First, information dissemination in ancient times.
From apes to humans, it took millions of years. Language only appeared about 654.38 million years ago. In the past, human ancestors could use symbols to spread information, but the following kinds:
1, touch and smell. 2. Visual symbols. 3. Auditory symbols.
Second, the basic media language
To understand the history of human information dissemination, it is necessary to understand the occurrence and development of language and the rich information contained in language except sound and shape entities. There is a clue here, that is, the pedigree of world languages. Most languages in the world can be arranged into ten major language families. Under "language family" is "language family", under which is "language family", and under which is specific language. Pushing up from specific languages, language → branch → language family → language family, we can see the distance between various specific languages in ancient times. Of course, this also involves the distance of blood relationship and the density of communication between ethnic groups (races) who speak various languages.
The top ten language families in the world today actually express the trajectory of human social mobility and language exchange. Among them, six language families are widely distributed, which reflects the flow and distribution of information spread by people since AD. In particular, the Indo-European language family spread from Europe to the world in recent hundreds of years.
1, the most widely distributed Indo-European language family 2, is the most populous Sino-Tibetan language family. 3. Altaic language family. 4. flash language family. 5. Bantu language family. 6. Austronesian (Malay-Polynesian) language family.
Third, the dissemination of written media.
The difference between writing and language is that it is basically a changed language form, transforming auditory symbols into visual symbols, making language tangible and preserved. The appearance of characters is a sign that human beings have entered a civilized society. Words constitute a relatively independent world, and their functions are diachronic. Even though times have changed, the world represented by words can clearly record or report historical information for a long time. As a medium, the spread of words is much more serious than the use of language, because it has a clearer purpose of communication. There are many kinds of people in history. After thousands of years of evolution, blending, innovation and decline, there are only seven international writing systems in the world, except Chinese, all of which are alphabetic characters.
1, a worldwide Latin writing system. 2. Use the most populous Chinese writing system. 3. Arabic script system. 4. Slavic writing system. 5. Sanskrit writing system. 6. Greek writing system. 7. Uyghur writing system.
Fourth, approach the pioneer of modern news communication-the invention of printing.
The technology that can copy characters on a large scale first appeared in China, that is, block printing in the 6th century. This kind of invention, which requires too much technology, can adapt to the spread of religious teachings, but it is difficult to adapt to the real news dissemination in terms of timeliness. 165438+Pottery movable type printing invented by China Bi Sheng in the 20th century, if improved properly, should have a wide range of application values, which is more important than block printing for large-scale information dissemination. However, due to the lack of social demand, China has not used it for news dissemination for hundreds of years. When Johann Gutenberg, a German, re-invented metal movable type printing in the middle of15th century, and printed newsprint became popular in Europe, it was not until the middle of17th century that movable type printing was used in China's bunker. Shortly after Gutenberg invented European printing, he happened to encounter a great discovery of world geography, so with the global expansion of Spanish, Portuguese and Dutch businessmen, printing and the original simple newsprint spread all over the world.
Five interdependent conditions of the origin of modern European newspapers
Modern newspapers and periodicals are the first carrier of modern news communication, which first appeared in Europe and then slowly spread to the whole world.
Engels' analysis of the situation in Europe after Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 is of great significance for us to comprehensively analyze the origin of modern newspapers. According to Engels' analysis, examining the situation in Europe and the world at the end of 15, the reason why modern newspapers and periodicals came into being in Europe lies in the following five interdependent conditions:
1, the great discovery of world geography has turned European industry and commerce from Mediterranean trade to global trade, thus generating a large-scale demand for news dissemination. The expansion of market economy to the whole world requires large-scale news dissemination. 1566, there was a regular handwritten news in Venice, Italy, which was the highest response of declining Mediterranean trade to news demand. Italy's trade declined rapidly, and the phenomenon of urban population returning to the countryside appeared, making Italy the cradle of the Renaissance. It took 300 years for decent modern newspapers to appear. Strictly speaking, Venice is not the beginning of modern news communication, but the culmination of the development of news communication in medieval Europe, followed by a sharp decline.
2. At this time, Europe is becoming a geographically connected civilized region with fewer trade barriers and fewer obstacles to information transmission. 15-16th century was the climax of the imperial power in continental Europe (especially in France) to reduce the vassal power, and most civilians stood on the side of the imperial power for their own trade interests. A relatively unified country provides space conditions for the relatively free circulation of goods (including information). Although this process is gradual, the trend of decreasing separatist regime is a necessary living condition for modern newspapers and periodicals in any case.
3. After the Renaissance, the six major European nations (Italy, Spain, Portugal, Germany, France and Britain) naturally formed their own standard languages and characters, which laid the foundation for large-scale news dissemination. The large-scale dissemination of newspapers and periodicals requires at least the use of common standard language in areas where a country or ethnic language is used, and this kind of language should be based on the existence of common standard language. When these conditions are met, large-scale newspaper production and dissemination will become possible.
The invention of Gutenberg printing provided new technical conditions for large-scale news dissemination. This invention happened to meet the religious reform in Germany, and then the great discovery of world geography, which became the technical condition for large-scale dissemination of German translation of the Bible, and then became the necessary technical condition for global news dissemination.
5. After the Renaissance, culture gradually liberated from the monopoly of monks and turned to secular society, which provided a certain readership for large-scale news dissemination.
These five conditions are interdependent and indispensable. Without the first background condition, other conditions alone can not cause the scale of news dissemination; The lack of any of the other four conditions may make the scale of news dissemination unsustainable.
Six, the three links of modern newspapers and periodicals around the world
The origin of modern newspapers and periodicals is not so much a specific "point" as a process of world historical development. Because modern newspapers and periodicals spread from Europe to the whole world, after hundreds of years, modern newspapers and periodicals appeared in all major countries in the world, so that the process of origin can be said to be over. To study the "point" of origin, it is important to grasp and understand "process" from a macro perspective. From this perspective, the origin of modern newspapers and periodicals is manifested in three development links:
1, 65438+The invention and appearance of German printing in the middle of the 5th century printed newsprint. Printed newsprint should be regarded as a way of news dissemination in the Middle Ages in terms of content and simplicity. However, because it happened to catch up with the discovery and development of the new world route not long ago, the news communication originally belonging to the Middle Ages was directly linked to the future modern newspapers and periodicals, and became the first link of the origin of modern newspapers and periodicals.
2. Throughout the16th century, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch and other business peoples inadvertently spread European printed and simple bulletin newspapers in their global business, which constituted the second link of the origin of modern newspapers.
3. Since the17th century, Britain, as an industrial country, has gradually replaced Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands and other countries, purposefully established colonies around the world, developed industry and commerce, spread western culture and transplanted newspapers and periodicals to all parts of the world. Only at this time can news communication have a certain influence. As J.Habermas said, it was not until the end of 17 that the society had the conditions to let the public know the information, and "there was real news." 18-19th century, modern newspapers and periodicals spread all over the world, completing the whole process of its origin.
Here, the printed newsprint of the Middle Ages in Germany was the original source, and the global trade of three European commercial nations in the16th century was an insurmountable historical turning point. Finally, the cultural communication process of transplanting the modern news communication industry to all corners of the world, mainly Britain, took place.
Seven, the three historical stages of the development of western newspapers and periodicals
Although the history of news communication in western countries has its own cultural traditions and development characteristics, the history of newspaper development in most countries has experienced three obvious stages in turn. In particular, the transformation in the last two stages is particularly important.
1, "official newspaper period" under the feudal centralized system. Modern newspapers and periodicals appeared in the late Middle Ages in Europe, so they were directly controlled by the imperial power when they were born, or directly founded by government departments (such as 1665 Britain, 1702 Russia), or published by a few chartered publishers trusted by the imperial power (such as163/kloc-0 France). At the same time, other unofficial publications are strictly prohibited. In the colonies, the colonial authorities censored books and newspapers on behalf of the crown. During this period, the feudal dynasty censored the contents of newspapers and periodicals, mainly forbidding to report and discuss issues related to domestic politics, criticizing officials (even if it was true, it was regarded as libel), and the contents that were not allowed to be reported by religious morality at that time, while foreign political news was generally allowed to be reported as long as it did not involve domestic politics.
2. Freedom of the press under the condition of "Party Newspaper Period". During the bourgeois revolution (including a short period before the revolution) and a long or short period after the success of the revolution, because the country's basic political system and many specific policies have not yet been determined, all classes and interest groups should carry out propaganda activities to win more revolutionary fruits for themselves. Under the conditions of freedom of association and freedom of the press, people's enthusiasm is concentrated on political issues, and political party activities are extremely frequent. In this case, party newspapers and periodicals become the main body of newspapers and periodicals, and even commercial newspapers and periodicals have obvious political tendencies and are committed to political propaganda and discussion of their own choice. The typical country of this situation is the United States (from the War of Independence to1mid-9th century, about 60 years). In other western countries, the period of party newspapers and business newspapers sometimes exists for a long time.
3. "The period of the Commercial Press" (also known as the period of free publishing). Generally speaking, the emergence of cheap and popular newspapers on a large scale in a country is a sign of the arrival of the business newspaper era. The previous newspapers and periodicals belonged to the Party newspaper period, and then they either entered the Business Daily period soon (such as the United States), or stepped down from the peak of the development of the Party newspaper period and gradually turned to the Business Daily period. In the past, newspapers and periodicals were mainly regarded as a cause; Since then, newspapers and periodicals have been mainly regarded as an industry. Nowadays, the mass media (including radio and television) industry in western countries has become a high-return industry second only to the financial industry, and the transnational operation of the news and communication industry has shown a strong development momentum.
Eight, the development of electronic media shows geometric progression.
On May 24th, 1844, the telegraph line between Washington and Baltimore was opened, which created a miracle for itself. At a long distance, information can be transmitted instantly. At the end of 1847, Marx and Engels wrote the * * * declaration, which listed the invention of the telegraph as one of the great productive forces created by the bourgeoisie. /kloc-In the middle of 0/9th century, submarine cables were laid between Europe and America (including South America). News organizations began to use telegrams to deliver important news. 1862, telegraph was first used to transmit messages in wartime.
1876, the telephone first appeared in America. It was only because the chief engineer of the British postal service thought that they had many postmen and didn't need telephones that the gap in understanding made Britain begin to develop telephones ten years later.
Also in the19th century, the recording and dissemination of real images also made brilliant achievements. 1822, France took the first still life photo, which was made public in 1839, and it was constantly improved and popularized rapidly. Used in 1853 battlefield news interview. 1895, a technical film that truly reproduces moving images appeared in France for the first time, and it was quickly popularized all over the world.
/kloc-the above-mentioned inventions in the 0/9th century laid a technical foundation and provided conceptual preparation for the rapid development of electronic media in the 20th century.
1920165438+10, the opening of KDKA radio station in Pittsburgh, USA, marked the emergence of a new social-oriented mass media-radio station. Within a few years, broadcasting technology spread all over the world. Since sound can travel through space, so can images? From the late 1920s to 1930s, the United States, Britain, Germany, France and the Soviet Union and other major countries in the world were studying wireless TV. 1936 Berlin Olympic Games was partially broadcast by German experimental TV station. At present, it is generally believed that the program broadcast by British BBC in June is the beginning of world television broadcasting 1936 1 1. It doesn't matter which one is the first. Importantly, in the 1930s, within ten years after the emergence of radio stations, television technology was pushed to the society. It was only because World War II interrupted the development of television that it was restarted in the early 1950s. However, the Soviet Union and the United States only sent communication satellites into the sky in 1962, and successfully carried out intercontinental transmission of satellite signals.
Since the 1960s, computer technology has been rapidly applied to the development of mass media, including the automatic control of newspaper and news agency business (editing and printing), followed by digital technology to arm satellite radio and television. If we make a simple time sequence analysis of the history of modern news communication, it is not difficult to see that the development before the 20th century was a rather slow arithmetic progression, while the development of electronic mass media in the 20th century was a geometric series.
1457 the first printed newsprint (Nuremberg)
1665438+The first real newspaper in 2005 (Frankfurt)
First Daily 1650 (Leipzig)
1835 First News Agency (Paris)
1920 radio 1 (Pittsburgh)
1936 First TV Station (London)
1962 first satellite transmission (between Europe and America)
Obviously, the development of early newspapers and periodicals was quite slow. In fact, before the19th century, the influence of newspapers and periodicals on society was not as great and far-reaching as that of literature, philosophy and natural science, but only played an inflammatory role in the period of political turmoil, and newspapers and periodicals were at the end of the road in society. However, in the 20th century, with the emergence and development of radio and television, mass media played a decisive role in the society, because they were everywhere and penetrated into all family members.
Today, there are nearly 400 million newspapers in the world every day, and there are more than 2 billion radios and more than 800 million televisions in the whole society. 2 1 century, world news communication is facing endless technological innovation, highly commercialized operation and overall globalization.
Nine. Rapid but immature network news dissemination
Internet is considered as the "fourth media" after newspapers, radio and television. This kind of media is different from traditional media, that is, it is not a media that provides some information, but just an information platform. Individuals, groups, traditional mass media and authorities can use this platform to see other people's information and send their own information as long as they have certain equipment and technology. It does not provide content different from other media, but it has the ability to convert various information forms (pictures, words, sounds, moving images) to each other (although this ability is limited at present), and it has strong synchronous interactive communication ability and global efficient communication ability. However, a means of communication without industrial characteristics, even if the scientific and technological content is high, is difficult to play a role without the support of the market. At least at present, network communication is in a dilemma: the most advanced communication technology has no large-scale market.
Network news communication has considerable market development possibilities. Thousands of traditional media in the world are online, but except for the sports departments of individual online media, most of them only have input and little output, which cannot form a commercial scale. The Internet is developed for commercial purposes, and its popularity is also due to the expectation of huge returns. Now it is difficult to establish a consumer market after forming a user base. Under the pressure of competition, online media have to invest huge funds and manpower to maintain and upgrade the system. Is there a way out for the investment network? Where is the profit? The first thing to consider is survival. However, the growing network user base (characterized by roaming, which is difficult to completely control) is always a temptation, which constantly drives people to solve this difficulty. There is a lot of hype about it, and there is no horizon for success. 2 1 century, can a free communication platform that attracts users become a new form of news communication industry? This requires continuous attractive motivation to ensure that news sources are attached to the Internet for a long time.
Based on historical experience, under the premise of establishing the free flow of information according to law, it is necessary to comprehensively examine the political and historical traditions, economic forms, democratic political literacy of the public and leaders and so on to measure whether a country or region implements some form of news policy in line with the requirements of the times. Historically, the situation of news communication industry in some developing countries seems to be ahead of schedule; In reality, it seems to be more backward. Judging from the history of the development and change of news policy in recent hundreds of years, the policy of realizing the free flow of information is irreversible. There may be different views, so let's study the history of world news communication together and learn more about the course of indispensable industries in the world, and we will certainly have a better understanding in the discussion.