Chapter1: The historical context of international communication

Summary

Understanding the history of international communication can be illuminated by knowing the elements of its change, continuity and development. Media and Radio are one of the means that assist in the creation of an international communication.

The history of communication was developed with the creation of empires. Communication was essential for the strength of authority as well as the development of trade and commerce. The very first ways of communication was the use of voice (shouting) then writing to spread public information. These writings should be approved by the king before the publication. The medium of communication was developed starting with the clay tablet of Mesopotamia and the papyrus rill in Egypt. The Chinese paper started to replace the parchment. The development of paper lead to the spread of writing presses where thousands of books were out. Books has became available in all languages, especially; Portuguese, English, Spanish and French. Latin has dissolved which helped to lay the basis for the foundation of nation-state. The first printing press was opened in 1557 then in Macao in 1588. Also, immigration helped in creating a popular demand for news from the home country.

The nineteenth century saw the creation of the telegraph that helped empires and colonials to communicate easily and efficiently. (the telegraph in Algeria helped the French colonization during that time)(the first underwater telegraph cable was in 1851 linked between Britain and France.) (the international telegraph Union was between 22 county)

Newsletters were used by leaders to articulate nationalism. The US had a tremendous impact on media and its agenda. By the end of the 19th century, US started the advertising companies and radio; however, westerns were the first to dig deep into the strategic implications of radio communication and its magic power on the public opinion.

Critique:

Radio was extremely used to change/construct the public opinion by using propaganda. The cold war between the communist and capitalist witnessed the use of Radio as a mean of propaganda. US did not only use Radio for external propaganda, but also to promote some presidents over others( promoting US president Harry Truman) Propaganda is the spreading of opinions, believes, events in order to change or persuade the public opinion, or try to push people to think in a certain way.

This history of Radio raised the following question: Can we even trust what we hear in today’s radio from the beauty shows to the political debates. The history of Radio makes the credibility point under question. Not only the credibility of Radio, but all the platforms of media including TV, Cinema, newsletters, films, fax… Also, in Morocco nearly all the Radio stations & media platforms were under the control of government till 2002. And even after the creation of private radios, some topics still under censorship as religion, the king….

From my own perspective, I do not consider the Moroccan Private Radio as totally independent, it is always under agenda that is supervised by the government. So I do not see any way to protect citizens from propaganda in Morocco.