelling was usually considered as an act of religious devotion, an idea also reflected on some maps.
- The European crusades were an illustration of intercultural and even international communication: many Europeans started being in touch with foreign cultures, languages and places.
6. Inventors: signals and metaphors
- History showed that the development of information technologies appeared as responses to communication problems; as an example the earliest signal systems consisted of fires and beacons.
- Messengers (by foot or by horse) were used to convey long distant messages, especially for military and diplomatic purposes.
- The pony express style of relay system is an example of an effective, relatively fast, and reliable courier system of that time. The system was unsurprisingly adopted later by the Romans.
- Other courier systems used were pigeons and homing pigeons for dangerous routes, smoke signals, or tapped codes on metal tubes…
7. The printing press, literacy, and the knowledge explosion
- During the Middle Ages few people were literate. Clerics, who were part of the exception along with the elite, had administrative and legal duties in addition to their religious ones.
- It is mainly the printing press and the postal services that encouraged and enabled common people to be literate.
- The development of the new mass media brought by the printing press (book, newspapers, pamphlets…) gave rise to “popular political consciousness and public opinion”.
- This new literacy had an impact on people’s social relationships.
- Technological innovations open the path to great changes in international relations.
- The first user friendly electric telegraph (1844) marked a turning point from the ritual modes of communication to the beginning of a new era for communication.
- Great importance was given to communication, since it appeared as having strategic importance for military and diplomatic purposes.
- Scientist on the other hand wanted global interest and support for their work; they paved the way for international standardizations of codes in different disciplines: the world is becoming more and more a global world.
9. The international electric revolution
- The 19th century is marked by the electrification of industry and commerce.
- The telephone was a communication innovation that was adopted and used differently across the world.
- 1850: creation of one of the oldest news agencies that became a major source for international information, Reuters
3 commentaires:
Dear student, this is nicely done.
Yoi can also try to post some videos from the Internet as well as some audio-slides.
Just be more persuasive in your visual argument.
We already have unlimited options as far as communication is concerned. Nowadays, here in Australia, business owners have the option to acquire their 1800 number from an Australian telecom company of their choice to communicate with other companies or clients.
you are brilliant
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