internet plays an important role in communication

7/28/2019 Internet plays an important role in communication

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Thanh Nguyen

CMST 440

Final Exam Essay

08/17/2012

Nowadays technology is raising rapidly which always improving performing

tasks in a convenient and timeless way. Therefore, many devices such as computer,

cellphone, cellular data, or even satellite bring humans in a modern world. But what do

bring to us such those modern communication tools and how it was developed? As I have

pointed out in the first test that the Empire played such an important role on developing

communications until now. They have a very strong relationship among each other. In

general speaking, they reflect each other in good ways of the development purposes.

According to the Thussu reading, the extent of Empire could be used as an indication of

the efficiency of communication. By saying this, the author demonstrates the important

of communication that the more it is developed, the powerful the Empire is. Therefore,

communication was developed from time to time among the Empires. It was always

changed to the better, which brings people a better way to communicate at all time. The

fact is that a baby must learn how to walk before he start running. So where do they

begin? So nowadays we are using such high speed internet; people can communicate with

the other in distance in a real time face to face. Therefore what are those developments

until now?


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Firstly, we start with the time of the 4th Century BC. The Persian king, Darius I

(522-486 BC) used the technique of having a line of a shouting men positioned on height

in order to send news from the capital to provinces . This clearly show that the King has

developed communication using this technique as a more convenient way and thirty times

faster comparing to the use of the runners. Writing systems appear later on including the

Greek, Rome, Persia, and the Great Khan of China which then creating a wide- ranging

official postal and dispatch systems. On the third Century BC, the Indian Emperor

Ashokwas edicts, inscribed on rock, which then found across South Asia, and

Afghanistan to Sri Lanka. In this case, communication is developed in the way of storing

words to the history. Instead of speaking, shouting out words, now communication is

combined with writing and reading. Therefore, people can store, and communicate with

written words. At a later time, people began communicating internationally between

countries such as the GrecoRoman with Arabia, and India and China. The international

trade arises between these countries. They started import and export merchandise for

trading purposes.(Thussu)

From the development of languages, communication has step over the next step.

The Portuguese Empire was the one who sent books to shipping in cargoes. And the most

important improvement was the printing presses. The first printing press was introduced

and opened in Goa in 1557 and in Macao in 1588. This technique later is used widely by

the European countries including England, Spain, and France. And the most important

factor is that this is the main vehicle of communication for the colonial powers in many

parts of the world. (Thussu)


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Moving on to the second half of the nineteenth century, the electric telegraph was

invented by Samuel Morse in 1837. Electric telegraph has the ability to transfer

information rapidly with protection. According to Headrick ,1991 , the appearance of

electric telegraph attracted the business community; and they were the first who use the

technology. The first commercial telegraph link was set up in Britain in 1838. Later on

by 1858, a public telegraph services including telegraph money system was introduced.

Communication was just keep developing nonstop. Now flashing back to the moment,

thinking about nowadays technology including cellphone cellular data such as 3G and 4G

network, cable internet. Is there a relationship here? Yes, as I mentioned before, in order

to have a good thing, we must have something on hand. Therefore in this case, thinking

of what we are using such as the Internet, the GSM cellular; we must think of its origin.

So without the electronic telegraph invented, there is no such Internet. Communication

was developed a lot from its origin in order to serve people in communication purposes.

They wanted to make it faster, and more convenient to communicate. Telegraph was later

well used in military purposes. The overhead telegraph was installed in Algeria in 1842.

Moreover, the US military installed over 24,000 kilometers of cable, which is compatible

with more than 6.5 million telegrams. In 1851, the first underwater telegraph was linked

Britain and France became operational, and the first transatlantic cable connecting the

Britain and the USA. And later on, underwater telegraphs were well used and performed

across the North Atlantic, the Mediterranean, the Indian Ocean, and the Persian Gulf.

With the rises of electronic telegraph, many countries around the world can link together.

In this case, every country can easily communicate with each other for the many

purposes. Relating to military and war issue, the cables are important international


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network of information, of intelligence services and of propaganda, as well as wars. For

example, after the World War I, there is a arguments on taking the control of the cables

between the British and French. (Thussu)

In 1877, there was a huge improvement on communication, especially the

improvements from the electronic telegraph, introducing the telephones by Bell

Telephone Company, established by the inventor Alexander Graham Bell. By that time,

the production on telephone increased rapidly in the US. According to the reading of

Thussu, AT&T ( stands for Telephone and Telegraph ) is the head office of the Bell

Telephone Company; and is almost the biggest fixed telephony provider in the United

States. Telephone later expands through Europe, and the first telephone call was made

between Paris and Brussels in 1887. And later at the end of the nineteenth century, The

United States had a biggest number of telephones. (Thussu)

According to the fact that everybody always want to know, to learn what is going

on out there in this world. So the invention of news played such an important role in the

development of the international telegraph. News agencies was established which led to

the improvement of newspaper industry during the nineteenth century. Newspapers were

well used among business such as stock, currencies, commodities The first regular

newspaper,Avisa Relation oder Zeitung, appeared in Germany in the early 17th century

one hundred fifty years after the invention of printing from movable type by Johann

Gutenberg in 1447 (Made How). Newspaper grew rapidly in the U.S by the contribution

of the quicker, more efficient printing methods during the 19th century. Newspaper later

on served the interest of the region as the U.S has expanded. This communication

development led huge profit on newspaper and printing industry. In the latter decades of


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the 20th century, papers such as theNew York Times and the Wall Street Journalhave

become esteemed sources of news in the U.S. and have wide distribution outside of the

cities where they are produced. The number of news agency in the Us kept rising, and it

was not uncommon for a large city which have more than one newspaper. However, there

were the three European agencies became international ones including The French Havas

Agency found in 1835, the German agency Wolf in 1849 and the British Reuters in 1851.

The first US newspaper Agency was Associated Press established in 1848. We must say

that since the appearance of newspaper, it took an important role among every countries

in the world because newspaper keep people informed about the political activities of

their government. They reports the activities of political parties and leaders. Therefore,

communication has also been developed since newspaper appeared in the world; so that

every people in the world would know what exactly is going on in the society. And we

can say that this is also a convenience way to communicate between humans.

Later on in 1975, the Satellite Instructional Television Experiment was launched

by the Indian government. They use this tool with the purpose of transmitting information

by daily programs about health and education to the whole society. The government

broadcast these programs throughout the country with the cost of $6.6 million dollars for

one year between 1975 and 1976. Besides from health and education, the SITE also focus

agriculture of the country for development purposes such as giving demonstrations and

advices to improve farming products. Even though this is such a great improvement for

communication with purposes of learning for Indian people; however, it turned out to

have some bad results. The class drop-out rate of classes increased since the introduction

of television. Moreover there was a 2-4 higher adoption of birth control in only one year


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long. However, beside from these bad result, televisions brought to famers better

knowledge on growing seeds, so that they actually gained profit on agriculture.

In my opinion, I always keep in mind that communication is always on its way to

the development. Therefore, everything which is just released, would be released soon.

Now talking about modern technology devices from Apple such as Iphone and Ipad.

People are chasing to get the new releases devices with new look and performance. So it

is always developed. The one in the near future must be better than the one at the

moment. What is the purpose of living in this world? We humans were all born with

desire. We all live to the better. We all want more. According to my experiences from my

Economic classes, resources are scared, but we humans all have unlimited wants. So

these desires always improve our live. And in this case, we all want to improved our

communication, especially global communication nowadays. Remembering back to the

time since I was five, my grandmother used to write letter to her relatives who were

living in a different country. Comparing to the moment we are living now, there were not

such devices and tools as computers and internet. With modern technology nowadays,

she could just type an email and send to her relatives via the internet. Therefore,

comparing the development path of communications, it has changed a lot nowadays with

modern technology. As I mentioned earlier, there were not such computers and internet

back to the Empire time, so they cannot talk, chat, or even video chatting in real live

time. Again, communication developed from time to time. Something is just invented

right now, but maybe something else better would be introduced in the next few years. So

we can say that there were no devices such as TVs, and electric telegraphs at the Empire

time. For example, I think telephone is an upgraded device of the electronic telegraph


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system. But there was no telephone for the Empires communication. Communication has

changed over time. But this does not mean that having such new things would ignore and

forget the old thing. I am very sure that there are people out there who are still using an

Iphone 3G when the Iphone 4 has been released. By saying this, It is not necessary for us

to chase with new things as long as we feel comfortable using it in the right purposes. We

can also apply this to communication that people still communicate with others in some

old fashion ways. For example, my father prefer using a buttoned cell phone rather than

using a touch screen smart phone. I always ask him to use my cellphone because it brings

us many benefits as mostly saving our time. Touching on the smartphones screen would

lead us to the direct destination program of the phone rather than keep pressing the button

finding the path. So this can prove that some communication tools still remain the same.

In fact I am always chasing technology, but I would agree that using old communication

tools may bring people as much as benefits as the new one. This reminds my professor

who taught me Criminal law last quarter. He always show us movie by broadcasting the

film tape rather than dvd or vcd. I believe the reason is the tape was tool old, so the

school use video tape player instead of dvd player; and there is maybe a higher fee on

transferring the tape to the dvd.

As we have discussed this entire essay until this point, we can see that people are

using communication in many purposes. Most of the time the development of

communication always bring to people the more convenient way to performing task or

communicating. However, there are people out there take the advantages of

communication using in bad ways. Comparing to the past, we recognize just how much

the world has changed because of the technologies revolution. Innovations within the


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present tech-world can revive us from urgent and difficult problems. Furthermore,

internet has brought a substantial positive alter towards the advertising and entertainment

business. Nevertheless, the basic negative side effects of technology is that individuals

have become too much machine dependent and therefore are being lazy leading to

obesity. Robotics, computerization and automation are altering our lives by growing

efficiency and inexpensive labor, therefore increasing the rate of unemployment. It is

curbing our capability to pay attention.

Overall, communications has no doubt improved our lives and will keep on

enhancing it if streamlined in right direction. Therefore, It is our responsibility to use it in

good ways which benefits the society and environment rather than doing harming it.


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Works Cited

Made How. n.d. 18 08 2012 .

Thussu Readings

internet plays an important role in communication

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