Communication - Reaching a Wider Audience

With the invention of written languages there was an opportunity to share ideas with a greater number of people, and for the written ideas to achieve a type of immortality. As we read in the Written Languages section, possibly the earliest form of writing was the Sumerian cuneiform, followed by the Egyptian hieroglyphics. The creation of this form of communication was a time-consuming and laborious task - not very mobile or easily reproduced. The invention of papyrus was a very important event in the history of written communication. In this lighter, more transportable form, the written word was able to cover much more territory.

For centuries the creation of books was the work of scribes - each character drawn with precision and skill. Having the title of scribe was an honorable position for one to hold in Egyptian culture. Future scribes were the only people in ancient Egypt who received a formal education.

Although the written word was accessible to a wider audience it really wasn't until the development of the printing press that any thing remotely resembling mass communication was possible.

According to Wikipedia, the oldest known surviving printed document is a Buddhist scripture which dates to 751 CE. The earliest known printed book was the Diamond Sutra. A central text of Indian Buddhism, the work was first translated from Sanskrit into Chinese in about 400 AD, and block-printed in China in 868 AD. Later, during the Ch'ing-li period (1041-1048) the printing technique was further advanced by Pi Sheng through the invention of the first clay movable type. The movable type metal printing press was invented in Korea in 1234 during Koryo Dynasty. Many Chinese libraries contained tens of thousands of books by the 12th and 13th centuries.

About 200 years later, about 1436, the printing press with wooden or metal moveable type was invented in Europe. Although credit is usually given to Johannes Gutenberg of Germany it is very probable that printing technology was being developed simultaneously in Holland and in Prague.

The printing press helped to revolutionize the world of communication by providing a means by which messages could reach audiences far and wide. The invention of the printing press is often credited with ushering in the age of the Renaisance. •

(source about scribes: The Life of Ancient Egyptians, http://www.touregypt.net)
(source about acient texts: Diamond Sutra, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond_sutra)
(source about printing: Printing press, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printing_press)