Four Eras of Communication
Joshua Moyerwitz describes the the four distinct eras of human communication, and how vastly different they are and how these differences in sharing of information can greatly effect the quality and modernity of life. By outlining the four eras; Tribal/Oral, Civilizing World/Scribal, Modern(ist) era, Meyrowitz is effective at showing the transformation of society as the amount of public information goes up, This information can be helpful and show insight on how thing have happened i the past to help see what the future might hold.
The first of these eras is the Tribal/Oral, these were the first people until the early Greek antiquity. In these societies oral communication was the primary source of shared information and history or knowledge. Elders and older community members were seen as the wisest and were respected members of the communities. These elders served as teachers, passing down values and beliefs from past generations, this preserving the culture. Economically the tribes were nomadic trading materials and skills in exchange for things. The consept of the individual wasn't as strong as it is today because of the highly social nature of the tribes making them get lost in the sense of community because their overlaying dedication to the whole.
The second era of communication is Scribal, during this era the vast majority of people were still communicating orally leaving those with literacy abilities with an amount of power and control. This in essence led to the development of social classes, during this era you see a hierarchy of status begin to shift to align with literacy. Those who could read and write often members of ranking families or the church clergy, both two of the ruling demographics of the time. You can see how the ability better suited you in the class system. With a new ruling class the tribal like communities transformed into city state more organized ruling structures.
This could be viewed as the rise of European feudal system where you can see divides classes and groups of people. The world grew more complex and people began to learn more specialized and specific skills, this making way for the concept of the individual to emerge with growing individuality amungst people.
The next era sparked by the Age of Enlightenment (17th & 18th centuries), but really didn’t begin until the period of Industrialization in the 19th century, is the modern(ist) era. In this era is when mass communication came onto the scene, newspapers, film and motion picture, radio and television taking the world by storm and changing the way we deal with information. For the first time the printing press allowed more the mass production of reading and informative materials, allowing for a standardized basic knowledge across Europe. This led to the scientific flourishing of the enlightenment. This era eventually grew increasingly complex as people got smarter and more literate to subjects the began to notice their disagreement with the deciding class, leading to protest and cultural issues.
Lastly the era we are in today the postmodern era, which is know of one of anxiety and that reality is what you can make of it. this era began with the conclusion of WWII and gained momentum with popular counter culture movements since like drug and hippy culture, women's suffrage movement and civil rights movement. All these movements and subcultures helped in ushering us into an era the fully actualized the concept of the individual. During this era the dominant medium of communication was between TV and shifting into the era of the internet and digital revolution. This era also comes with a rise in mistrust in institutions and societal infrastructure.
As outlined in Meyrowitz’ work it was with the invention of the printing press that paved way for society's advances from oral and tribal communication and towards the interconnected society we have today with shared information. We live in an ever so interconnected world and without or the mediums we have today this world wouldn't be possible. So as outlined by Meyrowitz these tribal, scribal ,and modernist progressions of communication have led us to the world we have today.