Communication

Abstract

The study of communication processes is a key concern of recent work in the historical sciences.¹ To understand the transmission of information between two parties, scholars traditionally ask ‘who’ [sender] passes on ‘what’ [message] in ‘which’ [medium] to ‘whom’ [receiver] with ‘what’ consequences [effect]?² Even in a ‘face-to-face society’ like pre-industrial Europe, ‘man-media’ were by no means the only available instruments of exchange.³ The cultural history of the Reformation offers an early example of the complex interweaving of oral and written communication, ranging from sermons and jokes to woodcuts and theological treatises, in the promulgation of new ideas.⁴ Over and above the mere transmission of information, furthermore, ‘communication studies’ can illuminate the processes by which participants create ‘meaning’ for themselves, that is how they interpret signals in idiosyncratic ways, how certain messages become ‘coded’ (for example, rituals invested with acknowledged significance) and how social institutions can evolve out of routinized information exchange. From this perspective, the early modern centuries acquire a distinct period profile, marked by a gradual transition from a ‘need for presence’ to the development of media and instruments (law codes, bills of exchange, state bureaucracy) enabling effective communication without immediate personal contact.⁵