Following the Historical Paths of Global Communication

Allen Palmer

1. Geographical Space: A Barrier to Communication
--> Physical Space is no longer an insurmountable obstacle to human interaction in International Comunication.

--> What was once the "geography of space" has become the "geography of experience".

--> With faster and more far-reaching communication, important social and political development occured at the margins of technology and ideology, each interacting and expanding the potential outcomes of the other (Gouldner, 1982).


2. Geography and the Mythical World
--> The Greeks used the word mantic to describe the ideas, both mythical and supernatural coming to people from somewhere beyond the immediate world, the "other" world.
-->Beliefs about the earth, heaven, and underworld were built around sacred and profane spaces (Eliade, 1987).
--> Myths surfaced in many places during the Middle Ages about the travels and exploiots of a fictitious
Christian king named Prester John.

3. Ancient Encounters of Societies and Cultures

4. Global Explorers: Migrants, Holy People, Merchants
--> For ancient pre-agrarian societies in Europe, migration was a way of life. Nomadic life.
--> The disappereance of Greek scholarship on geography left Europeans without many clues about the outside world, but their desire to explore would soon lead to the expansion of their knowledge of the shrinking world.
--> Vikings were known to have plied sea routes in the northern oceans, raiding cities in Western Europe as far south as Seville and the Andalusisa region in Southern Spain in the 9th century.
--> Marco Polo's caravan merited its far-flung reputation for bringing down barriers between Europe and Asia.

5. Mapmakers in the Medieval World.
--> Mapmaking was an integral part of communication history. Maps were widely considered to be valuable keys to unlocking unknown worlds.
--> Maps served many purposes in ancient times, including maritime navigation, religious pilgrimages, and military and administrative uses. "Maps make the invisble visible" (Jacob, 1996, p.193).
-->Islam's scholars recognized that the earth was a sphere, and they used Ptolemy's Geographia to improve their measuremnts uuntil they employed longitude and latitude by the mid-9th century.

6. Inventors: Signals and Semaphores
--> The chronology of innovations can be atomized to discrete events or viewed from evidence of cultural continuities.
--> At their simplest, most information technologies were solutions to tangible and immediate problems.
--> Fires and beacons.
--> Roman rulers adapted a type of heliograph, or visual signal system using reflected sunlight.
--> In-transit message systems employed couriers both on foot an on horse.
--> The Incas in medieval South America used an elaborate communication system with both smoke signals and a quipu.
--> A renewal of interest in signaling system came in the 16th century as the French Spanish and Venetian navies began using flag-signaling techniques.

7. The Printing Press, Literacy, and the Knowledge Explosion
--> Throughout the early Middle Ages, clericswere among the few literate people engaged in any tasks requiring writing. .
--> The complexity and diversity of the intellectual and cultural life created a marketplace ripe for information, stimulating the spread of literacy in Europe after the development of the printing press.
--> Johannes Gutemberg's development of the press in Mainz, in Germany, about 1450, stemmed from his concerted effort to print Bibles for use in local churches.
--> The social consequences of the printing press were far-reaching, eventually encouraging the practice of reading among common people and the reformation of medieval European institutions, religions and governments (Eisenstein, 1979).
--> New literacy introduced new kinds of social relationships and networks amongst both learned and common people.

8. Scientists and International Networks
--> Technonological innovations in travel and the changing role of international science in the mid 19th century brought far reaching changes in relations between nations.
-->the melding of cordial relations between previously isolated countries into a coherent global network resulted from intemingling both their shared interests ad intractable differences through the means of technology.

9. The International Electric Revolution
--> The scientific innovations of the 19th century launched the world on a path of electrification of industry and commmerce. Steam power led to what had once seemed to be the startling speeds of travel.

10. Summary: Global Immediacy and Transparency