Why study the history of communications? Prof. Philip M. Taylor, History of Communications Why study the history of communications?

The importance of communication(s) Comes from the Latin ‘communicare’ = to impart, share or make common It is to the 21st century what oil and gas were to the 20th – the engine that drives politics, economics, education, military affairs, culture and entertainment It is two-way, although it is linked to rhetoric (or oratory as a form of developing logical, ordered arguments to achieve wisdom)

Point-to-point and point-to-multipoint P2P is a private conversation, a telephone call, an email, text message i.e. between a single sender and a single receiver P2MP is a movie, radio or television programme, a web 1.0 web page, a newspaper i.e. between a single source (which may be one or many people) and many receivers (who may be in different locations) 21st century (web 2.0) communications is interactive (i.e. two way in which the receiver can also be active and not passive)

Why study the history of communications? Because without an understanding of where it comes from, how it has been used and abused, the lessons of the past cannot inform the decisions of the future It is what makes our age back to our grandparents unique in human history, like no other period before the age of mass communications Mediated communication makes us as individuals dependent on others (e.g. journalists) for our view of the world, for the ‘pictures inside our heads’ (Walter Lippmann), beyond our personal experience Common experience (e.g. of a movie) does not remove individual perception nor guarantee ‘shared visions’

One intellectual framework The Tofflers’ three waves of societal development: First wave is agrarian Second wave is industrial Third wave is post-industrial or ‘post-modern’ or informational The way states generate money in peacetime is reflected by the way they wage war Hence Information Society and Information Warfare today

Harold Lasswell’s model Who (says) What (to) Whom (in) What Channel (with) What Effect Need to add the question ‘why’? To inform, educate or entertain (BBC)? = News, current affairs, soaps/reality TV How much can be shown? Censorship or self-censorship or regulation? Run ‘Violence in the News’