From M/Cyclopedia of New Media
Technologies Encouraging Global Communication
Technology effects change and the aspect that makes modern information technology more important a development than any other in the history of technological evolution is its ability to effect change. (Saxby, 2000)
What is different about the modern process of globalisation is the extent to which time and space have been compressed by new information, communication and transportation technologies (Wiseman, 1998).
Globalisation is far from a new process. Exploration, trade, pilgrimage and migration have led individuals and societies to move around since the beginning of history (Grieg, 2000).
The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries saw a particularly high level of international trade flows, as well as the initial impact of electronic communication technologies such as the telegraph and telephone (Wiseman, 1998).
There have been so many influential inventions that have impacted the way people communicate. A list is available from the About site.
Some of the most important inventions that have a major impact on the way people communicate. The last twenty years have seen a major influence in communication technologies. Some of the most influential for communication on a global scale are:
The Mobile Phone
Computers and The Internet
- The percentage of Australian homes with access to a computer has increased from 44% in 1998 to 61% in 2002. (Australian Bureau of Statistic, 2002)
- The Internet is a network of computers that offers information to people.
- The internet has risen quite strongly as a new media. The percentage of Australian households with access to the Internet at home has increased, rising from 16% in 1998 to 46% in 2002. (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2004)
The Communication Satellite
- A communications satellite, is a radio relay in the sky. Signals are transmitted from antennae on earth, amplified, and retransmitted back to an earth station. The history of satellite communications is directly connected to man's quest to conquer outer space. (Reaching Out, 2004)
- Experiments involving artificial satellites began in the late 1950's. (Reaching Out, 2004)
- The first satellites were used mostly to measure space environments and blaze a path for communications, weather, and navigation satellites and manned spaceflight. (Space Today, 2004)
- Satellites are now used in communications and television broadcast, weather forecasting, navigation, observing land, sea and air and other scientific communications. ((Space Today, 2004)
Belinda Dickson 20:02, 28 Oct 2004 (EST)
- Greig (2000). Globalisation. In Jureidini & Poole "Sociology: Australian Connections (2nd Ed)" Sydney:Allen & Unwin. ISBN 1865081507
- Saxby, S. (1990) The Age of Information, London:The Macmillan Press Ltd. ISBN 0333548329
- Wiseman, J.(1998) Global Nation?:Australia and the Politics of Globalisation, United Kingdom:Cambridge University Press pp. 70-85 ISBN 0521592275
