Communication Revolutions

- Learn about three revolutions in mass communication

Look at the picture of four ways to store information.
- Which of the four storage method takes up/use the most space? The least space? Which one holds the most and least information? Which is most and least easy to move?
- What do you predict will change in the future of information technology? What inventions (phat minh) or new behaviors will we see in the next twenty years?

A Look at the Beginnings of Mass Communication:
- The invention of a writing system is one of the most important invention of humankind, just behind the invention of the wheel and the ability to use fire.
- Historians say that the invention of a writing system was the beginning of mass communication.
- The earliest full writing system is more than 5,000 years old. It comes from the Middle East in what was then called Sumeria.

(The Sumerians had a story to explain their invention of writing: The king of Uruk sent one of his servants to another kingdom far away with an important message. when messenger arrived at the court, he's so exhausted from the journey that he was not able to convey (v-truyền đạt, chuyển) his message orally (adv-bằng lời nói). he was too tired to speak. The king heard about this and was upset. He came up with a clever solution. he made a flat tablet out of wet clay. He cut the message into the soft clay. The tablet was the medium for the message. There was no alphabet or writing system. Each picture or symbol was equal to a word or idea.)

- Historians ask, why would the king write a letter if the receiver could not read it? They also doubt that the earliest writing system was a written version of speech. It is more likely that writing began as a separate system of communication. It probably developed to keep track of weighing and measuring animals and foods.

- Historians agree on a few things, however. Early writing was pictographic (chữ tượng hình) (symbols) - based on pictures, and messages were carved into (v-được khắc chạm) heavy clay tablets. (abstract)

- Most importantly, they agree that a writing system was invented to store and transmit information. With the invention of writing system, information became portable. (important information was accessible to all people). Writing allowed people to share their words and knowledge with others, near and far away.

What were the two main reasons that a writing system was invented?
What is a pictographic system of writing?
What does it mean for information to be portable?

How would the world be different if writing were never invented? Use your imagination and think of some examples of life without writing.
What are some of the way that transmitting information has changed during your lifetime?

- Recent communication has been influenced by technology.
- Television and radio have made it easier to send information to large audiences.
- Radio sends out signals without wires.

major: very important, especially when compared to other things of a similar kind.
focus on: special attention given to a subject.

+ Look at these commonly used abbreviations:
avg: average
approx: approximetaly
btwn; between
cont: continued
diff: difference
ea: each
e.g. example
est; estimate
esp; especially
etc; et cetera (and other similar things)
id. identify
i.e. in other words
imp: important
info: information
max: maximum - min: minimum
vs: versus
w/out: without
yr: year

- Over the centuries, wider communication has become possible between people in many different societies. What are some of the results of this worldwide exchange of ideas and information?
- Knowledge states that there are three ideas key to mass communication. Review these ideas. Can you predict what a future communication revolution might be?

Practice Lecture:
I'd like to look at the recent history of communication (the early [đầu, sớm] history of writing), we see that communication has really been influenced by technology: (what do I mean technology?)
- I mean the use and knowledge of any tool that humans have invented.
-  And recently, there are quite a few technologies that make it easier to get and share information.

 Technology:
- Television is one technology. You all certainly know what television is, but the technical definition is: television is system for sending out and receiving moving pictures and sound over a distance.
- Radio-the next technology to look at is radio. (we all know what radio is in the general sense): I mean a system for sending out signals without wires.

These two technologies, television and radio, are two major ways that information is transmitted to large audiences today.

Lecture:
- We're going to continue our discussion of mass communications today. "mass communication": we mean communication from one person or group of people, through a medium (trung gian), which is some communication device, to many different people at once. So there are many people who are the receivers of the information.
(information through a medium to many)

- We'll look at how mass communication has changed over the centuries. We'll be looking at three major changes, revolution, in the history of mass communication.
     + Now, the first communication revolution was the development of phonetic (ngữ âm) writing. This occurred 3000 years ago (three thousand). (the development of phonetic writing meant that writing moved away from using pictographs (these are symbols that represent objects and ideas) and moved toward using symbols to represent the actual sound of the spoken word.
       An example: in pictographic writing, people actually drew some kind of picture of an idea. So for example, to communicate the idea of a dog, they drew a dog. But in phonetic writing people represented the sound duh-aw-guh with 3 letters: D-O-G.
     (this was revolutionary. Why? Because it made writing easier. It was smaller, so it was actually easier to produce. So, we see a real change in writing style.)
       Pictographic writing was done on heavy clay tables (bảng đất sét). It not only did the style of writing change, but the medium on which the writing appeared changed also. Tablets ['tablit] that were so heavy that they really weren't portable.). But around the same time that phonetic writing developed, a new medium was invented that is papyrus. (papyrus was a type of paper made from a grass plant. this paper was much lighter than clay [đất sét].)
      => So, this combination of a light-weight (hạng nhẹ) medium (papyrus) and phonetic writing made information more portable, so it could reach a bigger audience, it also made it easier and cheaper to store the information. So information became more portable and storable.
      => So, this meant that people had access to written material, so more people became literate (ng có học thức [rit]), they learned to read and write, which led to wider communication. People in different societies could convey information to people in other parts of the world, this was really the beginning of mass communication. (one group or one person could now communicate with many people).
     => So, as societies grew more literate, this resulted in a demand for materials for people to read. So, do you get the picture? All right. Because at this point, we're ready to look at the next change.

   + The next change (the second is printing): The bigger population of readers created the second communication revolution, and that's printing. And it also includes the printing press.
      A printing press meant that information could be reproduced quickly. in the year 305 (1,700 years ago), the first wooden printing presses were invented in China.
      The printing press became more widely used when Johannes Gutenberg invented a printing press in Germany in the year 1455. that used metal and movable type. Now this was a very significant invention. The metal printing press made it faster and easier to print books and materials. => More information was available to many more people.

To explain why this is considered a revolution:
- Before the printing press, knowledge and information were in the hands of only a few privileged people. A scholar who wanted to know some specific thing or get some specific information had to travel to the place where the information was kept.
- But once information could be copied easily with the printing press, the information itself could travel to people beyond the society that created it.
- with the printing press, information was more accessible, so it was accessible to everyone. So you really see how big this revolution was.

+ Third communications revolution, that is computers. We are all part of this revolution, which began in 1950s: the computer revolution.
    Computers have become the electronic storehouses and transmitters of large amounts of information, information that previously only existed in the physical form. (it was carved (v-khắc, trạm) in stone or written on paper.)
    Computer technology makes everything quicker and easier. Computer process, transmit and store information much more efficiently than any previous system. Computers have changed the nature of mass communication.

To wrap up, there are three ideas that are key to mass communication. Let me just state them clearly. First, the ability to store information. Second, the ability to transport information. And finally, having access to information. These are essential to mass communication.