Historical Paths of Global Communication

"Societies have always been Shaped more by the Nature of the Media by which men Communicate by the the Content of Communication" (McLuhan)

Geographical Space: A Barrier to Communication

-3000 years ago, people communicated across long distances through many mediums

-Physical space is no longer a problem for human interaction in inernational communication

-Communication history is not just having new technologies, but it invloves matters about how these technologies were able to rise from sophisticated social conditions and transform them into

- With faster communication, social and politican development happened at the margins of technology and idealogy

Geography and the Mythical World

-People long time ago struggled and lived a complexed life in terms of communications compared to that of now days.

-Europeans believed that India and Africa were places where pygamies fought with storks and foreign places were believed to be weird

-People thought that other places were filled of cannibals and weird creatures that fought and killed each otehr constantly

-However, these people concentrated on arts and drawings on caves which when studied now, reveals that they communicate a certain message

Global Explorers: Migrants, Holy People, Merchants

-For ancient societies in Europe, Migration was a way of life

-Improvement of farming tachniques allowed nomadic groups to travel, inless they were confronted by diseases

-People from the east travelled in ships in order to exchange and sell goods and to discover new places

Mapmakers in the Medieval World

-Mapmaking was an integral part of communication history

-Maps were unlocking keys to discover the unknown worlds

-They were so secretive and unceratin and that it why Columbus ended up elsewhere

-Maps served for, pilgrimages, maritime navigation, and military and administrative uses

-However, as much of help maps were they also had negative effects because other were able to come and conquer weaker places and take over them

The Printing Press, Literacy, and the Knowledge Explosion

-Throughout the Middel Ages, clerics were among the few literate people that were engaged in any task requiring writing

-The complexity and diversity of the intellectual and cultural life created a marketplace of infromation, stimulating the spread of literacy in Europe after the development of the printing press

- The press became important especially after the sucess of Gutenberg's effort to print Bibles for the sue of local church

-The social consequences of the printing press were far reeaching, and grdually encouraging the practice of reading among common people and the reformation of medieval European institutions, religions, and governments

-The postal service was also an innovation patterned after older courier and messanger systems

Scientists and International Networks

- Technological innovations in travel and the changing role of international science in the mid 19th C brought far-reaching changes in realtions between nations

-Telegraph in 1844 was a breakthrough in the longstanding confusion over development of two-way information exchange

-Starting with the railroad and the telegraph, towns and cities were brought closer together within a nation

-Because of the strategic importance of communication for military and diplomatic purposes, communication between nations was regarded in most 19th century politican circles

-One of the earliest significant steps towards globalizing the world was adoption of a global system