Communication studies

Communication studies are the examination of human interaction through communication. In simple terms, humans communicate in three ways: verbal, nonverbal, and written communication. These types of communication can range from engaging in face-to-face conversation, reading printed material, or interacting with mass media or social media. The word communication is derived from the Latin communis, which means "to share." This sharing of information has had a profound impact on human culture, society, and history.

For most of human existence, communication was localized, with information limited to households, villages, or communities. The onset of mass communications allowed information to reach a wider audience. However, the flow of this information was typically controlled by the provider. With the rise of social media in the twenty-first century, communication has evolved to become an interactive experience, as users can control and contribute to the flow of information.

Development of Language

The exact origin of human speech and language is unknown. Scientists believe that prior to about two hundred thousand years ago, human vocal tracts did not possess the physical ability to produce the sounds needed for speech. Early humans may have communicated through visual signs or hand signals that slowly evolved into verbal communications, but this idea is purely speculative. The first forms of human speech likely developed between two hundred thousand and sixty thousand years ago.

Cave art dating to about twenty thousand to thirty-eight thousand years ago is believed to be the oldest surviving examples of primitive communication. The images of bison, deer, and other animals were created over the course of centuries and showed a deliberate attempt to communicate the importance of hunting to human survival. Some archeologists speculate the images may have even played a role in rituals to ensure a productive hunt.

The earliest ancestors of modern languages probably appeared between ten thousand and four thousand years ago. This timeframe corresponds to the shift away from hunting-gathering lifestyles to agricultural-based communities. As the first civilizations formed, humans needed a method to keep track of new concepts such as land ownership and the trade in goods and services. To do this, the ancient Sumerians of Mesopotamia created the first known form of writing about 3500 to 3000 BCE. The system of wedge-shaped symbols called cuneiform was an example of pictographic writing in which each symbol represented an object or idea.

Egyptian hieroglyphics developed during the same period and were another pictographic script. A form of pictographic writing also developed in China around 1500 to 1200 BCE. This system incorporated thousands of individual symbols that could be combined to form more than thirty thousand total characters. As Chinese writing evolved, it transformed into a logographic script, a type of writing in which each character represents a word or syllable. Modern Chinese writing can trace its roots to a system developed about two thousand years ago.

Age of Writing

Parchment scrolls made from papyrus reeds or animal skins or were developed by the Egyptians. History's oldest known book was the Egyptian Book of the Dead—a collection of spells meant to assist the soul in its journey to the afterlife. Much of the oldest surviving examples of writing were religious or administrative in nature. However, some Mesopotamian authors of the third millennia BCE began recording poems, history, and even advice for younger generations. The earliest work of literature is believed to be the Epic of Gilgamesh—the legendary exploits of the Sumerian god-king Gilgamesh—first written around 2000 BCE in Mesopotamia.

About 1050 BCE, the Phoenician culture of the eastern Mediterranean developed the first writing system to use symbols to represent sounds, similar to many modern alphabets. The Greeks modified the Phoenician script to add vowels. This Greek alphabet was later adopted and modified by the Romans. This form of writing eventually evolved into the Latin script used in English, French, German, and many other modern languages.

Evidence suggests that both the ancient Egyptians and Persians used couriers to deliver written messages across their kingdoms; however, the Chinese are often credited with developing the first organized mail service in the first millennia BCE. The Greeks began using trained pigeons to transport messages around 776 BCE—the first message sent in such a manner contained the results of the original Olympic Games. The Romans improved upon these first mail systems to develop an efficient relay method to carry messages to the far corners of the empire.

The Romans also distributed an early form of newssheet called the Acta Diurna, or "daily actions," around 100 BCE. The Chinese invented paper from the bark of trees about 100 CE and developed an early type of woodblock press a few centuries later. Around the seventh century, Chinese emperors used this technology to issue occasional "palace reports" as both a propaganda tool and a way to share information.

Despite these and other advances, most people of the ancient world were illiterate and unable to access the growing tide of information. Written works were almost exclusively reserved for the nobility and government officials. A great deal of time and expense were also needed to produce books and manuscripts. For most of the medieval period, copying written texts was left to members of religious orders in monasteries—one of the few places that embraced literacy and education.

Mass Communications

While printing presses had been used in China for centuries, it was around 1450 that German goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg revolutionized communication with the invention of metal moveable type. Instead of relying on a precast clay or wooden template, Gutenberg's innovation allowed printers to switch out block letters and streamlined the process of transferring ink to paper, greatly reducing the time needed to print. Half a century after Gutenberg invented his press, more than thirty thousand books had been printed by about a thousand printers operating in Europe. From 1500 to 1600, more than 150 million books were produced. Many of these early examples were religious texts such as the Bible or works of classical literature.

As books became available to the average person, literacy rates grew and with them the demand for different types of information. Religious works remained popular, but people now wanted books on history, travel, and romance. The first weekly newspapers were printed in Germany and the Netherlands in the early seventeenth century. The world's first daily newspaper, London's the Daily Courant, was printed in 1702. In colonial America, an annual collection of farming tips, weather predictions, philosophical sayings, and humorous quotes known as an almanac grew in popularity in the eighteenth century. One of the best known was Poor Richard's Almanack, published by American founding father Benjamin Franklin from 1732 to 1758.

Many of the early newspapers in both Europe and America contained business information and local gossip. The first advertising originated in France during the 1630s. Over the next century, many newspapers also included ads among their content. By the eighteenth century, newspapers began shifting their focus toward political issues and commentary. This stance sometimes brought them into conflict with governing powers. In colonial America, newspapers and printed pamphlets were instrumental in moving public opinion toward revolution.

Newspapers remained the primary form of mass communication until the mid to late nineteenth century, when several technological advances changed the way humans shared information. In the 1830s, the work of several inventors led to the development of the telegraph, a communication system that sent electrical signals through a network of metal wires. Telegraph signals were limited to simple dot-and-dash codes, but the innovation marked the first time in history humans could directly communicate over long distances. By the 1860s, telegraph lines were common in the United States and Europe and had even been laid across the Atlantic Ocean.

In 1876, Scottish-born Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone by developing a method to transmit the human voice over telegraph lines. About two decades later, Italian Guglielmo Marconi invented his "wireless telegraph," a device that could send electric signals through the air without the use of telegraph lines. Marconi's invention later became known as radio. Photography had been developed in the early nineteenth century, but by century's end, inventors had found a way to transform pictures into moving images and created film technology.

Citizens of the twentieth century suddenly had more choices in how they shared information than at any other time in human history. The advent of radio and film spawned a growing entertainment industry. People traveled to local cinemas to see popular movies or tuned into radios at home to hear music, news, sports, and theater performances. By far the largest technological influence for much of the twentieth century was the invention of television. The first television signal was broadcast in the 1920s, but it was not until the late 1940s that the medium began to catch on with the public.

In 1950, an estimated one million televisions could be found in American homes; in 1960, that number had climbed to sixty million. By the end of the century, 98 percent of American homes had at least one television set. The first communications satellites were launched into Earth's orbit in the 1960s, allowing television signals to be broadcast on a global scale. The cable television industry of the 1970s and 1980s expanded consumer choices from a handful of local stations to hundreds and eventually thousands of options. By the 1990s, the technology-fueled growth of mass communications allowed billions of people worldwide access to a vast amount of information.

Information Age

A common aspect with most of this information is that it flowed in one direction—from source through the medium to the recipient. Newspapers, television networks, and radio stations decided on the content they produced and supplied it to the reader, viewer, or listener. This pattern of communication began to change near the beginning of the twenty-first century with a growth in computer technology and the rise of the internet.

The internet refers to a global network of computers that share information with one another. In the early 1990s, British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee developed a protocol that allowed these computers to communicate better. The system, called the World Wide Web, made it possible for anyone with a computer to instantly access information from almost anywhere in the world. Electronic communication began to push aside traditional forms of communication as email and later text messaging became increasingly popular.

The internet boom coincided with the growth in mobile and wireless communication technology, leading to a revolutionary shift in the way humans interact. By the first decades of the twenty-first century, most people carried mobile devices known as smartphones that combined internet, television, radio, and phone capabilities. People were no longer reliant on a home-based telephone or personal computer to communicate. They could make phone calls, access information, or order goods and services anywhere at any time through their mobile devices.

The new technology allowed for an increased amount of interaction between user and media source, as people could choose the type of content they received. Rather than be passive observers, users could also submit their own information to websites by sharing photos, videos, or opinions.

Perhaps the most influential innovation of the time occurred with the growth of social media in the early 2000s. Websites such as Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and many others allowed users to share information directly with one another and upload original content that could be viewed by anyone around the globe. Social media became so popular that an estimated 68 percent of adults in the United States had an account on Facebook—the largest of the social media sites— in 2016. By 2017, Facebook reported more than two billion active monthly users—about five hundred million ahead of its nearest rival, YouTube.

Bibliography

Greenwood, Shannon, et al. "Social Media Update 2016." Pew Research Center, 11 Nov. 2016, www.pewinternet.org/2016/11/11/social-media-update-2016/. Accessed 27 Dec. 2017.

Jackendoff, Ray. "How Did Language Begin?" Linguistic Society of America, Aug. 2006, www.linguisticsociety.org/sites/default/files/LanguageBegin.pdf. Accessed 27 Dec. 2017.

Lee, Laurie Thomas. "History and Development of Mass Communications." Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems, www.eolss.net/sample-chapters/c04/e6-33-02-01.pdf. Accessed 27 Dec. 2017.

Paxson, Peyton. Mass Communications and Media Studies: An Introduction. Continuum, 2010.

Pincas, Stephane, and Marc Loiseau. A History of Advertising. Taschen, 2008.

Simonson, Peter, et al., editors. "The History of Communication History." The Handbook of Communication History, Routledge, 2013, pp. 13–57.

Steinberg, Sheila. An Introduction to Communication Studies. Juta, 2007.

"A Timeline of Human Communication." McDaniel College, www2.mcdaniel.edu/rtrader/handouts/WhatisCommunication/TimelineHumanCommunication.pdf. Accessed 27 Dec. 2017.