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Lesson#2
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EARLY MASS COMMUNICATION AND PRINTING
TECHNOLOGY
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EARLY MASS COMMUNICATION AND PRINTING TECHNOLOGY
We now understand that sending message to a large number of
audience using technology is known
as mass communication It is pertinent to see in some details the
organs of this kind of communication
before studying a few intriguing areas like the elements and
forms of communication.
Letters/ leaflets
A very primitive form of mass communication is found in
centuries old approach to write letters
which were in the common interest of general public. These
letters were written from the court of kings and
sent to nobles and notables whose number may not be very high by
today’s standards but at a time when
one could not address more than a few dozen people,
communication to a relatively larger audience- that
too at some distance and the same text, may be considered as
early attempts to approach the masses
through written words.
Books
From writing letters to very many people on one subject, the
next move was to write books on
matters of social life, philosophies, religion, health and
scientific advancements. The hand-written books
continued to rule the world for centuries by taking views of
writers to hundreds and thousands of people
across countries. For instance, the central church in ROME had
employed hundreds of clerics for the
purpose of writing copies of bible for taking the message of
Christianity to its followers. Almost the same
had been the practice by other religions to convey their
teachings to the masses by hand-written copies of
the holy inscriptions. Many a museums in the world are proud to
have some hand-written copies of
religious or scientific works done centuries ago.
Printing
Major breakthrough in mass communication occurred when printing
process was invented. The
revolutionary invention makes an interesting study:
The printing press is a mechanical device for printing many
copies of a text paper. First invented in China in
1041, the printing press as we know it today was invented in the
West by a German goldsmith, Johann
Gutenberg in the 1440s. Dutch Laurens Janszoon Coster has also
been credited with this invention.
Development of the Printing Press
The original method of printing was block printing, pressing
sheets of paper into individually
carved wooden blocks. It is believed that block printing
originated in China, and the earliest known printed
text, the
Diamond Sutra (a Buddhist scripture),
was printed in China in 868 A.D.
The use of movable type in printing was invented in 1041 AD by
Bi Sheng in China. Movable type did spur,
however, additional scholarly pursuits in China and facilitated
more creative modes of printing.
Nevertheless, movable type was never extensively used in China
until the European style printing press was
introduced.
Although probably unaware of the Chinese, Gutenberg refined the
technique with the first widespread use
of movable type, where the characters are separate parts that
are inserted to make the text. Gutenberg is
also credited with the first use of an oil-based ink, and using
"rag" paper introduced into Europe from
China by way of Muslims, who had a paper mill in operation in
Baghdad as early as 794. Before inventing
the printing press in 1440, Gutenberg had worked as a goldsmith.
Without a doubt, the skills and
knowledge of metals that he learned as a craftsman were crucial
to the later invention of the press.
The claim that Gutenberg introduced or invented the printing
press in Europe is not accepted by all. The
other candidate advanced is the Dutchman Laurens Janszoon
Coster.
Impact of printing
Before we proceed to learn about other organs of mass
communication, we may give little more
attention to the printing as it almost revolutionized the
communication in centuries to follow this invention.
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Previously, books were copied by scribes who wrote them out by
hand. Books were therefore a scarce
resource. While it might take someone a year to hand copy a
Bible, with the Gutenberg press it was possible
to create several hundred copies a year, with two or three
people that could read, and a few people to
support the effort. Each sheet still had to be fed manually,
which limited the reproduction speed, and the
type had to be set manually for each page, which limited the
number of different pages created per day.
Despite some resistance, Gutenberg's printing press spread
rapidly across Europe. Within thirty years of its
invention in 1453, towns from Hungary to Spain and from Italy to
Britain had functional printing presses. It
has been theorized that this incredibly rapid expansion shows
not only a higher level of industry (fueled by
the high-quality European paper mills that had been opening over
the past century) than expected, but also
a significantly higher level of literacy than has often been
estimated.
The first printing press in a Muslim territory opened in
Andalusia (Muslim Spain) in the 1480s. This printing
press was run by a family of Jewish merchants who printed texts
with the Hebrew script.
Effects of printing on culture
The discovery and establishment of the printing of books with
moveable type marks a paradigm
shift in the way information was transferred in Europe. The
impact of printing is comparable to the
development of language, the invention of the alphabet, and the
invention of the computer as far as its
effects on the society are concerned.
Gutenberg's findings not only allowed a much broader audience to
read Martin Luther's German translation
of Bible, it also helped spread Luther's other writings, greatly
accelerating the pace of Protestant
Reformation. They also led to the establishment of a community
of scientists (previously scientists were
mostly isolated) that could easily communicate their
discoveries, bringing on the scientific revolution. Also,
although early texts were printed in Latin, books were soon
produced in common European vernacular,
leading to the decline of the Latin language.
Because of the printing press, authorship became more
meaningful. It was suddenly important who had said
or written what, and what the precise formulation and time of
composition was. The printing process
ensured that the same information fell on the same pages, page
numbering, tables of contents and indices
became common. The process of reading was also changed,
gradually changing from oral readings to silent,
private reading. This gradually raised the literacy level as
well, revolutionizing education.
It can also be argued that printing changed the way Europeans
thought. With the older illuminated
manuscripts, the emphasis was on the images and the beauty of
the page. Early printed works emphasized
principally the text and the line of argument. In the sciences,
the introduction of the printing press marked a
move from the medieval language of metaphors to the adoption of
the scientific method.
In general, knowledge came closer to the hands of the people,
since printed books could be sold
for a fraction of the cost of illuminated manuscripts. There
were also more copies of each book available, so
that more people could discuss them. Within 50-60 years, the
entire of "classical" knowledge had
been printed on the new presses. The spread of works also led to
the creation of copies by other parties
than the original author, leading to the formulation of
copyright laws. Furthermore, as the books spread
into the hands of the people, Latin was gradually replaced by
the national languages. This development was
one of the keys to the creation of modern nations. Effects of
printing press on masses have been much
more and will be discussed more elaborately after few lectures. |
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