LESSON 2:

From Writings on the Wall to

Signals Traveling in the
Airwaves: A Historical Overview
of Communications

REPORTERS:
JENALYN BUSTINERA
KRISTINE CASSANDRA BRITANICO
RICKY KYLE BADONG
 Communication began as drawing on the walls of caves,
carving on barks of trees, and, later on, papyrus and parchment.
Each of these illustrated man’s capacity and desire to interact, link
up, and build connections. Communal gatherings were means
by which they reached out to each other as a collective, and they
spoke to one another using song, dance, and prayer.

These developments altered how people communicated

with one another, how people passed on information across
diverse and dispersed groups of people. The Roman Catholic
Church is a fine example of social institution that vigorously
and aggressively transmitted ideas through the sacred
scriptures, and using it churches and its missionaries as the
channels by which the teaching of the Bible were disseminated.
from papyrus to paper
Boxer Codex is a manuscript written circa
1595 which contains illustrations of Filipinos at
the of their initial contact with the Spanish. It
also contains seventy-five (75) colored
drawings of the inhabitants of these regions
and their indistinctive costumes. Fifteen (15)
illustrations deal with Filipinos.
It was the Christians who also invented the codex around AD 100,
a document which can be rightfully referred to as the prototype of
the book. Papyrus pages faced one another, were bound together
instead of rolled up, and made for easier reading because it only
meant flipping pages instead of unraveling a long papyrus.

By the 15th century, a revolution in printing took place. Johann

Gutenberg (1394-1460) invented the printing technology that would
eventually be called the movable type machine. The Gutenberg
Machine was a frame that could hold the type on one place, and
them this type would be covered in ink, and paper would be placed
on top, secured through a corkscrew device derived from the
technology of making wine. The process made it possible to produce
multiple copies of pages at a time. The Bible was one of Gutenberg’s
earliest and most famous creations.
Scholars say that by around 1500, printing
presses have been established in 242
cities across various countries, mostly in
Western Europe. The Gutenberg printing
process launched what could be
considered the first medium truly designed
for the masses.
The first book printed in the Philippines is
believed to be Doctrina Christiana, a
treatise on the teachings of the Roman
Catholics Church written by Fray Juan
Plasencia, an Augustinian priest.
Nation-states and the rise
of Newspapers
The Gutenberg printing press made it
possible for newspapers to be produced. It
was in England that the first newspaper
was reportedly produced but not earlier
than the 17th century.
The first newspapers were patronized by
merchants. As perennial travelers they were
very interested on what was going on in
various parts of the world, both
economically and politically.
McQuail (1983, 20-21) cites that the newspaper is a more
significant innovation than the book. It was a new literary, social,
and cultural form that catered to town-based businesses and
professional people, a new class emerging in Western Europe.
He also cites the defining features of a newspaper and these are
the following: regular appearance, commercial circulation,
serving multiple purposes, and its unrefutably public character.
Turow (2009, 300) notes the rise of an advertisal press, defined
as press that had the ability to conduct dialogue even argue
with the government. The incomes of the printers were severely
affected by this development so they openly denounced this
colonial policy of taxation.
 In the Philippines, the rise of newspaper came
about in the first decades of the 19th century.
In December 1, 1846, La Esperanza, the first
daily newspaper, was published in the country.
Other early newspapers were Diario de Manila
(1848) and Boletin Oficial de Filipinas (1852).

One of the most popular newspaper in history is

La Solidaridad which was published in Spain in
1889 and was actively used to campaign for
reforms for the Philippines. In January 18, 1896, the
Katipuneros published Ang Kalayaan as the
official revolutionary newspaper of the
Kataastaasang Kagalang-galangang Katipunan
ng mga Anak ng Bayan
 Today, the newspaper as a
medium has evolved with the rise
of the internet and digital
technology. While the broadsheet
and tabloid formats still exist, news
agencies have turned to the web
as another platform for newspaper
publications and has generated a
new business model for the
newspaper industry.
Today, online newspaper are no longer confined to news on a daily basis but
would have to account for immediacy. Readers of online newspapers tend to
consume the news at most times of the day.
 from static to moving
images
Several intentions intersected and gave rise
to film as a mass medium. George Eastman
invented the film and built a company that
would be known as KODAK. But it was his
Thomas Edison and his assistant, William
Dickson, turned the use of the photographic
film, now in a strip, into a material that can be moved in front of a lens at a
constant speed to result into several photographs, each one different from
the other one because of a slight change in the movement of the subject.
When that strip was developed and viewed by the naked eye, it gave the
illusion of a moving subject.
Two frenchmen, Louis and Augusto Lumiere, further developed the
technology of film projectors. Edison would still improve on the
technology developed by the Lumiere brothers with large screen
projecting. By 1896, the Edison vitascope was on a public debut in
New York, where it showed a film entitled Rough Sea at Dover by
Robert Paul.
While the newspaper catered for people's desire for information, the
rise of film addressed an emerging worldview that would define
much of modernity's rise - the demarcation of people lives between
work and leisure.
 Radio and television followed very
closely. By 1907, the word television was
already used in a magazine called the
Scientific American. By 1928, the first telecast of
a television program took place, transmitting
from the experimental studio of General
Electric in New York City. By 1930, the Radio
Corporation of America introduced electronic
scanning, a much improved technology from
the mechanical scanning introduced earlier. By
1939, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt
became the first president to appear on the
tube.
In Europe, the Nazi authorities in Germany operated the world's first
regular television service, using it as a platform for propaganda.
Commercial television came into being in the United States only in
1946. In the Philippines, commercial television was launched in 1953
but as early as 1946 there were already explorations on the
technology of broadcasting. In 1946, an American engineer, James
Lindbery, began assembling transmitters in Bolinao, Pangasinan. He
was not fully successful with his attempt to establish a television
station but soon he was able to team up with Antonio Quirino and
together they would establish the Alto Broadcasting System where
he would serve as the general manager. Their first official telecast
was in October 23, 1953.
 the rise of new media
The term traditional media has become synonymous with the seven
most common forms of media-books, newspapers, magazine, sound
recording, radio, television, and film. However, in the 1950s, the landscape of
media and information technology began to change. The invention of the
transistor radio in 1948 signaled the development of semi-conductor
devices, considered the foundation of modern electronics, as it led to the
invention of integrated circuits, a technology that will be critical in the
development of the computer. By 1953, IBM has already shipped its first
electronic computers, called 701 in the industry. It sold 19 machines to
research laboratories, aircraft companies, and the federal government.
 By 1969, the APRANET was created and considered as the predecessor of the
internet. It was a large area-wide network created by the US military, specifically the
US Defense Advanced Research Project (ARPA) to serve as a ground for networking
technologies that will link the military to various federal agencies, even the
universities. In 1971, the transition from APRANET to internet commenced to serve
more purposes other than catering to the military. The first innovation was the TCP/IP
architecture as proposed by Stanford University. It is considered the standard
protocol by which networks communicate. By 1983, it was universally adopted.
Commands for electronic mails were standardized thereby making it a lot easier for
the layman to navigate the increasingly complex world of the internet.

The Internet enabled the development and the unabated growth of the new
media because it democratized the platform for creating, producing, disseminating
and presumably, as the internet's reach has expanded, in accessing and consuming
content which now come in various forms and formats.
timeline of internet in the
philippines
More than 12 years ago, March 29, 1994 to be exact, the free and open
World Wide Web was launched in the Philippines.
Prior to that date, the first local bulletin board system, otherwise known as
the BBS, is a computer system running a software that allows users to
connect and exchange messages and information using a terminal
program. It started as early as 1986 and was operated using a software
that ran on an IBM XT Clone PC with a modem that run on 1200 bpm.
Subscription fees ran as high as Php 1000 per month.
By 1987, inter-BBS connectivity was enabled through the Philippine FidoNet
exchange. One bulletin board system in Metro Manila is now able to
connect to other bulletin board systems in the same area.
By the early years of the 90s, email gateways and services broadened,
provided for by some multinational corporations operating in the Philippines.
By 1993, government would figure as a major player, largely through the role
discharged by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST). With
support from the Industrial Research Foundation, the PhilNet project was
launched and was composed of representatives from various universities
which included the University of the Philippines-Diliman, University of the
Philippines-Los Baños, De La Salle University, and Ateneo de Manila
University. They would team up with Dr. Rudy Villarica who would represent
the Industrial Research Foundation.
By July 1993, with full funding from the DOST, the PhilNet project scaled up.
Students from the above stated universities were able to connect to another
gateway at the Victoria University of Australia. By November 1993, an
additional grant of Php 12.5 M would flow to the purchase of equipment and
lease of communication lines.
By March 29, 1994, the Philippines was formally connected to the internet, using
the PLDT network center in Makati City. On the day, the First International E-mail
Conference was being held at the University of San Carlos in Cebu. Dr. John
Brule, a professor emeritus from Syracuse University, announced "We're in!" as
the PhilNet connection successful linked up with the global internet. Cheers and
enthusiastic applause greeted this historic moment.
thank you!