Chapter List

Overview

August E. Grant, Ph.D.*

* Senior Consultant, Focus 25 Research & Consulting, and Visiting Associate Professor, College of Mass Communications and Information Studies, University of South Carolina (Columbia, South Carolina).

Communication technologies are the nervous system of contemporary society, transmitting and distributing sensory and control information, and interconnecting a myriad of interdependent units. Because these technologies are vital to commerce, control, and even interpersonal relationships, any change in communication technologies has the potential for profound impacts on virtually every area of society.

One of the hallmarks of the industrial revolution was the introduction of new communication technologies as mechanisms of control that played an important role in almost every area of the production and distribution of manufactured goods (Beniger, 1986). These communication technologies have evolved throughout the past two centuries at an increasingly rapid rate. The evolution of these technologies shows no signs of slowing, so an understanding of this evolution is vital for any individual wishing to attain or retain a position in business, government, or education.

The economic and political challenges faced by the United States and other countries since the beginning of the new millennium clearly illustrate the central role these communication systems play in our society. Just as the prosperity of the 1990s was credited to advances in technology, the economic challenges that followed were linked as well to a major downturn in...