Introduction to Communication Science
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Transcript Week 2: A Short History of Communication
Science
2.1 A Short History of Communication Science
Welcome to Week 2 of our MOOC. I hope you are enjoying our format. I also hope you have
done some self-evaluation tests and checked out the ‘further readings section’ of the online
environment. Since we discuss most theories only briefly, it is through this section that you
can explore them further. Also, visit the forum. Please feel free to give any constructive
feedback that you might have in the thread ‘what do you think of our MOOC?’ We’re very
curious about what you like or don’t like. Also, if you want to discuss a topic further, start a
discussion on our forum or join one of the discussions that others have started. I’ll often help
out here by posting answers to recurring questions.
This week we’re going to talk about the history of communication science. And I’d like to stress
that last part. Because we’re going to talk about when people starting talking and especially
writing about communication. So even though we could talk for hours about the presumed
communication methods of prehistoric man and ancient civilizations, about the earliest forms
of communication, theories on the development of language, the introduction of mediated
communication, through symbolism in rock art and figurines and such, we are not going to do
so. We are not going to discuss the oldest musical instruments or the first writing we’ve found,
nor the power of communication through architecture and useable items like coins. Why?
Because we have no record that these civilizations thought about communication on a meta
level and constructed theories about its existence or use.
Instead we’re going to start our journey here in Ancient Greece. The writings of the Ancient
Greeks and later, the Romans, are the oldest ones on communication science to survive.
Starting with the earliest writings of the Greeks and Romans, we’ll then talk about Medieval
times and the subsequent lack of communication science in those days. Then came the rise
of printed texts and the very important Enlightenment and Renaissance periods of our field.
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We’ll end this week’s MOOC with the Industrialization of the nineteenth century and its impact
on the communication landscape. Next week we’ll continue with twentieth century
communication theory.
2.2 Greek and Roman Rhetorica
So let’s start by briefly exploring the Classical World of the Greek and Romans. We’ll begin in
the fifth century before Christ, in Ancient Greece. Instead of one country, we should recognize
that in these times Greece was a collection of independent city-states, some of which were at
war with each other while others were allied. A growing number of city-states were adopting
democratic elements in their government, such as peoples’ assemblies, elections, chosen
government officials and so on. Even though many cities still had kings or a council of nobles,
the political power of citizens was growing and with it the need for a better understanding of
the workings of mass communication. It’s therefore not surprising that the science of
communication thrived in Ancient Greece. Important historical figures, such as Socrates, Plato
and Aristotle were involved in academic debate on the subject. But besides being an academic
science, it was at this time mostly an applied science. There were teachers and academies
that taught the main principles of public speaking, reasoning and persuasion. Ambitious
politicians were wise to learn the different ways of approaching an audience. And not only
politicians, but also lawyers and businessmen were schooled in these matters and made
extensive use of them in their fields. Military commanders, like Xenophon and Alexander the
Great, had studied the subject at the feet of famous philosophers and used what they learned
to keep up the morale of their troops.
So what did the media landscape look like at this time? We have already established that
public speaking was important. The Greeks made extensive use of symbolic and figurative art
in their architecture, decorative and useable artifacts. There was a huge diversity of genres in
theater and literature. The alphabet had been rediscovered in the sixth century and books,
scrolls, pamphlets and other written media quickly found a place in the media infrastructure.
Many people, not only the rich and noble, could read and write and most cities had one or
several libraries. The most famous library, that of Alexandria, reputedly contained hundreds
of thousands of handwritten scrolls.
Over the years, the power of the Greeks dwindled and was broken by the Romans who
adopted many Greek ways. It’s therefore not surprising that they too learned and tried to
perfect Greek theories on communication. Together Greek and Roman times span a
millennium of history. So it’s obviously a huge oversimplification to discuss the entirety of
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classical thought on communication in a three minute MOOC section. But we’ll try
nonetheless, because their ideas were the basis for scientific thought on communication
during the Middle Ages and Renaissance and therefore in many ways the foundation on which
our modern discipline is built. For a more in-depth and nuanced picture, I refer to the Little Box
of Nuance in the online environment of this course and additional opportunities I give in other
sections.
2.3 Two schools of Classical Communication Science
We can make a broad distinction between two schools of classical thought on communication.
The first school sees communication as a way to discover the truth of things.
This school started with the famous philosopher, Socrates, and his student, Plato. They put a
huge emphasis on the role of discourse and logical argumentation in the communication
process. It’s called the dialectic method: Simply put, this means the logical and rational
discussion which will help us resolve differences by finding out which viewpoint is true.
Therefore man’s ability to reason is paramount for a civilization to flourish and advance. Here
we have, in a nutshell, the purpose of communication: to express and critically weigh the value
of ideas, and eventually to discard or perfect them in correlation with their objective worth. As
models go, this one is obviously quite linear. Good communication is rational communication
that helps us to find ‘the truth’ in ideas.
We can see why so many philosophers who were interested in natural science and finding out
how the world worked, were attracted to this school of thought. Later, Medieval monks were
also charmed by this classical idea of communication to reach the truth. It was in their opinion,
a way for pre-Christian Greeks and Romans to see the greater truth of God. So even though
they were not Christians, the writings of Plato and others were copied by Christian monks and
have survived while so many books of their contemporaries haven’t.
We can infer other writings existed because Plato and others have referred to and responded
to them.
This second school of Greek communication science was called Rhetorica. Derived from the
Greek word (rhḗtōr) which means "public speaker". Rhetorica taught the ability to perceive all
means of persuasion in any given scenario, according to Aristotle in one of his books on the
topic. So it was very much an applied science, where the practicality of theories decided their
worth.
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The main purpose was not to find truth but to persuade someone; essentially to make
something seem like the truth even if it wasn’t. Proponents of this school were also called
Sophists, and were often attacked vehemently by natural philosophers like Socrates and Plato,
who above all else searched for the truth. Later, many Sophist writing was purposely not
copied by Medieval monks for this same reason.
Despite the disapproval among natural philosophers, Rhetorica was extremely popular in the
Classical world. Not only in Greece, but in Rome too, the ability to win people over through
speeches was crucial for political or social advancement. Caesar, Marc Anthony, Octavian
were all trained in and sometimes wrote about the art of persuasion. Usually they had studied
the basics of Rhetorica in Greece itself. Luckily some books on Rhetorica did survive. Most
notably those by the Greek philosopher, Aristotle, and the Roman statesman, Marcus Cicero
So what exactly did they teach? We’ll talk about some basic rhetorical theory in the next
section.
2.4 Rhetorical Theory
In the Art of Rhetoric, Aristotle somewhat bridged the gap between the Sophist and Dialectic
Method. As a student of Plato, he was well versed in the use of the ‘dialectic method’ or rational
argumentation. But he did not share Plato’s dislike of Rhetorica and wrote an extensive
treatise on persuasive theory. In it, rational arguments definitely played an important, but not
an exclusive part.
Aristotle focuses on the ‘sender’ aspect of communication. And he uses a simple model to
explain the different stages of sending a message. First, the topic of the message is
determined. This is the ‘invention stage’ of communication. Then the style of the message is
determined. Thirdly and finally, the ‘message’ will be delivered. A politician might have a topic
she wants to talk about. She will then choose her words carefully. What tone should she use?
Thirdly, she must choose the manner of delivery: perhaps a pamphlet or a speech. Let’s say
she gives a speech. Now comes the ‘stage of delivery’: she will use her stage performance,
her gestures and intonation, to strengthen her message.
Successful communication, which leads to persuasion, has three building blocks:
Logos, Pathos and Ethos.
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Logos is the use of reason. Basically it resembles what Socrates and Plato taught: rational
arguments based on facts and logic. Our politician for instance might use some statistics to
back her argument.
Ethos is the ‘character’ or more precisely, the perceived trustworthiness, likeability and
intelligence of the sender. Many persuasive arguments focus on personal traits like this. Our
politician might try to convince us that we should listen to her because she is the expert in this
field. Without rational backing, this is a so-called ‘authority argument’. Or she will tell her
audience, ‘When have I ever lied to you?’ thereby making it a trust issue and trying to increase
her own credibility. Or she will try to attack the trustworthiness of her opponents. Or try to gain
sympathy by hugging a child in front of an audience. This has little to do with rational
persuasion, but might be very effective nevertheless.
Under Pathos fall all other emotional appeals which try to make the audience feel something;
for instance, by appealing to fears, hopes, likes, dislikes or sense of humor. Aristotle tells us
to do this by using stories, examples and exaggeration.
Next to Aristotle, the most noteworthy classical scholar whose writings survived the ages was
the Roman lawyer, senator, governor and consul, Marcus Tullius Cicero. Cicero’s speeches
and treatises have been studied throughout the ages by students of history and
communication. The same speeches which gained him so much power in the Roman Republic
and allies like Octavian, who later became the first Emperor of Rome. They also gained him
dangerous enemies, like the General Marc Anthony. In the end, it was this enmity that caused
his decapitation during the Roman civil war His powers of communication had been such a
thorn in his enemies’ eyes that killing him wasn’t enough. When his head was displayed in
Rome, they stuck needles in his tongue to punish it for all the harm it had done.
You can pick up recent translations of Cicero’s books, like “De Inventione” (on the invention
stage of communication), “De Oratore”, (about the delivery), or the popular handbook
“Rhetorica ad Herennium” in most book shops today. And recognize that even though they
were written two millennia ago, most of the theories are still applicable today. An anecdote
about Cicero, for instance, tells us that he would sometimes purposely drop his papers while
walking to the speech area. His audience then would feel sympathy because that this
“accident” could also happen to them. He seemed more human, fallible and therefore likeable
to them.
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So rhetorical theory combined larger meta models on communication and communication
goals with ‘smaller’ practical tips on how to achieve these goals, how to seem right, or
believable, nice, intelligent et cetera. In short, there was a lively academic and widely practiced
communication science in the classical world. As years went by and the Roman Empire
collapsed into the dark Middle Ages, these ideas all but disappeared into the cellars of
monasteries and libraries of Eastern scholars, if they survived at all.
2.5 The Dark Ages of Communication Science
In the Middles Ages the importance of public speaking grew less. The political system was
completely different, of course, so citizens were basically left out of the political decision
making process. They couldn’t vote and held little political power, beyond the power to rebel.
But seeing that the ruling elite were practiced warriors who wielded deadly weaponry and
impressive armour, both extremely expensive, even this was usually not much of a choice.
Although Rhetorica was taught in Medieval universities to a small elite, it had by no means the
importance of classical times.
Not only was there little to no communication science in the Dark Ages, the communication
landscape had also changed drastically since Roman times.
Alfabecy numbers had dropped rapidly since the decline of Rome. Almost no one could read
or write with perhaps some exceptions among the ruler and religious elite. But even among
them, evidence suggests readership was not high and probably limited to those of very high
stations or devoted to academic life in a monastery. It makes sense that written media became
less and less widespread. Important mass communication channels were instead oral or
figurative in nature. Town criers, architecture, statues and (religious) art were still used to
reach a large audience. Coins were other examples of visual media that communicated
something, for instance, who was in charge at a certain time. The channels of choice were
well suited for communicating who was in power and how citizens should behave. As we know,
the Church played an important part in this and worked hand in hand with world leaders to get
this message through. Often there were agreements between rulers and clergymen that at the
start or end of the Sunday mass, news on taxes, wars and other things citizens should know,
were communicated to the assembled people. Since most people went to church, this was for
centuries a very effective way to get a message out amongst the people if the need arose.
Other media also focused on visual and oral communication: plays and theatre still existed but
theatres did not hold the audiences of thousand as they had in Classical times. Although
written media had almost disappeared as a means of mass communication, printed pamphlets
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with etchings or other figurative depictions were sometimes used. In these pamphlets, people
were informed through visual representation.
Some people might think: they printed pamphlets? Haven’t we learned that the printing press
was invented in the fifteenth century by Johannes Gutenberg? Well, actually the printing press
already existed long before this time. However, it was quite expensive to print something
because basically every page had to be carved out in wood, stone or metal. Because the
potential audience that was able to read (and pay!) was small, it was usually simply not worth
it. So what was Gutenberg’s innovation that made such a difference to the printing process?
It was actually the very cunning introduction of the cliché, a small letter that could be put in a
box to make words and sentences. When the printing was done, the box was emptied and
new words and pages could be formed. This innovation made it much quicker and cheaper to
print texts and is therefore rightly credited as a turning point in European history and a huge
catalyst for the Renaissance. Of course, this technical revolution would probably never have
had a huge impact if there hadn’t been an audience to read and buy books at the same time.
The formation of an audience was the result of several long and complicated historical trends
towards a higher literacy level and the rise of a group with buying power. Not coincidentally,
while the mass communication landscape started to flourish again due to the rise of print
media, scholars again started to discuss the topic of communication on a meta level. So
started the Renaissance, not only of art, science and literature, but also of our scientific
discipline.
2.6 A Renaissance of Our Field
Among other factors, it was the rediscovery of classical texts by Aristotle and Cicero that
started a renewed interest in philosophy, art and the natural and social sciences. Starting in
14th century Florence, the Renaissance quickly spread to the rest of Europe, paving the way
for the Early Modern era. This was to a large degree thanks to the new printing possibilities
that Gutenberg’s invention of the cliché made possible. Also, the role of Eastern scholars
should not be overlooked. In 265 A.D. the Roman Empire had been split into Western and
Eastern Empires. When the Western Roman Empire fell in the fifth century, its traditions and
sciences lived on in the Eastern Roman Empire of Byzantium. In the Dark Ages of Western
Europe, Byzantine scholars still kept extensive libraries of classical literature and continued
studying the science of Rhetorica (although its importance had declined since advancement
in the Empire was much less dependent on public speaking and more on connections and
status).
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Why is this relevant for the Renaissance and subsequent Early Modern times? Well, in the
fourteenth century, Byzantine power was crushed by the Ottoman Empire. The fall of its
capital, Constantinople, in 1453, led to a huge exodus of scholars and artists from the Empire
into Western Europe, feeding the growing intellectual Renaissance with their work, thoughts
and books.
At the same time there was in many countries a shift of power. For religion there was turmoil
in Europe because of new ideas that led to The Reformation and rise of several new religions.
Most successful was of course the Protestant Church. The Roman Catholic Church lost its
monopoly and now had to compete for the faith of the European people. Closely linked to this
was a more worldly power struggle. Democratic ideas from antiquity again gained wide
interest. The introduction of effective weapons like the crossbow, the longbow and the first fire
arms gave the relatively untrained citizenry military power to enforce their claims for more
political power. That any peasant could now kill a knight with a well-placed crossbow bolt was
a lesson that wasn’t learned quickly by the ruler elite. But after several successful uprisings
and military coups, the idea that it was more practical to win the favor of the masses, became
more grudgingly accepted among the continent’s religious and world rulers.
It’s not surprising then, that next to scientific thought, arts and literature, also the printing
industry boomed as this graph clearly shows. Gutenberg’s innovation can be dated in the
1430’s and at the end of the fifteenth century the printing industry had already spread through
Europe and produced more than twenty million copies. A century later this number increased
to 200 million. Another century later one billion books were produced. We’ll take a closer look
at this printing revolution and its importance for thought on communication in the next section
of our MOOC.
2.7 The Printing Press as an Agent of Change
In the previous section we discussed the printing revolution. Shortly after the innovations by
Gutenberg, millions and later billions of printed copies spread throughout Europe.
Not only books rolled off the presses. In particular, short books and leaflets, collectively named
pamphlets, were printed to entertain, persuade and inform readers. From the sixteenth
century, these pamphlets were in many ways the new mass medium, giving information and
opinion on current affairs, spreading news and commentary on that news throughout Europe.
It was through pamphlets that many religious and political debates were fought. It was
pamphlets that informed multitudes about great military victories or defeats, about the gossip
that surrounded the European royal houses. Pamphlets had many styles. They could be
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serious or very funny. They were written for the learned and those who could hardly read, and
everyone in between.
In sixteenth century Venice, the first newspaper was published, and quickly after this German,
Dutch and English newspapers also appeared. But these newspapers didn’t reach a mass
audience, as they remained for a long time a medium for the elite, with a small readership and
focus on foreign political news.
Pamphlets however discussed foremost domestic and even local news. Readership could be
quite high and there is considerable evidence that suggests that they were read aloud in
market places and in taverns for people who couldn’t read. Illustrations and attention-getting
covers further added to their popular appeal.
This graph shows that, in the Dutch Republic, every newsworthy event or crisis was
accompanied by hundreds of pamphlets. The first peaks are important moments in the EightyYears War (1568-1648) in which the Dutch won their independence from Spain.
Hundreds of pamphlets were published when the Republic was attacked by France, Münster
and Cologne at the same time in 1672. A hate pamphlet-campaign put the blame at the feet
of two leading politicians, which led to their deaths by a public lynching.i Historical evidence
suggests that political enemies of these politicians were behind the smear campaign that led
to their deaths.
Examples like these showed contemporary scholars the powers of mass communication. It
clearly paid off to heed public opinion and to be able to use mass media like the influential
pamphlet press. Scholars like Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) approached the topic of mass
communication from this political power angle, using elements from antiquity and combining
these with new ideas. This approach was the starting point of a truly modern communication
science. We’ll look at how that evolved in the next and final section of this week.
2.8 Towards a Modern Communication Science
We have strolled with huge steps through the history of communication science starting in the
sixth century BC, through Antiquity, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and into Early Modern
times. The nineteenth century is often seen as the starting point of modern times and
characterized by industrialization, the rise of nationalism, birth of political parties, birth of
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political and financial power is closely connected to this. The media were able to influence,
make people rich and form or break communities. Let’s briefly go over nineteenth century
thought on this.
First of all, we should recognize that despite the power and influence of mass media in former
times, all of this increased substantially in the nineteenth century. Because many more people
were able to read and write, the potential audience for print media grew enormously. At the
same time, new print technologies and methods for making papers made it easier and cheaper
to produce books, pamphlets, magazines and newspapers. It became more profitable to cater
to the tastes of a mass audience and therefore literature specifically designed for popular
tastes was booming. Special magazines for women, books for children, newspapers for
members of a political party, pamphlets aiming at villagers in one specific village: it was all
becoming part of daily reality. Most noticeable was the transition from pamphlets as the
primary print medium for news and debate to newspapers. Although they had existed for a
long time, it was only in the nineteenth century that newspapers started to cater to a popular
audience, hence becoming a true mass medium. The new newspaper followed the journalistic
format set out by press barons like William Stead, Joseph Pulitzer and Randolph Hearst in
which the news had to be interesting and attention gaining. New genres like the reportage,
cartoon, illustration and later the photo, the column, featured article and interview were quickly
adopted throughout the world. Financing of the paper also changed: the old newspaper was
often dependent on government subsidies, for which they promised to publish
announcements. The new newspaper wanted a large audience since they got their money
from sales and advertisements revenue. It was less dependent and therefore often critical of
the government and did its best to entertain, opinionate and inform on all matters, not only
political ones. Crime, agriculture, sports, theater, music, household appliances, they were now
all part of the weekly – and when the publication rate increased - daily news.
Because of these changes, more media, new audience groups and new technologies that
made printing easier and cheaper appeared and the media landscape became an economic
force to reckon with. Also politically the importance of mass communication increased and the
attitude of politicians changed.
In the previous section I explained that scholars started to argue for rulers to be more attentive
to public opinion and the power of mass communication. At first, the idea behind this was
purely pragmatic. Later, it was connected to the enlightened democratic ideal that
governments are for the people, and therefore should listen to the people. New political
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theories proposed that the government was in some sense representative of the people. Mass
media were not only a way to influence those people, but also a reflection of public opinion,
and a check on the misuse of power by the government.
It’s important to note that scholarly thought had now evolved to the point that all the different
channels of mass communication were now collectively labeled as being part of one political
institution. In the nineteenth century this institution began to be referred to as ‘The Fourth
Estate’, a term coined by Edmund Burke (1729 – 1797). Media as ‘The Fourth Estate’ are
instrumental for any nation, because they function firstly as a channel between government
and people, secondly as a barometer of public opinion, and thirdly as a check on the use of
power by rulers.
The lesson that was important to listen to your citizens was driven home quite dramatically by
the French Revolution in 1789 when the masses rose and executed King Louis XVI and many
nobles. We can only imagine the shock that went through Europe, as this set a dangerous
precedent. We’ll not go into the historical ramifications of the French Revolution. It’s enough
to note that the subsequent nineteenth century saw many concessions toward democratic
ideals in most European countries. The attitude toward mass communication changed as well.
The idea grew that media had a political power to be either feared or harnessed. Before the
nineteenth century, legislation in many countries had been aimed at controlling the media
landscape, punishing authors that criticized the government, banning pamphlets, books or
newspapers that were deemed politically or religiously subversive. However, these measures
proved unsuccessful as ‘forbidden fruit tastes the sweetest’ and authors were able to move
and get their work printed in other countries relatively easy. For example, the Dutch Republic
was a place where basically anything could be published, as long as you remained friendly
with the city’s government, of course.
In the nineteenth century most countries changed their stance towards media governance.
They actually adopted ‘The Fourth Estate’ principle in their legislation when they explicitly
promised freedom of the press in their constitutions. Journalists at the same time gained
higher status, receiving for instance special clearance to be at government meetings.
Politicians started to make more and more use of the powers of the Fourth Estate instead of
trying to suppress it. Political campaigns were now becoming media scripted events. Important
politicians also had close ties with newspapers, often as editor-in-chief or financial backer.
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At the end of the nineteenth century, the mass media were widely acknowledged as an
economically, politically and socially powerful institution. Scholarly thought recognized mass
communication as an integral part of our society. The stage was set for the further
development of scientific thought on communication in the twentieth century. We’ll talk about
that next week. I hope to see you then.
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