In its simplest form, communication is everything. It is the way by which we as a society are able to function and live with one another. Over the course of history, the inability to communicate appropriately have led to some of the most influential and most world-changing events in the history of mankind. Whether it be the conflict resulting from the original European contact with Native Americans shortly after the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492, slavery in the United States, the inability to communicate successfully and get along is key to successful living. Additionally, the ability to speak, read, and write, are cornerstones of our education system and these abilities must be mastered in order to be a part of modern society.
On the global scale, mass communication is the way by which we interact with not only our friends and loved ones who live close to us, but also with cultures around the world. In today’s age, the World Wide Web has asserted itself as the most important stream of consistent information due to its ubiquitous nature. Without mass media and mass communication, we as a culture would be unable to do the most important thing we do—learn from each other.
What is communication?
ReplyDeleteCommunication is how one organism or device delivers a message or remains in contact with another organism or device.
The word communication itself is very flexible because it can be used to represent something as simple as a whistle or wink, to something complicated and technological such as an encrypted message from outer space. There are many forms of communication depending on how many people are being influenced or contacted at a given period of time, ranging from communication between two people to mass communication; where a speech delivered by a single entity such as a president, can be seen by billions of people around the world.
As time passes by, the means of communication are becoming more advanced too. While in the past each worker had to be verbally instructed on how to perform a certain task, now work instructions can be given out to several workers through a single microphone or e-mail. Visionaries of the past saw a future filled with robots and extremely fast communication devices, and this future is slowly becoming the present.
Communication devices are further divided based on their bandwidth and synchrony, while telephone has more bandwidth it is only able to communicate with one person at a time. The world wide web on the other hand has both synchrony and bandwidth, relaying information to people all around the globe.
Shahnawaz Syed - Sept 20