In the beginning man communicated orally. History was passed on in stories that were told from person to person. In order for this type of communication to work, the receiver must have a good memory to remember the story that was told to them. If that person didn't remember the story correctly then after it has been passed down through a number of people the story could end up sounding nothing like it did when it first began.

This was the major problem with preliterate culture. Myth and stories began to intertwine, because these tales were so distorted from when they were first began.

Next, came the ideogrammatic alphabet. This was the first form of writing to emerge on earth. Cuneiform, which is believed to be the first alphabet, is a great example. The alphabet consisted of symbols and pictures instead of letters. Now that there was a written alphabet, accurate documents of history could now be recorded instead of some tall tale that had barely any truth to it at al

l. The ideogrammatic alphabet was a huge advance, but it had many problems. The alphabet was very complex, and required a large amount of literacy to understand. Well, back then a very small amount of the population was literate. So, the alphabet was basically confined to the wealthy and extremely educated.

After ideogrammatic alphabet syllable alphabets began to emerge. This was a huge advancement. Not only was the alphabet easier to understand it was also easier to pass on. Paper records could now be used to record history, and possibly one of the greatest things that the syllable alphabet brought was the bible. Now religion could be passed on to any person that could read. Also, government came into the picture. Laws could now be documented and democracy began to emerge. The only real downside was that a single man could only write so much, but this was cured by the invention of the printing press. With the invention of the Gutenberg Press, books could now be mass- produced. Literacy and education began to spread everywhere, and a middle class of citizens emerged.

After newspapers, motion pictures and television arrived. These are probably two of the most influential forms of mass media in society today. All you need is a working pa

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Approximate Word count = 852
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)