Global Communication

When we hear the word “global” it means international exposure, modernization and culmination of different societies. But, the word “village” dilutes all modernization and becomes a micro centric society of underprivileged people. So what is global village after all, with so much contradiction? Is it all about the world becoming smaller, coming closer or going through a sea change in the way people see each other.

Before the invention of the telephone the only link to the outside world was through mails. It was delivered by hand. Then we had the telegraph and the telephone. These two brought the existence of radio. The study of radio waves began in the 1860s, but it only was proved in the year 1886 by Heinrich Rudolph Hertz. Later on Guglielmo Marconi started the radio communication. Communication became a little easier. It is still used widely in most of the households, but its importance has diminished, because the advancement in communication has been going on since then.

The invention of television, using cathode ray tube, in the year 1897 by Karl Braun was the next big breakthrough. Not only can you hear but you can also view the wonders of the world. The world was a step nearer. People could see what was going around the world. It was no longer “Around the World in Eighty Days” concept. It brought so much fun, an ideal way of a family, to get together. But, to some it is the “idiot box” which they say dilutes their thought process because the television is thinking for them. Jerry Mander has mentioned in his work Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television “We have all been moved into such a narrow and deprived channel of experience that a dangerous instrument like television can come along and seem useful, interesting, sane, and worthwhile at the same time it further boxes people into a physical and mental condition appropriate for the emergence of autocratic control.”