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The Communication Of Information And The Printing Press

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The communication of information, from religious to secular, and from scholarly to

popular, has been important to the development of civilization. From hand writing the Bible, to

being able to print it in less than a minute, the printing press has truly changed the world. We

thank China for the first production of the printing press in the 6th century AD. The printing

press has allowed for more ideas to be shared, more widespread knowledge, and entertainment to

be expressed. This is definitely one of the greatest inventions of all time.

In the ancient past, methods of communicating information were limited. “Before the

invention of writing…information could be spread only by word of mouth, with all the

accompanying limitations of place and time” (“History of publishing”). This means that

information could only be accurately spread in small areas and over short periods of time

because the process relied on people remembering information and telling it to each other.

Writing was therefore an important development, but in the ancient world, writing was mostly

done by priests, and very few ancient cultures used writing for purposes other than religion,

recording laws, and record keeping (“History of publishing”). In the ancient Middle East, clay

tablets were often used to record written information, while in Egypt papyrus was used (“History

of publishing”). The process of writing on clay tablets was time consuming. “While the clay was

still wet,

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