From Oral Tradition to Electronic: Accessing & Disseminating Information

In Forms of Media as Ways of Knowing, Annabelle Sreberny-Mohammadi (1995) identifies three specific historical eras or periods in communication (43). The first and earliest period was one in which orality or the ôoral traditionö was dominant. The second period emerged with the development of print, or ôwritten communicationö. The third major historical period in communication was the result of the technological developments creating electronic media, the ôinformation ageö. Sreberny-Mohammadi (1995) distinguishes between these three eras as follows: ôIn orality, speaking and listening are the central activities. Print requires writers and readers. Electronic media demand organized production and viewersö (43). In other words, in each historical era of communication, control of communication mechanisms has varied significantly. These controls moved from the individual face-to-face encounter to the individual yet distant encounter of print to the yet more distant, depersonalized, and passive role of communication recipients in the electronic era. This analysis will discuss the evolution of these three eras of communication in order to provide a greater understanding of the role of communication in society and peopleÆs lives.

According to Richard Campbell (2003), an understanding of the role of the media in peopleÆs lives û both today and in the past û required an ôunderstanding

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rdedö (1). The evolution of written communication required a number of inventions from writing instruments and paper as we know it to printing presses that enabled mass publication. Ancient civilizations like the Phoenicians and Sumerians developed an alphabet and cuneiform writing respectively. Cuneiform represented pictorial depictions of information. The Egyptians developed a form of writing known as hieroglyphics, a more elaborate and developed form of communication than the Phoenicians or Sumerians. As one historian relays, ôEach hieroglyph was a pictogram but when certain combinations of hieroglyphs appeared together, they created an entirely new word with a different meaning. The phonetic elements of hieroglyphs are much more highly developed than those of previous languagesö (History 2004, 1). The invention of parchments made of dried reeds served as the first kinds of paper, while the Chinese used tortoise shell and oracle bone writing instruments û forerunners of the calligraphic system of writing. In 105 B.C., Tsai Lun of China invented paper as we know it today. Wooden printing presses that carved symbols onto wooden blocks followed a few centuries later. In 1049, clay movable type was invented by the Chines
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2385
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)

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