The Art of Conversation
or Improve Your Conversation Skills
The art of conversation, like any art, is a skill of
elegance, nuance and creative execution.
I happen to believe that there is an art to
everything we do and why not? Without flair and panache most things become
drudgery. Why settle for drudgery when you can have art?
When it comes to the art of conversation we've all met people who seem
to have the knack for it. They can talk to anybody about anything and they seem
to do it with complete ease. And while it's true that there are those who are
born with the gift of gab, luckily for the rest of us, conversation skills can
be developed and mastered.
In my article Good Communication Skills - Key to Any Success, I talk
about the importance of being a good communicator and I give tips on how to
convey ideas and information successfully. Many of the same tips hold true for
developing good conversational skills. Have a look at the article for added
tips which I won't be repeating here.
Conversation
is a form of communication; however, it is usually more spontaneous and less
formal. We enter conversations for purposes of pleasant engagement in order to
meet new people, to find out information and to enjoy social interactions. As
far as types of conversation, they vary anywhere from intellectual
conversations and information exchanges to friendly debate and witty banter.
While there is more to having good conversation skills than being a comedian, dramatic actor, or a great story teller, it is not necessary to become more
gregarious, animated, or outgoing. Instead, you can develop the ability to
listen attentively, ask fitting questions, and pay attention to the answers -
all qualities essential to the art of conversation. With diligent practice and
several good pointers, anyone can improve their conversation skills...
Communication is sharing information or providing entertainment by
speaking, writing, or other methods. Probably the most important type of
communication is personal communication, which happens when people make their thoughts and wishes known to one
another. People communicate in many ways, including by talking, by moving their
hands, and even by making faces. People also use telephone calls and letters
for personal communication. Without
personal communication, parents would not know what their children need.
Teachers could not help their students learn. Friends could not make plans with
one another. People could not share knowledge. Each person would have to learn
everything for himself or herself. In fact, human beings probably could not
survive for long.
How to avoid a boring conversation:
Tips to avoid talking to people and getting out of conversations. How to avoid a boring conversation? What excuses should you use to avoid talking to people you don't want to talk to? Whether you are in a party, boardroom meeting, school classrooms or your college campus, here are tips and non-offensive ways to get out of unwanted conversations…
Tips to avoid talking to people and getting out of conversations. How to avoid a boring conversation? What excuses should you use to avoid talking to people you don't want to talk to? Whether you are in a party, boardroom meeting, school classrooms or your college campus, here are tips and non-offensive ways to get out of unwanted conversations…
Definitions:
Art is a diverse range of human activities in creating visual, auditory or
performing artifacts (artworks), expressing the author's imaginative or technical skill, intended to be appreciated for
their beauty or emotional power. In their most general form these activities
include the production of works of art, the criticism of art, the study of the history
of art, and the
aesthetic dissemination of art…
Communication is (1) the imparting
or exchanging of information or news. "direct communication between the two countries will
produce greater understanding" (2) means of connection between
people or places, in particular.
It is also known as the act of conveying intended meanings
from one entity or group to another through the use of mutually understood
signs and semiotic rules. The basic steps of communication are the forming of
communicative intent, message composition, message encoding, transmission
of signal using a specific channel or medium, reception of signal, message
decoding and finally interpretation of the message by the recipient.
The study of communication can be divided into: (a) information theory which
studies the quantification, storage, and communication of information in
general; (b) communication studies which
concerns human communication; and (c) biosemiotics which examines the
communication of organisms in general. The channel of communication can be
visual, auditory, electromagnetic, or biochemical. Human communication is unique
for its extensive use of abstract language…
Animal communication is the transfer of information
from one or a group of animals (sender or senders) to one or more
other animals (receiver or receivers) which affects either the
current or future behavior of the receivers. The
transfer of information may be deliberate (e.g. a courtship display) or it may
be unintentional (e.g. a prey animal detecting the scent of a predator). When animal communication involves multiple receivers, this may
be referred to as an "audience". The study of animal communication is
a rapidly growing area of study and plays an important part in the disciplines
of animal behavior, sociobiology, neurobiology and animal cognition. Even in the 21st century, many prior understandings related
to diverse fields such as personal symbolic name use, animal emotions, learning
and animal sexual behavior, long thought to be
well understood, have been revolutionized…
How to Start a Conversation
Conversation Do's and Don'ts
Improve Your Social Skills
Simple Way to Improve Your Social Skills
From Introvert to Extrovert
The Boardroom
Boardroom Insights
Chairing a Meeting
The Board Meeting
Meeting - Minute Taking Practice
A Business Meeting
Useful Phrases for Business Meeting
Real English Phrases (Beginner, Intermediate and Advance)
Real English Phrases for Communication
The Dinner Party Analogy
Dinner Party Tables Etiquette
How To Party 1950s
Tips for Dinner Conversation
Business Dinner Etiquette
The Leaders
Selected Videos
Tun Mahathir Mohamad - Oct 4, 2018: Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad discusses his
return to political power, Malaysia’s continued development, and its foreign
policy within Southeast Asia and with the United States...
Sport Players
Selected Videos
Female Golfer (Charley Hull) – Jul 10, 2015. Anna
Whiteley sits down with rising European star Charley Hull, and looks back on
her starring role at the 2013 Solheim Cup and ahead to her big future...
How to Start a Conversation
Conversation Do's and Don'ts
Improve Your Social Skills
Simple Way to Improve Your Social Skills
From Introvert to Extrovert
The Boardroom
Boardroom Insights
Chairing a Meeting
The Board Meeting
Meeting - Minute Taking Practice
A Business Meeting
Useful Phrases for Business Meeting
Real English Phrases (Beginner, Intermediate and Advance)
Real English Phrases for Communication
The Dinner Party Analogy
Dinner Party Tables Etiquette
How To Party 1950s
Tips for Dinner Conversation
Business Dinner Etiquette
The Leaders
Selected Videos
Harriet Harman – May 17, 2017. In conversation with Harriet Harman. She talk about
politics, what a good government should do, how to become a good ministers...
Theresa May – Sept 19, 2011. She
discusses UK counterterrorism policy, as well as
security cooperation with the United States and other international actors...
Former President Obama (44th President of America) - Mar 11. 2016. Barack Obama sits down
with Evan Smith, CEO / Editor in Chief of The Texas Tribune, for a conversation
about civic engagement in the 21st Century before an audience of creators,..
Former U.S. Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) –
April 17, 2018. She will share her insights on the national security issues
America faces concerning North Korea, Iran, and Russia, as well as the
competition with China, and shifting dynamics in the Middle East....
Hillary Clinton - Oct 4, 2018: What She really thinks. Hillary Clinton’s theory of politics is
unfashionable, but she doesn’t care...Sport Players
Selected Videos
Female Golfer (Suzann Pettersen) – Mar 20, 2013. She is
one of the most well-known faces on the LPGA. Channel NewsAsia's Lance
Alexander meets up with Suzann Pettersen to catch up on her career...
Another important type of communication happens
when messages are sent to a large audience. That type of communication is
called mass communication. Books are one of the oldest methods of mass
communication.
Television is one of the newest.
Newspapers and radio are other ways that information can be sent to many people.
Just as human beings probably could not survive without personal communication,
modern countries probably could not exist without mass communication. News of
election results, earthquakes, or other important events can spread to huge
numbers of people in minutes through mass communication.
This article deals with human
communication. For information on animal communication, see Animal: Bodies
(Communication).
The importance of communication
Communication is all around us. Most large
cities have at least one daily newspaper. We often see the letter carriers
that deliver mail. The air around us contains invisible television signals that
can be picked up and changed into sounds and pictures by a TV set. We use
communication in many ways at home, at school, in business and industry, and in
world affairs.
At home, we use many types of personal and mass communication.
A clock radio may wake us up in the morning, tell us the time and what weather
to expect, and report the days news. A telephone allows us to talk privately to
persons nearby or far away. A note from someone in the family may say that a
friend has called or remind us of an appointment.
A newspaper provides many kinds of
communication. Some articles, such as news stories and recipes, furnish
information. Other features, such as comic strips and humorous articles, are
mostly for fun.
Many millions of people watch television for
amusement during their free time. But television provides viewers with more
than just entertainment. Most people get a large proportion of their news from
TV news broadcasts. TV commercials also provide information on products and
services.
At school, teachers use a variety of communication methods to
help their students learn. Often, they lecture to an entire class or guide a
group discussion. At other times, teachers help students individually.
Textbooks are probably the type of mass
communication used most often in school. Teachers also use many other
communication devices, including slides, posters, sound and video recordings,
and films. Educational films give students many experiences they could never
have in real life. Actors and actresses re-create important events in history,
such as the French Revolution or Christopher Columbus' landing in America.
Films take students to distant worlds, such as the bottom of the ocean or the
South Pole. Animated cartoons show processes that students could not otherwise
see, such as the working of a car engine or how the human body fights germs.
Many classrooms have TV sets that receive
specially prepared lessons by way of closed-circuit television. Such television is sent by wires to a limited number
of viewers and not broadcast over the air. Teachers also encourage their
students to watch TV broadcasts of important events, such as the launching of
a spacecraft or a message from the head of government.
In business and industry. Nearly
every large business has workers throughout the country, such as employees at
branch offices and salespeople calling on customers. For this reason,
businesses need fast, dependable communication. Much business communication
takes place by telephone or by devices called teleprinters and facsimile machines,
which send and receive written messages over wires. Using such communication,
a chain of stores can change the price of an item in all its stores in a few
minutes. Before the days of speedy communication, it would have taken weeks to
inform every store.
Many businesses have a communication
network consisting of two or more computers linked by private telephone lines.
The computers exchange vast quantity of data at high speed. The machines then
translate the information into written form by means of high-speed printers, or
screens called visual display
terminals (VDTs) containing cathode-ray tubes (CRTs).
Most large corporations also print their
own magazines or newspapers for their employees. These publications are
called house organs. They provide information about the company's plans,
new products, and other matters. A large business may also communicate with its
employees by closed-circuit television and may produce its own training films
and videotape recordings.
In world affairs. In the days before modern fast communication, news travelled slowly between nations. The long time needed to receive messages sometimes caused problems. For example, the War of 1812 (between Britain and the United States) might never have happened if there had been telegraphs or telephones then. The war began partly because Great Britain interfered with U.S. shipping. The United States declared war on Britain on June 18, 1812. Two days before the declaration, Britain had announced it would stop interfering with U.S. shipping. But the news had to cross the Atlantic Ocean by ship and did not reach the United States until the fighting had begun. Faster communication also would have prevented the chief battle of the war. Soldiers fought the battle at New Orleans in January 1815, 15 days after a peace treaty had been signed in Europe.
In world affairs. In the days before modern fast communication, news travelled slowly between nations. The long time needed to receive messages sometimes caused problems. For example, the War of 1812 (between Britain and the United States) might never have happened if there had been telegraphs or telephones then. The war began partly because Great Britain interfered with U.S. shipping. The United States declared war on Britain on June 18, 1812. Two days before the declaration, Britain had announced it would stop interfering with U.S. shipping. But the news had to cross the Atlantic Ocean by ship and did not reach the United States until the fighting had begun. Faster communication also would have prevented the chief battle of the war. Soldiers fought the battle at New Orleans in January 1815, 15 days after a peace treaty had been signed in Europe.
About 315 people were killed and about
1,290 were wounded in that battle.
Even speedy communication can bring bad
results if messages are not carefully expressed. In 1945, near the end of World
War II, the United States and its allies sent radio messages to Japan warning
that the Japanese faced “prompt and utter destruction" if they did not surrender.
Japanese officials intended to answer that they would withhold comment until
they had more time to think about the message. Instead, they replied with a world
that meant they would ignore the warning. If a different reply had been chosen, the United States might
not have dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
About 132,000 men, women, and children were dead or missing after the blasts, which
some people believe happened partly because of this failure of communication.
People often say that communication has
made the world grow smaller. The world seemed huge when messages from Europe
reached North America only after an ocean voyage of many weeks. Now, radio can transmit
a human voice around the world in a fraction of a second. Almost as quickly, a
person can telephone another person in nearly any country. Communications satellites
have made worldwide TV broadcasting possible.
Viewers at home can watch events on
another continent, such as a Nobel Prize ceremony or the signing of a treaty.
The development of communication
Prehistoric times. Early people probably communicated with one another by sounds and
gestures long before they developed actual words. No one knows how human speech
began, but experts who study language and prehistoric ways of life have made a
number of guesses. Many of these scholars think language began as an imitation
of sounds in nature, such as the barking of certain animals and the howling of
wind.
After language developed, people exchanged
news chiefly by word of mouth. Runners carried spoken messages over long
distances. People also used drumbeats, fires, and smoke signals to communicate
with other people who understood the codes they used.
Paintings and drawings were the first
steps toward a written language. Prehistoric artists began to use a series of
pictures to tell a story, such as the history of a good hunting trip or a
violent storm. Gradually, people developed a system of small pictures that
stood for most common objects and ideas. Such a system is known as pictographic writing. Middle Eastern people called Sumerians developed the first pictographic
writing about 3500 B.C.
Pictographic writing worked well for
familiar things, but people had difficulty writing new or unusual words.
Gradually, they learned to make each symbol represent a sound instead of an
object or idea. As a result, they could write any word in the spoken language.
Writing ranked second only to speech among
the most important early inventions in communication. It enabled people to
exchange messages over long distances without depending on a messenger's memory.
Information also could be kept for later use. With the invention of writing,
prehistoric times ended and the period of written history began.
During ancient times, the chief means of long distance communication was writing. Businesses
and wealthy individuals hired professional messengers, who carried letters on
foot, on horseback, or by ship. Military leaders also used homing pigeons to
carry messages.
About 500 B.C., the ancient Greeks
developed a fast method of sending messages from city to city. The system was
based on a series of brick walls. The walls were close enough together so that
each could be seen from the one next to it. Indentations along the top of each
wall represented the letters of the alphabet. To send a message, a person lit
fires in the appropriate places on the wall. A watcher on the next wall saw the
fires and relayed the message. This system of communication is called a visual telegraph.
The ancient Romans got news from a
handwritten sheet called Acta Diurna (Daily Events). A few
copies of the paper were made each day and posted in public.
During the Middle Ages, which began about A.D. 400 and lasted about a thousand years,
Christianity had an important influence on communication. Few people could read
and write, and most of those who could were church leaders. As a result, most
books and other written communication involved religious themes.
Artists called scribes, most of
whom were monks, copied books by hand, letter by letter. No two books were exactly
alike. The scribes decorated their work with pictures and designs in gold,
silver, and colours.
Because scribes often toiled for months to
produce a single volume, the number of books they produced was small. But the
output was sufficient for the small number of people who could read. Many
scribes themselves could not even read the books they copied.
Most news during the Middle Ages spread by word of mouth. Town criers walked the streets announcing births, deaths, and other events of public interest. Entertainers, peddlers, and other people who travelled from place to place also carried messages and news.
Most news during the Middle Ages spread by word of mouth. Town criers walked the streets announcing births, deaths, and other events of public interest. Entertainers, peddlers, and other people who travelled from place to place also carried messages and news.
the wall. A watcher on the next wall saw
the fires and relayed the message. This system of communication is called a visual telegraph.
The ancient Romans got news from a
handwritten sheet called Acta Diurna (Daily Events). A few
copies of the paper were made each day and posted in public.
During the Middle Ages, which began about A.D. 400 and lasted about a thousand years,
Christianity had an important influence on communication. Few people could read
and write, and most of those who could were church leaders. As a result, most
books and other written communication involved religious themes.
Artists called scribes, most of
whom were monks, copied books by hand, letter by letter. No two books were
exactly alike. The scribes decorated their work with pictures and designs in
gold, silver, and colours.
Because scribes often toiled for months to
produce a single volume, the number of books they produced was small. But the
output was sufficient for the small number of people who could read. Many
scribes themselves could not even read the books they copied.
Most news during the Middle Ages spread by
word of mouth. Town criers walked the streets announcing births, deaths, and
other events of public interest. Entertainers, peddlers, and other people who
travelled from place to place also carried messages and news.
The start of printing in the Western world came during the Renaissance, a period of great intellectual activity that spread throughout Europe from the 1300's to the 1600's. The intellectual awakening of the Renaissance created a demand for books that hand coping could not satisfy. The problem was solved by intervention of printing, which had been known for centuries in Asia but was not discovered in Europe until the 1400’s. The first European printers did not make books. Instead, they made playing cards, which were in great demand. An artist carved a raised image of a card on a block of wood. Then a printer inked the raise image and pressed a blank card against it. The picture was transferred to the card. Printers soon used this method, called block printing, to make books as well as cards. But it took a long time to carve every word on block. The invention of movable type made printing much faster because the same carved letters could be used over and over again. After printing a page, the printer could separate the pieces of type and rearrange them. Printing with movable type had existed in Asia since the 1000’s, but the invention did not spread to Europe at that time. Most historians consider Johannes Gutenberg, a German metalsmith, to be the inventor of movable type in Europe. In the mid-1400's, Gutenberg brought together several inventions to create a whole new system of printing. He made separate pieces of metal type, both capitals and small letters, for each letter of the alphabet. He lined up the pieces of type in a frame to form pages. Gutenberg created his own ink from paint, dye, and other substances. Finally, he rebuilt a wine press to make the first printing press in Europe. Gutenberg had found it hard to produce evenly printed copies by hand, but the new printing press made it possible to put uniform pressure on the paper.
The start of printing in the Western world came during the Renaissance, a period of great intellectual activity that spread throughout Europe from the 1300's to the 1600's. The intellectual awakening of the Renaissance created a demand for books that hand coping could not satisfy. The problem was solved by intervention of printing, which had been known for centuries in Asia but was not discovered in Europe until the 1400’s. The first European printers did not make books. Instead, they made playing cards, which were in great demand. An artist carved a raised image of a card on a block of wood. Then a printer inked the raise image and pressed a blank card against it. The picture was transferred to the card. Printers soon used this method, called block printing, to make books as well as cards. But it took a long time to carve every word on block. The invention of movable type made printing much faster because the same carved letters could be used over and over again. After printing a page, the printer could separate the pieces of type and rearrange them. Printing with movable type had existed in Asia since the 1000’s, but the invention did not spread to Europe at that time. Most historians consider Johannes Gutenberg, a German metalsmith, to be the inventor of movable type in Europe. In the mid-1400's, Gutenberg brought together several inventions to create a whole new system of printing. He made separate pieces of metal type, both capitals and small letters, for each letter of the alphabet. He lined up the pieces of type in a frame to form pages. Gutenberg created his own ink from paint, dye, and other substances. Finally, he rebuilt a wine press to make the first printing press in Europe. Gutenberg had found it hard to produce evenly printed copies by hand, but the new printing press made it possible to put uniform pressure on the paper.
Printing
quickly became the most important means of communication, and the art of hand
copying died out. However, many people
feared that the new art of printing was black magic that came from the Devil.
They did not understand how books could be produced so quickly, or how all
copies could look exactly alike. To soothe people's fears, early printers
concentrated on producing Bibles and religious books rather than scientific
works or other writings.
The
large numbers of printed Bibles made it possible for many people to read the
Scriptures for themselves. As a result, some people began to question certain
practices of the Roman Catholic Church. In this way, printing helped give birth
to the Protestant Reformation of the 1500’s. This movement began as an effort
to reform the Catholic Church and ended with the establishment of Protestant churches.
The 1600's
and 1700's. By the 1600's, the art of printing was used in business.
Printed newssheets called corantos, which
were somewhat like newspapers, appeared in the Netherlands, England, and other trading
nations. The corantos reported mostly business news, such as which ships had
landed and what goods they carried. The newssheets also printed advertising.
The coratos soon added nonbusiness news and became the first true newspapers.
The
spread of printing continued in the 1700's. Books, magazines, and newspapers
made information available to more and more readers. People also exchanged news
by letter, and many nations established postal systems. Before the 1700's, most
letters were delivered by ship captains or other travellers.
Most
communication, however, was no faster in the 1700's than it had been in ancient
times. News travelled only as fast as people did, on foot, on horseback, or by
ship. Then, in the late 1700s, a French engineer named Claude Chappe developed
a means of rapid longdistance communication. Chappe devised a visual telegraph
similar to that of the ancient Greeks. It consisted of a series of towers
between Paris and other European cities. An operator in each tower moved a
crossbar and two large, jointed arms on the roof to spell out messages. An
observer on the next tower read the messages by telescope and spelled them out
in the same way, and so the messages were passed on.
In the early 1800's, many new inventions revolutionized communication. An important advance
in printing came in 1811, when a German printer named Friedrich Koenig used a
steam engine to power a press. Printers still had to set type by hand, but the
actual printing went hundreds of times faster. The Times of
London first used Koenig's press in 1814. The invention allowed The
Times and other newspapers to print large numbers of copies cheaply,
making mass circulation of newspapers possible.
The
invention of steamships and locomotives increased the speed at which people
and news could travel. But rapid communication did not begin until the
invention of the electric telegraph, which sent messages over wires in seconds.
Inventors in Denmark, Germany, Great Britain, and other countries built various
telegraphs during the early 1800's. But the devices all had two weaknesses.
They lacked a constant source of electricity, and they were difficult to use.
During
the 1830's, the American painter and inventor Samuel F. B. Morse began work on
an electric telegraph. After years of experimenting, Morse and his partner, Alfred
Vail, developed a simple telegraph that had a stable current produced by
batteries and electromagnets. The device sent messages in a code of dots and
dashes known as Morse code. Morse patented his invention in
1840. For the first time, news travelled with the speed of electricity.
Newspapers began to use the Morse telegraph almost at once. By the 1860s,
telegraph lines linked most cities. The telegraph became the chief means of
long-distance communication.
The
telegraph could send messages only where wires were strung. In 1858, an
underwater telegraph cable was laid across the Atlantic Ocean. But the cable
failed after a few weeks. The first successful transatlantic cable was laid in
1866, largely due to the efforts of Cyrus W. Field, an American millionaire,
and Lord Kelvin, a British physicist. This underwater cable made it possible to
send a message across the Atlantic in minutes.
Communication
was further aided by the invention of photography. Many American, British, and
French scientists contributed to its development, and no one person can be
called the inventor of photography. In 1826, a French physicist named Joseph
Nicephore Niepce made the first
permanent photograph. Niepce's technique, which he called heliography, involved
exposing a metal plate to light for about eight hours. As a result, he could (only
photograph such immovable objects as houses. No image would be formed by a
moving object.
The
French painter Louis J. M. Daguerre worked as Niepce's partner for several years.
In the 1830s, Daguerre developed an improved type of photograph called a daguerreotype. A
daguerreotype took only a few minutes to be exposed. About the
same time, the British inventor William Henry Fox Talbot invented a method of
photography that used a paper negative instead of a metal plate. Fox Talbot's
invention, which he I called a talbotype or calotype, was
not widely used because it produced less clear pictures than a daguerreo type.
But the idea of using a flexible negative became the key to modern photography.
With other methods, the photographer used glass or metal plates that had to be
changed after each exposure. With Fox Talbot's method, the film could be moved
through the camera and used to take a series of pictures.
In the late 1800's, a large number of inventions improved communication. These included the
typewriter telephone, phonograph, and motion picture. In 1868, Carlos Clidden,
Christopher Latham Sholes, and Samuel W. Soule, three American partners,
patented the first al typewriter. E. Remington and Sons, the manufacturer of
the famous Remington rifle, began to produce
the typewriter in the mid-1870's.
Alexander
Graham Bell, a Scottish-born teacher of the deaf, patented a kind of telephone
in 1876. Bell's device made it possible to transmit the human voice over wires.
Elisha Gray, an American inventor, patented a similar machine about the same
time. But the first telephone , which was built in New England in 1878, used
Bell’s design.
By 1890, the Bell telephone system was widely used in the United States and Europe.
In 1877,
the American inventor Thomas A. Edison invented the first practical phonograph.
It recorded sound on a cylinder covered with foil. About 10 years later, Emile Berliner,
a German immigrant to the United States, invented a phonograph that used discs
instead of cylinders. By the early 1900s, Berliner's disc phonograph, had
replaced Edison's model.
Until the
1880's, printers set type entirely by hand, just as Gutenberg had done. Then in
1884, Ottmar Mergenthaler, a German mechanic in the United States, patented the
Linotype machine. The Linotype used a keyboard to set type mechanically,
eliminating the need for hand setting. The invention speeded up the production
of newspapers and other publications.
In 1887,
an American clergyman named Hannibal W. Goodwin developed a Celluloid film that was
tough but flexible. George Eastman, a manufacturer of photographic equipment,
introduced the film in 1889. Using Eastman film, Edison and other inventors
succeeded in making and projecting motion pictures during the 1890s. Edison
probably bought his design for a film projector from the American inventors
Thomas Armat and Charles Francis Jenkins.
The beginning of the electronic age, near the end of the 1800s, revolutionized
communication once again. At that time, the only means of quick long-distance
communication were the telegraph and the telephone, both of which could send
messages only along wires. During the electronic age, inventors used a branch
of science and engineering called electronics to send signals through space.
The electronic age made possible the invention of radio, television, and other
wonders of modern communication.
Electronic
communication developed from the ideas and experiments of several scientists.
In 1864, the British physicist James Clerk Maxwell theorized that electromagnetic
waves travelled through space at the speed of light. In the late 1880's, the
German physicist Heinrich Hertz performed experiments that proved the existence
of these waves. Hertz could not see any practical application for his
research. But in 1895, an Italian inventor named Guglielmo Marconi combined the
ideas of Maxwell, Hertz, and others to send signals through space. Marconi
called his device the wireless telegraph. We call it radio.
At
first, only Morse code signals were sent by Marconi's device. In 1906,
Reginald A. Fessenden, a Canadian- born physicist, attached a telephone
mouthpiece to a wireless telegraph and became one of the first persons to
transmit speech. On Christmas Eve in 1906, several radio operators picked up
Fessenden's first broadcast. They were shocked to hear Christmas music and a
Bible reading instead of the dit-dah-dit of Morse code.
During
the early 1900's, Lee De Forest of the United States and certain other
electrical engineers developed various devices called vacuum tubes, which
could detect and amplify radio signals. Vacuum tubes made possible the
development of radio as we know it.
Experimental
radio stations, many of which were connected with engineering schools or
universities, appeared as early as 1908.
Radio
stations soon sprang up in many countries. In 1922, station WEAF in New York
City accepted a fee to allow a company selling apartments to advertise on the
air. The United States developed a system of commercial radio—and later
television—in which most programmes are paid for by advertisers. In most other
countries, radio and TV networks get much of their funds from the government.
The development of modern communication. Television, like many other inventions, originated from the research and thinking of many people. Attempts to send pictures through space date back to the 180ffs. A working system was developed in 1926, when John Logie Baird, a Scottish engineer, demonstrated the possibility of television transmission. In 1936, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) transmitted the world’s first open-circuit TV broadcasts. The Radio Corporation of America (now RCA Corporation) began regular telecasts in 1939. RCA used an improved TV camera and electronic picture tube perfected by Vladimir K. Zworykin, a Russian-born American physicist.
The development of modern communication. Television, like many other inventions, originated from the research and thinking of many people. Attempts to send pictures through space date back to the 180ffs. A working system was developed in 1926, when John Logie Baird, a Scottish engineer, demonstrated the possibility of television transmission. In 1936, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) transmitted the world’s first open-circuit TV broadcasts. The Radio Corporation of America (now RCA Corporation) began regular telecasts in 1939. RCA used an improved TV camera and electronic picture tube perfected by Vladimir K. Zworykin, a Russian-born American physicist.
Television
programmes were suspended in the early 1940’s, during World War II. But
broadcasting resumed after the war. By the early 1950's, TV stations had sprung
up in the United States and Europe.
In the
late 1800's, a Danish engineer named Valdemar Poulsen had invented a machine
that recorded sounds on steel wire. But Poulsen's invention gained little attention.
During the 1930's, German engineers developed recorders that recorded sounds on
magnetic tape. Unlike a phonograph recording, a tape recording could be played
back immediately after being made.
Videotape
recorders, developed during the 1950's, recorded pictures as well as sound on
magnetic tape. At first, only TV stations used videotape recorders. But cassette
videotape recorders, developed during the 1970's, made such recording cheap
enough for home use. By plugging the cassette videotape recorder into their TV
sets, people could automatically record programmes for later viewing. In the
early 1980's, several companies introduce videodiscs. The pictures
and sounds prerecorded on the videodiscs are transmitted by a special player to
an attached TV set.
Artificial
earth satellites called communications satellites first relayed
messages between ground stations in 1960. Before that time, TV signals could
only be sent by cable or where there were relay towers to reinforce the signal.
Satellites made it possible to relay TV
signals across oceans. The satellites could also transmit radio, telephone and
other communication.
During
the 1970’s, many newspapers and other publications began to use computerized
editing and typesetting systems. Instead of using typewriters, writers and
editors type articles on keyboards linked with a computer. As they type, the
words are simultaneously stored in the computer and displayed on a VDT. In
turn, the computer is connected to a device called a photocomposition
machine. At the touch of a button, the machine sets the article in
type on photographic film.
in the
early 1980s, several companies began marketing cellular mobile
telephones. In a cellular telephone system, a city is divided into
districts called cells, each of which has a low-powered radio
transmitter and receiver. As a phone-equipped car travels from cell to cell, a
computer transfers a call from one transmitter and receiver to another without
interrupting the conversation.
By the
late 1980s, many businesses had begun to use a process called facsimile, or fax, to
speed communication. A fax machine sends and receives copies of documents
over telephone lines. It can reproduce both text and pictures.
Communication of the future probably will involve many forms of
light-wave energy and lasers, devices that produce a narrow
beam of intense light. Even today, a branch of physics called fibre
optics has made it possible to use light to send more messages faster
than could be done with electricity or radio waves. With fibre-optic
communication, a laser beam transforms the electric signals of a telephone call
or TV picture into light impulse. The laser is aimed into one end of a thin,
transparent glass strand called an optical fibre. The light
can travel great distances through the fibre without losing strength or
clarity. At the receiving end, a device changes the laser light back into the
original sounds and pictures. A bundle of optical fibres, each about the
thickness of a human hair, can transmit thousands of telephone calls or TV
programmes at the same time.
Lasers
are also used in a method of three-dimensional photography called holography. A
device called a beam splitter divides laser light into two beams,
one of which is aimed at the object to be photographed. Then, mirrors bring
the beams of light back together again.
Where
the two beams come together, they form a three- dimensional pattern that
corresponds to the shape of the object. Holography eventually may be used to
produce films, photographs, and TV programmes consisting of three-dimensional
images that float in space. Viewers will be able to walk around the holographic
images as if they were real scenes, seeing new angles as they move.
The study of communication
The
study of communication is not a single branch of education. Instead, it
involves many fields of study. The scholars who explore communication include
educators, historians, linguists, mathematicians, neurologists, psychologists,
and sociologists. Most of these scholars study only a few aspects of
communication.
Others
devote themselves to an overall study of the field. For example, the Canadian
educator Marshall McLuhan has become known for his studies of mass communication
- McLuhan explored the effects of mass media on society in several books,
including The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962) and Understanding
Media (1964).
The
major areas of communication study include (1) sociology and psychology, (2)
linguistics, (3) cybernetics and information theory, and (4) the study of
nonverbal communication.
Sociology and psychology produced the first academic studies of mass
communication during the 1930’s. Two American sociologists, Paul F. Lazarsfeld
and Fr Stanton, studied the audiences of various radio programmes. Their work
encouraged other U.S. researchers, including social psychologist Hadley
Cantril and sociologist Robert K. Merton, to investigate the effects of radio
and TV broadcasting on the public.
During
World War II, the warring nations conducted widespread propaganda
operations. As a result, many scholars began to study propaganda and public
opinion. Carl I. Hovland, an American psychologist, investigated how persuasive
communication causes people to modify their beliefs. After the war ended in
1945, many scholars studied the effects of mass communication on individuals and
society.
Linguistics is the scientific study of language. One of the most important developments
in linguistics was the introduction of transformational grammar during
the 1950’s by the American linguist Noam Chomsky. Transformational grammar
consists of rules that determine all the sentences that can possibly be formed
in any language. Chomsky found that the languages of the world are similar in more
ways than they are different and that certain principles are true of all
languages. These discoveries led him to believe that everyone has the potential
for the general rules of language at birth. Another important field of
linguistics is semantics, which the meanings of words and the communication
problems created by language. Scholars who contributed the growth of semantics include Alfred Korzybski,
a Polish-American scientist and S. I. Hayakawa, an American educator.
Cybernetics and information theory. A science called cybertics is
the study of how information is transmitted by the nervous systems of
living things and by the control mechanisms of machines. An important part of
cybernetics is the study of feedback, the process by which
devices and organisms regulate themselves. Cybernetics was developed by the
American mathematician, Norbert Wiener, whose book Cybernetics was
published in 1948.
A
related science called information theory was developed about
the same time by two other American s, Claude E. Shannon and Warren Weaver.
Information theory deals with the mathematical laws that govern communication,
especially the factors that interfere the transmission of a message. Cybernetics
and information theory have played important roles in the development of
computer science.
The study of nonverbal communication is probably the oldest area of investigation
into human communication. It dates from at least the 1800's, when teachers of
acting and pantomime analysed how facial and body movements could be used to
convey emotion.
The modern study of nonverbal communication, sometimes called body language, includes two sciences called kinesicsand proxemics. Kinesics is the study of body and facial movements as an accompaniment to speech. Kinesics was developed by an American anthropologist named Ray Birdwhistell. Birdwhistell used slow-motion films of speakers to analyse their gestures and expressions.
The modern study of nonverbal communication, sometimes called body language, includes two sciences called kinesicsand proxemics. Kinesics is the study of body and facial movements as an accompaniment to speech. Kinesics was developed by an American anthropologist named Ray Birdwhistell. Birdwhistell used slow-motion films of speakers to analyse their gestures and expressions.
The
science of proxemics was developed by the American anthropologist Edward Hall.
Hall studied how people in different cultures use gestures, posture, speaking
distance, and other nonverbal signals to communicate their feelings and social
status. People would feel uncomfortable putting most of such information into
words. But proxemics allows people to send and receive messages without the
use of words.
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