The History of Communication

Definitional

Chapter 1 and 2 in "Boxing Plato's Shadow" by Dues and Brown thoroughly depicts the history of communication spanning from 400 BC all the way through the 1900s. It all begins with the in Athens, Greece where the citizens wanted to develop an adversary system and begin to introduce democracy into government. Communication begins to be studied because the citizens needed to enhance their communication skills in order to be able to knowledgeable discuss the issues at hand with others. The sophists emerged as the first teachers of communication, known as rhetoric at the time, where they taught how to effectively communicate, persuade and know the attitude of the audience (Dues & Brown 3). After the original sophists had emerged, many other scholars of rhetoric became well known for their teachings. Gorgias began studying public speaking and its effects on the audience and Hippias studied how speakers needed to be knowledgeable about their topic in order to defend it. Probably one of the most prominent figures of the time would be Socrates because he was able to pull together all of the ideas of Sophists and question every aspect of their study (Dues & Brown 3). His pupil was Plato who believed rhetoric was absolutely essential and that the truth itself resided within the individual. Up to this point in history the study of communication had only evolved from scholars individual studies, there was so organized method to the study until Aristotle theorized that communication must have a purpose and delivered certain skills that will make your message effective. Later in the 300s BC Alexander the Great saw the teachings of Sophists as a worthy accomplishment and had preserved all of their materials in a library in his city (Dues & Brown 10). The library was captured by the crusaders because it was always seen as an area of considerable knowledge that would later benefit Europe. As communication was studied in England and the New World, persuasion and non verbal communication were more deeply studied to teach the lower class citizens to present and advocate for themselves. As the study of communication had evolved throughout time and throughout various cultures, it was altered and added upon by each scholar that studied it.

Application

As the study of communication progressed throughout history it was added upon to further improve its depth and understand for others to follow. I chose to represent this by using a diagram of the snowball effect because in the past as each scholar made improvements on the study it was then noticed and reacted upon by either the general population or other scholars. After their theories and studies were recorded and published they would be used by people to learn about this newly found topic. For example Aristotle was the first to systematically study communication, because this put things in order and gave some organization to the subject, many works that were published and held in Alexander the Great's library that would eventually be translated into Latin for the benefit of Europe to learn from

the Sophist scholars (Dues & Brown 19 ). By referring back to the diagram you can see that as the first cycle is accomplished the arrow points upward into the "present" section. This is where the study of communication currently is. By the end of the 1800s communication was being taught at colleges and universities where in many cases a basic understanding of communication was required for all students (Dues & Brown 31). Communication was an extremely fast growing area of study once it reached the late 18th century where entire departments were formed to conduct research and educate the largely growing student population at the time. (Dues & Brown 32). The remaining part of the diagram is depicting the future where we have yet to go with the study of communication as a whole. I don't believe many new great discoveries will be made in the actual study and organization of communication because most of that work has been done from 500 BC-Present, however I do believe the specific applications of communication will only be further developed with much room for expansion.

I have also chosen this illustration to depict how communication was not at all the study of one individual or even a small group of individuals but rather many groups of people in different cultures throughout hundreds of years. The evolution of communication was a collaborative effort of many scholars throughout history.

Personal

When reading and studying these chapters the most evident personal connection that I found myself always making was to my work and involvement in theater. George Campbell seemed to really interest me in his studies of communication because he added the psychological focus into our understanding of communication, it was no longer just a study of rhetoric as the truth but infused with the affections, the will and the imagination that the communicator has control over (Dues & Brown 25). Campbell states that the purpose of rhetoric is to "enlighten the understanding, to awaken the memory, to engage the imagination, to arouse the passions to influence the will to action or belief" (Smith, 1998). I have acted in a few shows and have enjoyed that experience but I found that much of my true passion was in directing and stage managing various theatrical performances. When directing I had to learn how to convey the thoughts and dreams that I had in my head to my cast. This took a serious improvement of communication on my part because a directors vision is not often clear to anyone else except for the director because it is so preset in his mind. Campbell describes this in a unique way that I found applies to my work on a daily basis. Campbell published in his works that rhetoric communication has to deal a lot with the ability to convey moods, and express ideas. This to me is so essential in my work. Being able to express my ideas clearly to the cast and convey how a certain actor's mood should be as well as how their emotions should be. Theatre is a great example of psychological communication because it is so intensely based on the fact that the actor needs to take on specific characteristics of a completely different person and by using unintentional persuasive communication--fool (persuade) the audience into the belief that they are that character.