The Paths of Global Communication

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The Paths of Global Communication

• Aziz Douai
• COMM 410.1
• Fall 2006
• Pennsylvania State University

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Central question

• What was once the geography of space has
  become the geography of experience (Wark, 1994)
  how did global communication evolve from such
  modest origins of torch signals to satellite
  communications?

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New/old technologies

• Communication history is not just a question of
  new technologies rather, it involves questions
  of how those technologies arise from complex
  social conditions and, in turn, transform human
  interactions.
• Technological innovations a redefinition of
  space and time and increased the immediacy of
  global communications---printing, transatlantic
  cable

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Historical snapshot

• Palmer reviews some of the prevailing forces that
  enabled early civilizations/cultures to
  communicate across large distances and circumvent
  the barriers of both time and space
• prehistory (mythical images) religious beliefs
• trade/commerce and warfare (expansion of the
  known world/routesand communication
  technologies/ innovation as means of conquest)
• the age of science as a problem solving tool (the
  industrial, electrical and the information
  revolutions).

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Function utilitarian

• Communication and information technologies were
  fundamentally utilitarian solutions to tangible
  and material problems
• fires and beacons, the torch elaborate
  signal system (Greeks)
• heliograph (Romans--signal system using
  sunlight)
• in-transit message systems (Babylon--couriers on
  foot and horses)
• pigeons (Mongols)
• smoke signals (IncasLatin America)
• magnetic compass (introduced from China to
  Europe) flag signaling system (French and
  Spanish navies)..

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Mapmaking Strategic

• Maps reflecting the belief system, drew on
  religious sources/ T and O
• Instrument to unlocking unknown worlds
  (considered as state secrets) spurred empire
  building after the introduction of gunpowder.

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Migration

• Migration was a way of life due to changing
  climate conditions and food supplies.
• In the Middle Ages (and before), merchants and
  explorers (e.g. Marco Polo) tested the imperfect
  scientific knowledge of the world, stumbling on
  new continents, describing sea routes and the
  peoples they encounter.

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Printing press

• Public literacy requires access to printed
  material and the means to circulate it widely
• --Johannes Gutenbergs press made possible the
  expansion of reading among the common people and
  ushered in the reformation.
• -- The postal service came into existence
  around the same time (patterned after the old
  courier services).
• -- Other scientific innovations like
  the telegraph solved enabled a two way
  communication over long distances

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Stages

• the technology of the alphabet
• movable type by Gutenberg 1440
• invention of electric media, beginning with the
  telegraph in 1844
• computer/information age

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Strategic tools

• Strategic status of communication technologies
  (military and
• diplomacy), communication between nations
  was the exclusive realm of governments although
  attempts were underway to set global standards,
  such as
• -- The adoption of a global time system
  (Greenwich Observatory, 1884) and the adoption of
  a global (French) metric system (a new bond of
  general fraternity for the peoples who adopt it,
  1792).
• -- The transatlantic line that significantly
  reduced the amount of time to transmit news
  between North America and Europe
• -- Reuters News Services (1850) became a major
  source of news due to its emphasis on the speed
  of information exchange

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• Global communications have been implicated in the
  social and political transformations taking
  place, shifting relations between labor and
  capital, issues of war/progress and culture, or
  more generally human power struggles

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• Mapmaking drew on religious thought and
  inspiration the world of Christianity (Jerusalem
  as the center) and the world of Islam (Mecca as
  its center) the crusades a violent encounter but
  they also propelled a change of attitudes toward
  other peoples (launching the Age of Discovery).

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Source

• Palmer, Allen (2007). Following the Paths of
  Global Communication. In Yahya R. Kamalipour
  (Ed.), Global communication (2nd ed., pp. 1-20).
  Belmont, CA Wadsworth.