The+Evolution+of+Oral+to+Print+to+Internet+Communications

=__Important People Regarding Communication Studies__=

[|Marshall McLuhan] [|Elizabeth Eisenstein] [|Neil Postman]

The development of the printing press and the invention of print as a medium of communication made literacy more widespread and had a huge impact on society. Scholars such as Marshall McLuhan, Neil Postman and Elizabeth Eisenstein developed many theories of the impact of print. Marshall McLuhan studied the arrival of mass communication and suggested that the phonetic alphabet caused a major division among action and thought. McLuhan established that the impact of the spoken word diminished due to the development of print. Another influencial theorist to take a stance with her approach was Elizabeth Eisenstein, who believed that even before the arrival of the printing press, silent reading was apart of the medieval culture. Eisenstein stated that even though the Gutenberg era evolved it only increased silent reading but did not invent it. She also suggested that printing increased rapidly, although the spoken word did not diminish.

Neil Postman was a writer in the seventies and eighties who took a different approach. He believed that the invention of the printing press would separate the adults from the children into well-informed or non-informed groups. Print has affected culture through many mediums such as television and Postman believes that because everyone has access to television, then everyone is able to view it. This is important because printing keeps knowledge to all (Evans 1-5).