okay I'm ready to begin so let's get started so we're going to continue our discussion of mass communications today now I want you to remember that when you say mass communications we mean communication from one person or group of people through a medium which is some communication device to many different people at once so there are many people who are the receivers of the information all right so let me just get that on the board so information through a medium okay two many now today we'll look at how mass communication has changed over the centuries okay we'll be looking at three major changes revolutions really in the history of mass communication now the First Communication Revolution was the development of phonetic writing so first was the development of phonetic writing all right now this occurred three thousand years ago so it's three thousand years ago all right now the development of phonetic writing meant that writing moved away from using pictographs okay now these are symbols that represent objects and ideas and move toward using symbols to represent the actual sound of the spoken word now let me give you an example now in pictographic writing people actually drew some kind of picture of an idea so for example to communicate the idea of a dog they actually drew a dog but in phonetic writing people represented the sound with three letters d o g now 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 now not only did the style of writing change but the medium on which the writing appeared changed also pictographic writing was done on heavy clay tablets tablets that were so heavy that they really weren't portable but around the same time that phonetic writing developed a new medium was invented papyrus now Papyrus was a type of paper made from a grass plant you can imagine that this paper was much lighter than clay so this combination of a lightweight medium papyrus and phonetic writing made information more portable so it could reach a bigger audience now it also made it easier and cheaper to store the information so information became more portable and storable so this meant that for the first time people had access to written material so more people became literate all right that is they learned to read and write which led to wider communication so people in different societies could convey information to people in other parts of the world so you see 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 bigger population of readers created the second Communications Revolution and that's printing the second is printing and it also includes the printing press now a printing press meant that information could be reproduced quickly now in the year 305 so 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 and 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 and faster meant that more information was available to many more people now let me explain why this is considered a revolution before the printing press knowledge and information were in the hands of only a few privileged people okay a scholar who wanted to know some specific thing or 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 okay and with the printing press information was more accessible so it was accessible to everyone so you really see how big this Revolution was okay now it's not a surprise that libraries developed as well because it was easier to store information on paper information was now both portable and easy to store okay now this brings me to the third Communications Revolution and that is computers all right now we we're all part of this revolution which began in the 1950s the computer Revolution now computers have become the electronic storehouses and transmitters of large amounts of information information that previously only existed in physical form okay it was carved in stone or written on paper technology makes everything quicker and easier computers process transmit and store information much more efficiently than any previous system computers have changed the nature of mass communication so to wrap up you can see from these changes that there are three ideas that are key to mass communication and 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 okay see you on Tuesday