Communication

Communication is a method of transferring ideas through a medium between two different entities. In class we discussed Hanno Hardt and the importance of the media as a mass communicator. Hardt defines communication as:

"A basic human condition, recognized much earlier in Western philosophical works and articulated in the context of social and political thought throughout Western history, with a contemporary meaning that harks back to the fifteenth century. Referring to the process of 'making common', the term has been applied (as a noun) to a wide variety of practices that establish commonality, from road- or waterways, to telegraph and telephone connections to institutional forms of communication and human dialog"(1)

Hardt's description is lacking in one major way. If a person who knew nothing on the academic discussion of communication read this description they would derive that communication is only a skill humans posses. Many other animals besides humans are able to communicate, scientific research has shown both dolphins and elephants have a system of their own.(2,3) Man-made machines, such as computers, also communicate with each other. Communication is not a quality exclusive to the human race.

1) Hardt, Hanno. Myths for the Masses: An Essay on Mass Communication. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2004. Book.
2) Dolphin Communcations, UofS Academic Web Server: academic.scranton.edu/student/vallak3/default3.htm
3) Langbauer Jr, W.R., Elephant Communcation, Zoo Biology Volume 19 Issue 5 Pages 425-445, Wiley-Liss, Inc 2000