History of Communication

3500-2900 BC 1775 BC The Phoenicians develop an alphabet The Egyptians develop Hieroglyphic writing 1775 BC Greeks use a phonetic alphabet written from left to right

1270 BC 900 BC 200 BC First Encyclopedia is written in Syria First Postal service in China– for government use 200 BC Human messengers on horseback or on foot common in Egypt and China

105 BC 1049 AD 1450 AD China invents paper as we know it today. First Moveable type invented in China 1450 AD Newspapers appear in Europe

1714 Englishman, Henry Mills receives the first patent for a typewriter. 1814 Joseph Nicephore Niepce achieves first photographic image 1821 Charles Wheatstone reproduces sound in a primitive sound box – the first microphone!!

1877 Thomas Edison patents the phonograph Eadweard Muybridge invents high speed photography—creating the first moving images that captured motion.

1887 Emile Berliner invents the Gramophone– a system of recording that could be used over and over again. 1899 Valdemar Poulsen invents the first magnetic recordings– the foundation for both Mass data storage on disk and on tape as wells as the music recording industry.

1910 1923 Thomas Edison demonstrates the first talking motion picture. The television, or Iconoscope is invented by Vladimar Kosma Zworykin– first Television camera

1926 Warner Brothers Studios invented a way to record sound separately from the film on large disks and synchronized the sound and motion picture tracks upon playback - an improvement on Thomas Edison's work.

1927-1930 Television broadcasts begin in England and the United States Movietone system of recording film sound on an audio track right on the film invented.

1938 Television broadcasts able to be taped and edited- rather than just live. 1940’s Network Television emerges onto the communication scene 1950’s Television takes over as the predominant communication medium. Television transitions from B/W to color

Cable TV Enters the scene Although Cable TV has been around since the 1940’s it did not spread through the country until much later. In 1950 less than 14,000 homes had cable. In 2011, there were more than 60 million subscribers

Starting in 2010, traditional television viewership has started to steadily decline as people are dropping their cable/satellite tv subscriptions in favor of watching programs over the internet through devices such as Roku and Tivo, as well as on mobile devices such as cell phones, tablets and laptops

1990-2000’s Television makes the transition from Analog signal to Digital signal with some signals being High Definition. This allows for sharper, clearer pictures

2000’s to Present The switch is on! More and more people are moving away from Television as their primary source of information to an online source. Whether accessed from a computer, laptop, tablet, or smart phone, online sources have replaced television as the primary medium for information

2000’s to Present Social Media is gaining an ever popular foot hold in our society. Because of the instant nature of social media, and because anyone is free to share on social media, it can be hard to stop information from getting out… even things that most people would agree should NOT be shared or information that is not correct can make it out for all the world to see.

Reflective Writing Assignment How has rapid communication affected our everyday lives? (be specific; give examples) Do you think that there are some things that should not be shared or do you think all is fair game? What is the problem with “oversharing”? How do we as a society address the issues that have developed with “instant Access”?