Lecture 02

(18 October 2021)

History of Communication
Study: Europe and Malaysia

Sejarah Pengajian
Komunikasi: Eropah dan
Malaysia

Assoc. Prof. Dr. LEE KUOK TIUNG

lee@ums.edu.my
 Think-&-understand
History is not exclusively
belonging to historians.
(Sejarah bukan hak milik eksklusif
sejarawan)
*Malaysian History (Sejarah Malaysia)
*International relations – bilateral relations i.e. Panda Diplomacy
*Your family’s background - ur surname/ Shariffah-Syed; etc.
*** Looking from which perspectives (angel/ agenda/ )?

Basically this topic / lecture has 2 Objectives:

a.History of Comm Study
b.The Comm Curricula (kurikulum) (development)
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 To what degree does communication affect us?

 Introductions
 Communication studies have a long and
complex history.
 Information Technologies (IT) have
dramatically transformed many aspects of
both personal identity and social community.
 moving from early mass communications to
the first mainframes, the birth of cybernetics,
the personal computer, and the internet, as
well as new simulation tools such as paper,
radio, television, computer & etc.
 A. Founding of Communication Study
by Wilbur Schramm (1907-1987)
 Schramm(1981) identified four founders of Communication
Study : - Paul Lazarsfeld; Kurt Lewin; Harold Lasswell; &
Carl Hovland
 The four (4) founders in turn had “founder”, that is,
individuals who influenced their thinking about
communication (play key roles in launching the field of
communication).
 BUT there were many other founders, several of equal or
greater influence in shaping communication study: Wilbur
Schramm, Robert E. Park, Theodor Adorno, Claude E.
Shannon, Norbert Wiener, & Robert K. Merton.
 continue ……
 On the beginnings of communication scholarship, Schramm
begins with a discussion of the influences of three Americans: i.)
engineering scholar, Charles Horton Cooley (1864-1929); ii.)
sociologist, Robert Ezra Park (1864-1944); & iii.) anthropologist
Edward Sapir (1884-1939).
 He considers four (4) men to be the forefathers: political
scientist Harold Lasswell, German psychologists, Paul Lazarsfeld,
and Kurt Lewin, and American psychologist, Carl Hovland.
 Schramm discusses the emergence of schools of journalism and
mass communication at U.S. universities.
 The first journalism school devoted to professional activity was
established in 1908. By 1950 there were 100 such schools.
Communication research, including studies of audiences, effects
and media content, was being conducted at social science
research institutes. Soon these two strains-professional activity
and social science research-merged and journalism students
began writing research theses giving birth to a new academic
field.
 continue ……
 Schramm's philosophy of academic
development: -
“Schramm predicted that communication would
drive a consolidation (penyatuan) with anthropology,
psychology, sociology, economics and political
science to form a science of human behavior.”
 It should be interesting to observe this prediction in
the future, because of Schramm's emphasis on the
historical emergence of the discipline from those
fields.
B. European Beginnings of Communication Study
by Rogers, Everett, M. (1997)

 communication and social sciences knowledge evolution

started by three European scholar’s
1. Charles Robert Darwin (1809-1882) – Evolutionary Theory
 The expression of emotions in men and animals
 Nonverbal communications
 “our emotional expressions are in large part determined by our
evolution”
 Population Ecology Theory (1970’s – developed mainly by
Professor Michael Hannan & John Freeman)
2. Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) – Psychoanalytic Theory
 The critical school; The Palo Alto Group
 Motto : “One Cannot Not Communicate”
 Communication theories which doesn't share the same premise with
Psychoanalytic Theory: - Festinger (Theory of Cognitive
Dissonance) & Heider (Balance Theory)
 Communication can held consciously, intentionally or
unintentionally.
 Against research which focus on communication impacts.

3. Karl Marx (1818-1883) – The Critical School

 Marxism – economic power resolve socials changes in our societies.

 Marx’s theory is directly concerned with revolutions.

 Mass media used as establishment to control societies.
 Issues : - who should own and control media?
 Habermass: reject positivism; communication should emphasis on
emancipatory (pembebasan).
C. History of Mass Communications: Six
Information Revolution by Irving Fang (1997)

 Fang (1997) divided 'Information Revolutions' into six

periods which are identified as writing, printing,
mass media, entertainment, the 'toolshed' (which
we call 'home' now/ today), and the Information
Highway.
 It shows how the means of communicating grew out
of their eras, how they developed, how they
influenced the societies of those eras, and how they
have continued to exert their influence upon
subsequent generations.
 I. Writing Revolution
 It began primarily in Greece about the eight
century B.C. (Before Christ - sebelum masihi –
s.m.), with the convergence of the phonetic
alphabet (abjad fonetik), an import from Phoenicia
to the East, and papyrus, an import from Egypt
(Mesir) to the South.
 With writing used to store knowledge, the human
mind would no longer be constrained by the limits
of memory. Knowledge would be boundless.

 *What is the meaning of AD, BC, BCE and CE?

 II. Printing Revolution
 Began in Europe in the second half of the fifteenth century,
with the convergence of paper, an import originally from
China, but proximately from the Arab and Moorish cultures,
and a printing system that the German goldsmith Johannes
Gutenberg assembled.
 Started in 105 A.D. (Anno Domini – “in the year of our Lord)
when China developed paper & then experimented printing
techniques by using wood blocks to transfer symbols onto
paper.
 With printing, information spread through many layers of
society.
 This significant advancement enable people to communicate
with one another over time and long distances, making it
possible to record history and conduct business.
Continues…..
 Printing lent itself to massive political, religious,
economic, educational, and personal alterations
(perubahan).
 We have called these changes the Reformation,
Renaissance, humanism, mercantilism, and
The End of Feudalism.
 Become most frequently used medium until the
twentieth century (books, & magazines).
 Printing marked the start of the modern world.
 III. Mass Media Revolution

 Began in Western Europe and the Eastern United States

during the middle of the nineteenth century, with the
convergence of advances in paper production and printing
press methods, and the invention of the telegraph, which
changed the way information was conveyed.
 Newspapers and magazines reached out to the common
man with news about events near and far, and packaged
goods for sale.
 Photography were used, public schools and public libraries
dotted the countryside and the growing cities. For masses,
literacy came within reach.
 IV. Entertainment Revolution
 Started in Europe and America towards the end of
the nineteenth century with such technologies as
stored sound, affordable cameras, and motion
photography.
 Stories were printed and sold cheaply.
 Correlate with Industrial Revolution
 Entertainment were replicated (disalin), canned
(dipakej) and spread all over the world.
 V. The 'toolshed'
 The creation of the Communication Toolshed Home,
evolved during the middle of the twentieth century,
transforming the home into the central location for receiving
information and entertainment, thanks to the telephone,
broadcasting, recording, improvements in print
technologies, and cheap, universal mail services.
 The century has been a period of unrelieved political,
cultural, and psychological turmoil and shifting.
 The media of communication have become inseparable
from our lives is a matter that has been written about in
countless worried articles, books, and research paper.
 VI. Information Highway

 Constructed out of the convergence of computer,

broadcasting, satellite, and visual technologies.
 Communication is shaking off transportation for
work, study, and play.
 In Malaysia
 What’s the Idealism?
 How the pluralistic society identity and cultural
environment influence communication study in Malaysia?
 Starting - Institut Perhubungan Awam Malaysia (1971) &
Institut Penyiaran Tun Abdul Razak (1972) to provide training
in broadcasting & electronic media.
 Formal - Institut Teknologi MARA (now UiTM) & follow up
by Universiti Sains Malaysia.
 Awarness - since 1950’s
 “Why we fight” – USA involve in war yearly
 TUTORIAL DISCUSSION
Baca artikel/ jurnal Prof Dato’ Dr. Syed Arabi Idid & Prof. Dr.
Adnan Hussein
i. Syed Arabi Idid - Bidang (Penyelidikan) Komunikasi di Malaysia –
Realiti Kini atau Masam Muka?
ii. Adnan Hussein – Pengajian Komunikasi di Malaysia: Satu
Retrospektif.
iii. Adnan Hussein, and Kamariah Hj. Siarap, (2000) Penggunaan teknologi komunikasi-informasi dikalangan ahli akademik di
Malaysia. Jurnal Komunikasi ; Malaysian Journal of Communication, 16 . pp. 119-130.

Syed Arabi Idid. 2019. Communication Education in Malaysia:

iv.
Early Days to Recent Years. Jurnal Komunikasi ; Malaysian
Journal of Communication, 35 (1). pp. 303-318.
- Buatkan perbandingan persamaan, perbezaan dan berikan cadangan
nilai tambah kepada ketiga-tiga artikel tersebut.
 Summary
 A review on history of communication study provides
students of communication studies with a sense of the way
their chosen field affects how society functions, by looking
at:
i) the ways in which the tools of communication have
influenced; &
ii) been influenced by social change.
 The pace of information revolution is speeding up.
- The second revolution arrived 1,700 years after
the first crested. The last four, each quite
distinct, have overlapped during the last two
centuries.
 Question – understanding Malaysia/ Malaysian? i) looking from Digital
Media Literacy; & ii. “Malaysia are far left behind China (PRC)”
*further reading
 The Chicago School

 Harold Lasswell and Propaganda Analysis

 Paul F. Lazarsfeld and mass

Communications Effects
 Kurt Lewin and Group Dynamics

 Carl Hovland and Persuasion Research

 Norbert Wiener and Cybernetics

 Claude E. Shannon’s Information Theory

 TUTORIAL DISCUSSION
Media affects the society in which it plays a
role not by the content delivered over the
medium, but by the characteristics of the
medium itself.
McLuhan
 Why?
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