A BRIEF HISTORY OF MEDIA & COMMUNICATION
Humans are social beings who want and need to communicate with each
other. According to the pioneering research of Dr. Kathryn Barnand, founder of
the Center of Infant Mental Health and Development at the University of
Washington, even infants try to communicate with their caregivers using
non-verbal cues. Like babies, early humans only needed to communicate with
people within a small circle so sounds and gestures were enough. Humans
eventually learned to speak, although scientists have not yet agreed on a theory
on how exactly this happened.
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The earliest known hieroglyphicsare found on the Narmer Palette
and date to around 3200 BCE
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Humans started writing at around 3,200 BCE (Before Common Era) in
Mesopotamia and 600 BCE in Mesoamerica. It arose from the need to indicate
quantity or numbers for recordkeeping. Words for “finger” are found in several
ancient languages for numbers which suggest that humans first counted and
communicated quantity with their fingers. This then evolved into the cutting of
notches on tree barks or stones to represent numbers. To record other things
and concepts, early humans began drawing on caves and animal skin. The earliest
form of writing like the Egyptian hieroglyphs are simplified drawings.
Pictographic writing systems, like those used by Chinese, still exist today.
As human settlements got bigger, the need to communicate to a great
number of people grew. Horns, drums, fire, and smoke signals were used to send
a message quickly and over a vast distance (e.g. “Invaders!”). Messengers were
also used to physically disseminate information more precisely. Archaeological
accounts corroborate Biblical passages about the Persians using messengers on
horses to reach more people over great distances faster. This ancient “pony
express” may be the predecessor of the postal services, but like so many
ancient forms of spreading the information to a large group of people, it
required resources that were practically exclusively to the ruling class.
During the pre-industrial age, information was mostly passed on orally.
Important documents like laws and edicts had to be tediously copied by hand and
posted in public places, or town criers travel from place to place to read them
out loud. The process was difficult, slow, and unreliable. Information also
flowed in only one direction, from the ruler who issued the edict to his
subjects. The whole process must be repeated in reverse if and when the
receiver decides to respond. But when the source of information is an
authority, as usually the case, the strict hierarchy in the society
discourages-even forbids-any responses from the recipients.
It was until the 17th century, hundreds of years after the
invention of printing technology lowered the
cost
of books and reading materials, that the modern newspaper was invented in
Europe. Before that, printed news sheets appeared in the Ming Dynasty Court in
Beijing in 1852 and block-printed handbills commemorating events were sold in in 17th century Japanese cities. Modern magazines were invented in the 18th century. It took an awfully long time for all these developments in communication to happen.
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