media (singular medium) are the storage and transmission channels or tools
used to store and deliver information or data. It is often referred to as
synonymous with mass media or news media, but may refer to a single medium used
to communicate any data for any purpose.[1][2][3]
The beginning of human communication through artificial channels, i.e. not
vocalization or gestures, goes back to ancient cave paintings, drawn maps, and
writing.
The Persian Empire (centred around present-day Iran) played an important role in
the field of communication. They devised what might be described as the first
real mail or postal system, which is said to have been developed by the Persian
emperor Cyrus the Great (c. 550 BC) after his conquest of Media. The role of the
system as an intelligence gathering apparatus is well documented, and the
service was (later) called angariae, a term that in time turned to indicate a
tax system. The Old Testament (Esther, VIII) makes mention of this system:
Ahasuerus, king of Medes, used couriers for communicating his decisions.
The word communication is derived from the Latin root communicare. This was due
to the Roman Empire also devising what might be described as a mail or postal
system, in order to centralize control of the empire from Rome. This allowed for
personal letters and for Rome to gather knowledge about events in its many
widespread provinces. More advanced postal systems later appeared in the Islamic
Caliphate and the Mongol Empire during the Middle Ages.
The adoption of a dominant communication medium is important enough that
historians have folded civilization into "ages" according to the medium most
widely used. A book titled "Five Epochs of Civilization" by William McGaughey
(Thistlerose, 2000) divides history into the following stages: Ideographic
writing produced the first civilization; alphabetic writing, the second;
printing, the third; electronic recording and broadcasting, the fourth; and
computer communication, the fifth. The media affects what people think about
themselves and how they perceive people as well. What we think about self image
and what others should look like comes from the media.
While it could be argued that these "Epochs" are just a historian's
construction, digital and computer communication shows concrete evidence of
changing the way humans organize. The latest trend in communication, termed
smartmobbing, involves ad-hoc organization through mobile devices, allowing for
effective many-to-many communication and social networking.
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