Electronic Communication

I absolutely love my new communications class! It is seriously so interesting. Here is a paper I wrote about how we communicate as a society in this day and age.

The topic to write about was the printing press. My professor wanted us to talk about how the printing press affected people's communication in the 1450s, how the invention affects us now, and how the impacts of electronic communication are changing the way we communication in the world today.

Let me know what you think... I always love constructive criticism.

The "Message" is the Key

By Jessica Faulkner ©

In the 1450s Johann Gutenburg developed the printing press. In this paper I will discuss how the printing press affected it’s time, how the printing press affected the world’s communication and history, and how getting the “message” across in today’s society is the most important aspect of communication because of the new/different types of communication we deal with each day.

The invention of the printing press allowed the printed word to be distributed to the masses. Before Gutenburg developed the printing press, all that people had to communicate the written word, were wood-engraved letters. Gutenburg’s machine was used to advance communicated technology further for years to come.

After researching the topic a little more, I found that according to thinkpress.com, “Rome developed a printing press in 1465, but, because the rulers of many countries felt that the printed word encouraged people to rebel against their authority, they strictly controlled the amount of material that printers were allowed to produce.”

This made me think—if people were so concerned about how the word encouraged people to rebel against their authority back then—think about how shocked they would be if they saw how many ways we communicate with the printed word today! Thanks to the first amendment, only laws can control what people write today (such as libel, copy-write, and slander). And come to think of it, these laws really aren’t limited compared to what writers had to deal with back in the 1400s. Today, we don’t have the government controlling our journalism or writing.

J.D. Biersdorfer from The New York Times said, “cyberspace is a constellation of printing presses and bookstores, and these fundamental entities solidly covered by the First Amendment should not be shoehorned into broadcast-style Government regulations.”

Communication was able to grow and flourish because of Gutenburg’s invention. Like I mentioned above, it also paved the way for future communication inventions. Today, there is a new electronic communication invention every day. Whether it’s cell phones, game boys, palm pilots, blackberries, etc., there is new improvement and emphasis in communicating.

Rather than being concerned about the population getting “rebellious” with their communication (like in Gutenburg’s time), now the concerns for communication are if we are actually getting the message across. With how fast everything moves in today’s society, it is hard to know if people are communicating their message effectively. We have all of these outlets for communication, and yet we take them for granted by not communicating effectively with each other.

According to ecie.org, “Communication and information are the keys to understanding and knowledge.” So, if we as participants in a society don’t communicate effectively, is our society bound to have less knowledge and understanding? I say yes—based on the message we are trying to communicate. With the way our technological society is growing, we tend to lose grasp of certain topics because we are only choosing to communicate through certain mediums or with certain inventions. As communicators, it is essential that we make sure we are communicating as effectively as possible and remember that the “message” is the key.

In conclusion, electronic communication mediums are growing, and more electronic communication inventions are being developed each year—that is no reason to let the message that you are trying to communicate get weaker. We, as a society, need to strengthen our messages. In doing this, we will have a better knowledge and understanding of our surroundings and be able to take advantage of all of the new inventions we have the opportunity to use.