Week 1 - The Media of Early Civilisation

This week’s readings focus on the media of early civilization, in particular, the specific communication mediums used centuries ago. The communication mediums examined for this discussion is the Egyptian Civilization, which included etchings into stone, and ink on papyrus (Crowley & Heyer 2011).

Crowley & Heyer (2011) explain how the various mediums used by ancient civilizations, were dependant on what was readily available to them at the time, in their environment. For example, the Egyptians living on the Nile River had access to an abundance of reeds, enabling the production of papyrus as a writing canvas (Innis 2011). 

Prior to the use of papyrus, the Egyptians etched symbols and pictures into stone, which was not only a time consuming process, but also had the disadvantage of being a heavier material to work with compared to writing on papyrus (Crowley & Heyer 2011).  Papyrus however, due to its availability and convenience, increased in popularity, which resulted in the transition of using stone to using papyrus (History World 2001).

In comparison to communication mediums in current society, it can be argued that the availability and advancement of various communication genres today, such as email and the fax machine, has an affect on the way people communicate.  To elaborate, approximately 10-15 years ago, fax machines were most popular (compared to today’s advancement of email for example), and it was commonplace for most Australian businesses to transact using this medium. Now, traditional fax machines are considered obsolete and seen as the technology of yesterday (Jones 2013). Businesses (and individuals) have adapted to these changes/advancements in technology and use systems that are more readily available – such as email (also seen to be a more productive means of transacting). 

This has affected the cultural and social interaction between individuals and businesses today; email is gradually superseding the traditional fax machine due to its convenience and availability.  This is technological determinism at play.  

Reference list

Crowley, D & Heyer, P 2011, Communication in history: technology, culture, society, 6^th edn, Pearson, Sydney.

HistoryWorld 2001, History of Writing Materials, viewed 17 March 2015, http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?ParagraphID=ady2

Innis, H 2011, “Media in ancient empires”, in D Crowley and P Heyer (eds), Communication in history: technology, culture, society, 6th edn, Pearson, Sydney.

Jones, P 2013, “How evolving technology will change the business world”, The Telegraph, 11 September 2013, viewed 17 March 2015, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sponsored/technology/business-technology/10298682/future-workplace-technology.html