International Communication: A Critical Reflection of the Major Turning Points in History

Abstract

International communication was in existence since ancient days. During historical time empires, the emperors used different forms of communicating to their subject people or regions such as runners, written scripts, horn-link or drum-link (horn blowers or drummers positioned in hilly places across a region) and other forms. This paper therefore seeks to trace the historical development of international communication by critically analysing the exsiting literature. With development of technology, communication has changed certainly from the early –twentieth century days of one-way, one directional and undifferentiated flow to an undifferentiated mass. There is rise of a new communication society characterized by complex interactive network of communication.Currently we have countless forms of communication. World intelligence issues, state to state diplomacy, agreements and secret issues, world business, the need for both cultural and social exchange both at national and individual levels, social interaction, education exchange and others have been eased by the present day technological advancements such as; modern cinema, emailing, satellite broadcasting, internet information exchange, cable networks and other cross-generic or hybrid cyber-pinking. This paper foregrounds the argument that international communication is important to note that they are specific to the type of communication or media systems. Depending with ideologies and regional or continental sources, different media systems have different characteristics. For instance, western communication systems are different from Middle East or third world communication systems.

Keywords: International communication, Telegraph, Radio, internet