Modern Communication with Social Media: A Simplified Primer to Communication and Social Media

CHAPTER 1

Communication

In this chapter, we shall learn about communication.

Objectives

By the end of this chapter, you will be able to:

Identify the need for communication

Trace the history and growth of communication

Understand the basics of communication

Identify the various forms of communication

Understand different types of communication

Communication -Definition

Communication is defined as the exchange of information from one entity/person to another (one or many). Communication can be one-way, two- way, or a broadcast (in which the same message is transmitted to many people). The process of communication may involve words, signs, symbols, behavioral signs, and more.

Need for communication

Communication is essential to most, if not all, forms of living organisms. Different creatures communicate in different ways.

Figure 1.1: Communication in the Animal Kingdom

The howling of wolves, barking of dogs, and croaking of frogs are all varied forms of communication. This is their way of communicating with each other and the world.

Yet other forms of communication may not be as obvious. Take for example, bird formations such as a flock of starlings gathering in unison at dusk.

All the birds in the flock move in synchronicity. The exact direction in which to turn is communicated from one bird to several of its nearest neighbors.

Figure 1.2: Communication Among Birds

Birds may communicate through sound or even through non-vocal signals such as by beating the air with their wings.

Why is communication necessary?

Communication in the animal (and bird) kingdom is needed for various reasons - to warn one another of approaching danger, to find food, to seek a mate, to fend off a rival or nemesis, and so on. For example, bees dance when they find nectar. The scout bee will dance in the hive, thus drawing other bees to the location of the nectar. Communication among animals can happen through a variety of signals.

Figure 1.3: Communication Conveying Danger/Fear

Just as the animal kingdom needs communication, so does mankind.

Tracing the evolution of communication

As humans gradually evolved from the stone age to the present age, so did the way they communicated with one another.

The early years

Early man communicated via drawings and paintings on stone. Cave paintings created during this period of human evolution, classified as Paleolithic Period, were the first kind of recorded communication that could be seen in history. Stone tools were being used not just for hunting prey or butchering animals for food, but also for communicating with one another.

Later, during the Bronze Age, the period of time between the Stone Age and the Iron Age, when bronze was used widely to make tools and weapons, was also the period when the Sumerians developed the first known forms of written communication.

The Bronze Age in Sumer is estimated to be approximately 3700 BC. Around the same time, approximately 3100 BC, independent writing systems also arose in Egypt, but it is not clear if they were inspired by Sumer or were formed on their own.

The ancient Sumerians are also said to be the first known accountants, since they invented scripts for rudimentary accounting. They developed a form of writing called cuneiform, which went on to be used until the first century AD. The writing was made on clay tablets using blunt tools such as reeds, which were then baked in the sun. Refer Figure 1.4 which shows an ancient clay tablet.

Figure 1.4: Ancient Clay Tablet

The cuneiform script underwent extensive changes over a period of more than two millennia.

From tablets to early paper

Ancient Egyptians used paper made from the Papyrus plant to create writing for business and trade. They made use of a reed pen to write on paper, so their writing was more fluid. Gradually ancient scripts evolved from pictographic styles toward Phoenician or alphabetic styles. Different forms of alphabet systems began to be discovered across the world by different civilizations. For example, the Greek alphabet was invented around late 9th or early 8th century BC. Communication became more improved with the invention of the alphabet system.

Figure 1.5: Ancient Message Carrier

The word courier (a message carrier) means runner, and comes from the Latin word currere, which means to run. In the year 490 BC, a Greek named Pheidippides is said to have run all the way from Marathon to Athens, to announce the victory of Greek over Persia. Back in that era, it was common for dedicated, highly trained runners to cover long distances by foot to convey royal commands, military orders, legal summons, and other kind of messages.

Persian messengers of the Turkish sultan ran regularly from Constantinople to Adrianople, covering 200 miles, in two days and nights. In the early 13th century, couriers of the Inca civilization in ancient Peru used a relay system to deliver not just messages, but also fruit, fish, and meat from the coast to the mountain villages. The relay messengers traveled by foot, often across the Inca rope bridges.

Ancient Greeks also used carrier pigeons to transmit messages. Over the centuries, Romans, Greeks, Persians, French, Mughal, and other empires have regularly employed pigeons for communication. Even until recently, many regions still used pigeons to transmit materials across difficult terrain.

Other different channels of communication also began to evolve. Horses, mules, and donkeys were often used to transport messengers from one place to another. Makeshift boats and rafts began to be developed to transport messages across water.

Advent of paper and paper-based communication

Papermaking was first documented in China during 25–220 AD and thereafter spread across Asia. Later, around the 8th century, the technique of Chinese papermaking was adopted by the Middle East after they mined it from their Chinese prisoners of war. The Middle Easterners developed pulp mills and paper mills to manufacture paper. Paper also reached India by around the 7th century and then Europe by the 11th century.

The concept of bulletins and announcements existed from the time of the ancient Greeks and Romans. However, the first true newspapers made a mark only after Johannes Gutenberg presented his movable type printing press in Europe around 1440. The first weekly newspaper, called Relation aller Fürnemmen und gedenckwürdigen Historien, was published in Germany by Johann Carolus in 1604. In 1650, the first daily newspaper, the Einkommende Zeitung, was published.

Growth of electromechanical communication

The telegraph era was ushered in the 1840s in the United States when Samuel Morse and his associates launched the electrical telegraph system. However, a long-distance communication system connecting