Following the Historical Paths of Global Communication

El Mehdi Zeroual
COM 2303
Dr. Ibahrine
September 6, 2007

Following the Historical Paths of Global Communication

Geographical space: a barrier to communication

- Geography is limiting communication.
- Even though historians have long been interested in oral and written language traditions and technologies the broader concept of communication is relatively new.
- Technologies are cultural metaphors for prevailing social and cultural conditions.
- Communication strategies and devices of many varieties were used to gain advantage in warfare and trade.
- Geography of space: We are in Ifrane, then in Meknes, Tafilalt, then in Morocco
The important thing here is time between now and the past.
The importance of communication is transformation of news.
- ­­Geography of experience: your stories and history are limited because of space, but now it is not the case because the communication tools developed.
- Space of flow: the material and immaterial components of the global information networks.
It is the network of all networks.

Geography and the mythical world

- Ancient people certainly must have regarded the world with a sense of awe and wonder, struggling to control the unexplained events of their lives.
- Until relatively recently in history, perhaps within just the past century or two, most people knew life only as they saw it unfolding within a few square miles of their rural homes.
- Travel in most of the historical past was hazardous and unpractical.

Ancient encounters of societies and cultures

- When Greek and Arab scientists sought to rise above mythical beliefs and to construct rational models of knowledge, they saw the world as measurable, even suggesting the use of coordinate geographical space.
- The early Greeks regarded the remote islands to their west as the horizon of the known world.

Global explorers: migrants, holy people, merchants

- Cairncross predicts that much of the work that can be done on a computer can be done from anywhere: the place has no importance nowadays.
- He also discusses 30 major changes likely to result from trends, including a diminishing need for countries to want emigration.
- In the past, they didn’t need international communication. There was global not international communication because there were no nations or countries.
- The technologies of international communication may be contemporary phenomenon.
- For ancient pre-agrarian societies in Europe, migration was a way of life.
- Improvements of farming techniques and implements allowed many nomadic groups to settle on fertile lands, unless they were by disease, invasion or war.
- The disappearance of Greek scholarship on geography left Europeans without many clues about the outside world.

Mapmakers in the medieval world

- Maps were closely guarded by European royalty and considered to be state secrets.
- Maps served many purposes in ancient times, including maritime navigation, religious pilgrimages and military and administrative uses.
- Mapmaking was an integral part of communication history.
- Maps were widely considered be valuable keys to unlocking unknown worlds.

Inventors: signals and semaphores

- The historical succession of technologies used for communication is lengthy.
- The telegraph made the transmission of information rapid and ensured secrecy and protection of codes.
- As usual, the business community was the 1st to make use of this technology.
- The rapid development of the telegraph was a crucial feature.
- The new technology had significant military implications.

The printing press, literacy, and the knowledge explosion

- Throughout the early Middle Ages, clerics were among the few literate people engaged in any task requiring writing.
- It was the Muslims who developed paper technology and brought it to Europe.
- The social consequences of the printing press were far-reaching, eventually encouraging the practice of reading among people.
- The world of printing was notorious for its piracy, incivility, plagiarism, unauthorized copying, false attributions, sedition and errors.
- In 1450, Gutenberg developed the printing machine.
- In “Imagined Communities,” Benidict Anderson gives a detailed analysis of nation building projects and their relationship to print media.

Scientists and international networks

- Technological innovations in travel and the changing role of international science in the mid-19th century brought far-reaching changes in relations between nations.
- Beginning with the railroad and the telegraph, towns and cities were brought closer together within a nation.
- One of the earliest significant steps toward globalizing the world was adoption of a global time system.

The international electric revolution

- The scientific innovations of the 19th century launched the world on a path to electrification of industry and commerce.
- Within 20 years of the general introduction of the telegraph in 1844, there were 150000 miles of telegraph lines throughout the world.
- The first transatlantic line did not work, and other attempts either broke or failed.
- The public showed little enthusiasm about telephone at the beginning.
- The telephone was a communication innovation that was adopted and managed differently in each nation.
- Unlike cable, radio equipment was comparatively cheap and could be sold mass scale.
- Governments used radio for political interests.
- Radio waves could travel anywhere, unrestrained by politics or geography.
- Radio was used for the international communication. Eg: De Gaulle used it from London and Germany for Nazist and also in Business. U.S also used it in Europe during the cold War. The example in the Arab world is radio SAWA.

The era of news agencies

- The increasing demand among business clients for commercial information on business, stocks, currencies and commodities.
- Reuters tended to dominate.
- Its influence was due to the British Empire.
- British control of cable lines made London itself a universal center for world news.
- The flow of information was controlled by British but after 1987 New York became the center.
- CNN effect: if you are able to gather a lot of information, you can transform information to business.