Communication Technology:
The Printing Press and the Internet
The printing press is one of the most
revolutionary technologies of communication.
Johannes Gutenberg's invention transformed the world from a rudimentary
society into the enlightened society of today by introducing a method of mass
communication. Because of its
ability to extensively spread knowledge, the printing press has affected
nearly every aspect of humanity. In this current era, the world is witnessing the development
of another breakthrough technology in communication known as the Internet.
There are similarities between the printing press and the Internet that
foreshadow the Internet being another revolutionary technology that can also
reshape the world.
History of the Printing Press
The
printing press is considered the first mass communication vehicle with which a
single source can communicate information to a massive audience. Since its invention, the printing press has been a major
instrument of enlightenment and the spread of knowledge.
It has made a difference in every aspect of society, impacting
politics, religion, science, and economics, and has had a major impact on
every man's life. Neither the
Protestant Reformation nor the Renaissance nor and the Scientific Revolution
could have come about without the printing press (Eisenstein). The impact of
the printing press was not felt by society immediately, however.
Due to the way society was structured at the time of its invention, the
printing press's full impact was not felt until a century later.
Johannes
Gutenberg invented the printing press in the 1450's as a business venture.
He saw a need in the market for a means of mass-producing text and
developed a method involving movable metal type.
At the time, the Church had the largest need for a method of
mass-producing text. Secular
scribes could not keep up with the demand for Christian texts and certificates
of indulgence. Before the
printing press, sacred texts were meticulously hand copied by monks.
While the printing press at this time was not the revolutionary
technology that it would later become, it did begin to impact society by
facilitating the spread of the Bible. Previously
the only access people had to scripture was mediated by the church.
The proliferations of bibles made possible by the printing press
allowed people a more direct connection with God.
The
printing press was not instantly successful.
While it was definitely a useful invention, two major societal
conditions prevented its progress. First,
although there was a high demand for printing presses and printed materials,
the trade market was too poorly set up to distribute presses or books to
potential customers. Second, the
majority of the population was still illiterate.
In its early days the printing press therefore mainly served as a means
of printing religious text for the upper class.
Effects
on Religion
The
printing press helped to spread Catholicism, but even more so it facilitated
opposition to the Church and spread new ideas about religion.
Martin Luther’s attack on the existing Catholic system was spread to
the public through the printing press. Luther
felt that the printing press was a gift from God; without it, his ideas would
probably have never spread (Eisenstein). Scientific theories that challenged the teachings of the
church, particularly Darwin’s evolutionary theory, were also spread to the
public through the printing press. Before
the printing press, the Church was the single strongest entity in the world
and seemed to be invulnerable. Opposition
on a scale sufficient to challenge such a strong entity was basically
impossible. However, print had
two qualities that made opposition more feasible.
First, printed literature could be relatively easily produced and
distributed to a massive audience. Second,
the printing press brought a longevity to ideas they had not preciously
enjoyed. In the past, radical
ideas would die with the person who developed them.
The printing press, however, provided a permanent way of not only
recording ideas but also spreading them so that it would not be possible to
destroy them by simply destroying the few manuscripts or people who carried
those ideas. In addition to the
church being weakened by the printing of dissenting views, it also lost some
of its power due to the printing of the bible.
While people were becoming able to own their own copy of the bible, the
idea of gaining a more direct and personal relationship with God became more
prominent (Jones). Thus, the church’s power and role as the sole custodian
of spiritual truth diminished as the public gained direct access to religion
and opposing points of view.
Effects
on Thought
When
the printing press was invented, it was hoped that it could be used to
disseminate and reinforce contemporary political and scientific ideas and to
further the power of Catholic Church. No
one had any idea it would become a catalyst for the new ideas that
characterized the Renaissance. With
the printing press, came a ‘drive for fame’ that helped fuel the
individualism and new ideas of the Renaissance (Eisenstein).
The printing press allowed for the acquisition of new and radical
ideas. One could acquire any
information he sought privately since no public interaction is required in
reading a book. This
privacy allowed easier transmission of different, new, or even dangerous
information since all one had to do was open a book.
After the printing press there was also greater motivation to formulate
new ideas, since it gave ideas a better chance of living on.
The printing press also changed attitudes towards the past (Dewar).
The printing press allowed for a cumulative advance of knowledge, one
in which previous knowledge could be questioned and doubted.
Doubt could therefore be cast on the perceived perfection of past
knowledge. This willingness to
question ancient ideas and consider new ones changed the way people think, and
facilitated the Protestant Reformation and the Scientific Revolution (Eisenstein).
Effects
on Science
Another
completely unexpected result of the printing press was the Scientific
Revolution in which many age-old scientific beliefs were overturned and a
great expanse of new scientific ideas were introduced.
The Scientific Revolution would most likely not have been possible
without the printing press. The
printing press became a means of permanently recording information. While scientific findings could have been recorded without
being printed, their permanence could not be assured since that information
could easily be destroyed or lost. However,
if findings are published then that information's survival is basically
assured. The permanent
documentation of information allowed new scientific information to be spread
much more easily and rapidly. Increased
access to past scientific findings made it easier for a scientist to expand on
the ideas of the past into new territory.
Also, with the changing attitude towards potentially inaccurate past
information, scientists examined and even challenged traditional scientific
theories. For example, Copernicus
challenged the idea that the earth is the center of the universe and suggested
instead a sun-centered model. Although
his ideas were extremely radical for the time and took a long time to be
publicly accepted, they were eventually accepted because they were recorded
and spread out in print format so future scientists could still turn to his
work in order to expand upon his ideas. If
there were no printing press, then his ideas would have died with him as his
written research would most likely have been discarded, lost, or destroyed,
and no scientific progress would have been made.
Effects
on Language
The
printing press had a huge effect on standardizing language in Europe.
Before the printing press, written materials were not common enough or
sufficiently widely circulated to provide a standard for what proper writing
was. For example, due to the lack
of a standard many words admitted of much variety in their spellings.
When print became common, the dialect and spelling conventions that
made their way into print became the standard, and most other dialects and
variant spellings died out over time. For
example, in 1476, William Caxton created England’s first printing press and
helped to standardize English by printing narratives such as Chaucer’s The
Canterbury Tales. A
standardized language helped to provide unity around which nations could be
built and cultures. The
standardization of languages helped to more clearly define national borders
and shape the political atmosphere of Europe (Jones).
Effects
on Social Classes
The
printing press also completely reorganized the social structure of Europe by
creating a middle class (Jones). Before
the printing press, there was only an upper class and a working lower class.
Only the upper class could afford access to knowledge since only they
could afford expensive hand-written books or tutors.
The lower class was therefore a group of peasants without any sort of
education. When books became cheaper due to their mass production on
printing presses, the better off among the lower class could gain access to
them. And a literate middle class
developed and started gaining power and influence.
Education expanded greatly and schools were created for the middle
class. With the knowledge and
power that their education brought this new middle class won more rights for
those outside the upper class. Before
the printing press, changing one's social status was impossible.
However, after the invention of the printing press and arrival of the
more affordable education it allowed, one could change one’s status through
education. This concept became
one of the foundations of America.
Printing
Press and the Internet
The
printing press became a means of spreading new and radical ideas to the
public. The printing press was
revolutionary because it could spread a single person’s idea to thousands or
even millions of people and that basically could not be done before.
The man-hours required to create a book were drastically reduced and
the production of books was increased dramatically. So much so that the printing press is considered
revolutionary rather than merely an upgrade from scribe writing (Dewar).
The Internet appears to be another revolutionary technology in
communications. Like the printing
press, the Internet is saving an enormous number of man-hours in the transfer
of information. The Internet can
be defined as a huge and broad networking of computers that consists of many
different methods of communication. There
is the World Wide Web, which most people automatically think of when they
think of Internet, electronic mail, newsgroups, file transfer protocol (ftp),
real time chat, and many other means of communication.
These new means of communication have some striking similarities to the
printing press.
Communities
of Thought
One
of the reasons for the Scientific Revolution was that scientists who were
separated by long distances became able to form a scientific community since
they could all read each other’s works.
This essentially brought together the world's greatest scientists
although there was still the hindrance of the time involved in having a work
published and waiting for it to be examined.
The printing press also allowed the formation of intellectual
communities in all other disciplines such as politics, economics, and
literature. Just as the printing
press revolutionized science by creating a scientific community, the Internet
is similarly revolutionizing communication by creating an interactive
scientific community. Currently there are Usenet newsgroups that revolve
around specific fields of study which scholars in those fields can use to
gather and share their thoughts and research (Hauben).
This can greatly accelerate scientific advancement since it takes less
time to publish a work on the net than in print and collaboration is
increased.
Barriers
of Entry
Before
the printing press the barrier of entry into the published world was very
high. Due to the cost of
publication, only only a small minority of the population could afford the
printing of only a few copies of the most important books.
The printing press reduced the barrier of entry by making publication
more affordable. The Internet is
similarly taking the barrier of entry and reducing it even further.
Before the Internet one still needed to own a printing press or to be
supported by a print company to publish.
Today, all one needs is a computer and a connection to the Internet to
be able to publish online. While
demand for information on some particular topic might not be great enough to
warrant the still relatively high cost of print publication, the information
could still be printed on the Internet since there is little barrier of entry
there. By lowering the barrier of
entry to publication, the Internet allows most anyone who has something they
want to say to make their ideas accessible to a global audience.
The
printing press is a revolutionary communication tool in that it allows large
scale one to many communication. The
Internet is likewise revolutionary in that it allows large scale many to many
communication. The Internet
allows a unique system of interaction in which many people can interact and
exchange information with each other. The
printing press allowed for only a one-way exchange of information.
While a web site is primarily a one to many means of communication,
there are other facets of the Internet such as Internet newsgroups that are
many to many. Internet
newsgroups, which are like electronic message boards where people quickly
exchange ideas with one another, are like an “immediately available, instant
feedback, constantly updated 3-dimensional book” (Dewar). This further facilitates the generation of new ideas
since there is now an exchange of ideas that can quickly be expanded on, as
opposed to a single person sharing his ideas and then the public reacting to
it over a long period of time. However,
there is also a drawback to this many to many system of information exchange
that the Internet presents.
Since
there is no barrier of entry and anyone can post information on the net,
information overload can become a problem.
The extensive amount of information makes it difficult to distinguish
useful information from “junk” information.
Although very few people have begun to make full use of the
Internet’s power as a communication tool, there are already problems with
information overload. To
alleviate the problems of information overload more structure is needed to
manage and sort through the information on the net.
The fact that an amount of communication that is small relative to the
full potential of the internet can cause an information overload problem for
humankind could be seen as a positive indicator of the enormity of the full
potential of the Internet as a revolutionary technology.
If the printing press was a giant step as a “one-to-many”
communication tool, then perhaps the Internet will be that giant step as a
“many-to-many” communication tool.
Managing
Information
Before
the printing press, information storage relied mostly on memory and
information retrieval on mnemonic devices.
This sort of a system seriously limited the amount of information that
could be dealt with. When the printing press made so much information available,
there needed to be a way to managing this information. For this purpose libraries developed new ways of indexing and
cataloging information which made the archiving and retrieval of information
easier than ever before. Information
management and retrieval is taking another great leap with the Internet.
Now, the ability to search the entire Internet for key words using a
search engine or searching within documents for key words and phrases is
making information retrieval even more expansive and efficient.
There are already incredible stories of information retrieval that
would not have been possible without the Internet such as of a young woman who
found her long lost father through the Internet (Dewar).
Nonetheless, the system of information retrieval on the Internet is
still infantile and is not nearly as structured as the systems used in
libraries. The information on the
Internet can still be compared to a jungle of information that is still not
sorted out incredibly well. However,
the huge potential for information retrieval through the Internet definitely
exists.
Effect
on Class
The
printing press and the Internet both ignore the lower class.
The lower class did not receive much of the direct benefits of the
printing press because they were illiterate.
They felt the effect in a roundabout way as progress in society
affected everyone within it. However,
in general the printing press passed them by.
The same can be said about the Internet.
A disproportionately large percentage of computer ownership and network
usage is found in the upper quartile of the population and among college
students (Dewar). Meanwhile, the
lower classes have little exposure to the Internet since costs of owning a
computer and being networked remain high.
In 1999, about 38 percent of households were connected to the Internet
(Samuelson). The Internet
revolution is passing lower income families by just as the printing press
passed by the illiterate lower class. This
was only true for the printing press initially, however.
Eventually, literacy rates rose until even the lower income class was
literate. The same can be applied
to the Internet. As computer
costs continue to sink and networking to the Internet becomes cheaper,
Internet usage will become more prevalent in all homes.
Meanwhile,
just as the printing press essentially created a literate middle class, a
class division may also form around computer literacy. Those who are computer literate have an advantage over those
who are not in the business world today that is nearly as great as the
advantage the literate middle class had over the illiterate lower class.
Those who are computer literate will likely succeed and continue to be
able to afford computer and internet access in future generations, while it is
possible that the computer illiterate will not have the marketable skills
necessary to bring them the income required to have sufficient access to
computers and the internet to become computer literate.
In this way a disadvantaged underclass of the computer illiterate may
form.
Effect
on Human Interaction
Electronic
mail and chat programs are already making a big impact on the way people
communicate. E-mail is quickly
replacing regular mail since it is faster, cheaper, and more convenient.
Chat programs are beginning to replace the telephone since they are
more convenient and allow a person to talk to multiple people at once.
Even commercial interactions such as buying and selling goods or
gathering information are facilitated by the internet.
However, one drawback comes with these changes.
Like the printing press, the Internet allows communication to become
less personal.
Before
the printing press, to get information, one had to find a person who knew that
information and ask them to explain it to you.
This sort of personal interaction with people was required to get
almost anything done. With the
advent of the printing press, information could be acquired independently from
a book without much personal interaction with others.
Two way communication, however, still required face to face
interaction. The telephone
allowed even two way communication to occur without
such personal interaction. Even
writing an e=mail tends to be substantially less personal than writing a real
letter. E-mail is so fast,
simple, and convenient that people tend to send them off without giving them
the careful personal consideration they would give to a letter.
Compared with receiving a letter, which has been handled personally by
its sender and has been whose content has been carefully considered, recieving
an e-mail can be a relatively meaningless experience. In the past, people were forced to interact personally and
often face to face with others to perform daily tasks. This forced them to acquire social skills.
Today, the Internet has lessened the need for direct communication.
This could allow the human social skills required for a happy and
successful life to diminish.
Effect
of Global Community
The
Internet is breaking down the role of geographic separation as a physical
barrier to communication and facilitating the formation of a global community.
It allows people to make contacts or stay in communication over longer
distances. Almost anyone can
place a web page on the Internet for the entire world to view.
As the Internet becomes global, these effects will increase.
The Internet is revolutionizing the economy and the way companies do
business. E-commerce is changing
the way people buy goods and services and encouraging the development of a
global community market. The
Internet is making more of an immediate impact than the printing press did.
The reason for this is that while the economic market was not advanced
enough for widespread success of the printing press, the market was suitable
for implementation of the Internet.
Future
Possibilities
The
current main uses of the Internet such as e-mail and World Wide Web pages have
had an impact on society, but only scratch the surface of the potential of the
Internet. The current uses of the
Internet are mainly one to one (e-mail) or one to many (world wide web pages)
communication tools. The true
power of the Internet involves its ability to connect many people with each
other simultaneously. This aspect
of the Internet, however, has not been fully utilized and integrated into
society. Just as the printing
press only improved upon earlier technologies in the beginning and did not
have a truly significant revolutionary impact until much later on, the same
can be said for the Internet.
Since
the full effect of the Internet has not been seen, its current effects may be
miniscule compared to the way it will effect society in the future.
Currently, the efficient free market has pushed commerce to the
forefront in the use of the Internet, making its primary effects economic.
This is similar to the printing press in that it began as merely a
business tool for printing religious text.
The printing press became much more than merely a business tool.
If the Internet is likewise to have profound effects on social as well
as economic aspects of life we must likewise begin to use it in more profound
ways than as a business tool.
Future
Implications
If
the Internet is on track to becoming another revolutionary technology similar
to the printing press, then what does that mean for society?
What can society do about that now?
The ramifications that the printing press has had on society were
unexpected and unintended. If the
same will be true of the Internet then the best preparation we can make for
its impact on society is to keep our minds open to the unexpected results it
will bring. It took a long time before the printing press began to
greatly affect society, and society needs to be patient with the Internet as
well. One of the main reasons
that it took the printing press so long to impact society was that most of the
population was illiterate, if the internet is to have a more immediate impact
then computer literacy should be encouraged.
An important reason that the printing press had such a significant
impact on society, was that it allowed the communication of new and
revolutionary ideas that could not be shared before.
To allow the Internet to continue this tradition of facilitating new
ideas, censoring of the Internet should be limited.
By keeping the doors to new ideas open, the Internet can facilitate the
same sorts of positive changes that came with the printing press.
Conclusion
It
is difficult to determine the impact of the Internet because it is still in
its infancy. There are
similarities between the printing press and the Internet that predict that the
Internet will be another revolutionary technology.
However, the important point to keep in mind is that the Internet has
not yet even come close to having as great an impact as the printing press. The printing press has undoubtedly had a huge impact on life
today and can be credited in part for almost every major discovery or social
change since its invention. While
use of the Internet is growing much faster than use of the printing press did
and possesses the potential to become as revolutionary a technology, only time
can tell how far the Internet will take society in the future.
However, it is important to keep an eye on this new technology and
apply to it what society has learned from the 500-year history of the printing
press.