A medium of communications has been in existence ever since man has set his feet on this earth. However, those types of media man used when he first walked the earth were very limited. In fact, the only communication medium early man could use was rough sketches in the ground and on the walls. If early man wanted to communicate his thoughts, feelings, or ideas to another individual, he had to do so by sketching drawings on whatever medium he can find. Yet, media did not become very important and therefore was not developed to an extent until man needed to send information to each other faster, further, and in greater quantities. Today, media includes everything from a magnetic computer disk to a digital television.
The history of media
started when man needed to make his mind known to others. To do this early man created and used many different media of communication. The origin of media date back to the transition from oral to written language. Oral languages, if not recorded, are often forgotten and fade into history. Therefore, man created written languages to complement his oral languages. The oldest written language is about 5000 years old. Yet, 30,000 years ago, man started to write down some of his thoughts with crude symbols and shapes. One of the first true forms of writing was cuneiform writing. Cuneiform first appeared in the year of 8000 B.C, and was a pictographic form of writing. The country of Assyria developed cuneiform as a form of written language from 3000 to 1000 B.C. Cuneiform, over time, had ideographic elements integrated into it. Chinese, like the
Assyrians used a written pictographic-ideographic written language as early as the 15th century. The Chinese writing system is called logographic. The alphabet came from the Middle East to Greece. Once in Greece, the Greeks touched up the alphabet with vowel sounds. After a while, countries like Germany and England used alphabets to create tailored written languages. Since then, those languages have evolved into the modern day languages that are used today.
Once man had a form of writing developed, man needed a way that the language could be easily written down and transported to other people or places. The first writing medium was papyrus. Advancing further into present history, the radio was invented by Guglielmo Marconi, which allowed for information to flow to more people quickly. Television, soon after, was introduced by American inventor Philo T. Farnsworth and Russian-born engineer Vladimirk Zworykin in 1927. Then, the ultimate media invention was initiated: the computer, which affects the lives of millions of people around the globe. It could be safely said that the computer is the ultimate (multi)media device. Computers can be connected to a network of computers (the Internet) to allow for instant communications through electronic mail (e-mail) and instant messaging services.
In addition, computers utilize a variety of communications media to bring life and imagery to data. During the 1990s, sound and video were intensively developed for optimal performance on computers. Additionally, storage media was also developed to hold more data (the result was the introduction of compact disc and DVD). Using these communications media, computers present information with sound and video in a realistic fashion to millions of people, for example through the Internet or compact disc.
It would appear that communications media have quite a long history. Perhaps that is because media is almost like oxygen to the human body: without it, man would never become more then a useless entity. Ironically, media is something that most people do not even think about. To people today, and especially people less than twenty-five years old, it is second nature for them to turn on the T.V., or put a DVD disc in to the DVD player. Media today is used in a wide variety of ways to accurately portray human thought. For example, businesses use media to show and to communicate to there clients, stock holders, and employees, ways and ideas of pushing the company forward, solving existing problems, streamlining production, and creating a more stable future for the company. Yet, we are still striving, and trying, for the ultimate tool for human expression.
Inevitably, people will develop new forms of communications media. For instance, early in 1999, HDTV was introduced. As of yet, HDTV has not got a very strong foothold and is still a futuristic idea. However, HDTV is not the only new media to be created. Interactive real-time holograms will also become another type of communications medium. The computer will also develop more dimensions of media (multimedia). Today's computers will not be anything to be compared with tomorrow's computers. However, we cannot foresee the development of media forms. Media is one of the darker sides of the future that people cannot predict. Unpredictable in nature, humans instinctively create new ways to express themselves as they see appropriate.
Since man first developed a communications medium, innovations in the communications media have grown tremendously. Obviously, communications media have yet to been developed to their fullest, and the progression of media devices have not yet stopped. Media has gone from rough sketches to miniature disks that can hold astronomically high amounts of data. Media in the past and present have shaped whole civilizations, however, in the future it will be possible for media to shape whole worlds.
