INTRODUCTION

Communication has accompanied humanity since its beginnings and is an essential part of social development. Even before spoken language, humans communicated through signs and gestures. Over time, speech established itself as the predominant form of expression, until the first graphic records, such as cave art, appeared, marking an important transition toward visual communication and the representation of ideas through symbols.

As societies advanced, writing came to occupy a central place in human communication. Initially pictorial and later ideographic, writing evolved into alphabetic, transforming it into a powerful instrument for recording and transmitting knowledge. This process was neither linear nor uniform, but reflected multiple cultural trajectories and historical needs, culminating in a written language that was increasingly structured, adaptable, and widespread.

The emergence of letters and other written formats also enabled a blurring of the lines between public and private. Communication took on new dimensions with the strengthening of institutions and the advancement of the modern state, promoting changes in people’s private and collective lives. At the same time, the concept of privacy began to take shape more clearly, influencing both the way individuals expressed themselves and the organization of social spaces.

The development of technologies such as the printing press, the telephone, radio, and, later, television, represented true milestones in the history of communication. These advances not only facilitated the dissemination of information but also radically transformed the way people interacted, influencing behavior, thought, and power structures. From the 20th century onward, these innovations became fundamental to education, culture, and politics.

The digital revolution ushered in a new era of communication. The internet, mobile devices, and social networks transformed modes of social interaction and democratized access to information. Today, communication is simultaneously global, instantaneous, and multifaceted, integrating individuals into networks and enabling new forms of social participation. Understanding this historical trajectory is essential to reflecting on the challenges and possibilities of the present.

THE PRINCIPLE OF COMMUNICATION: HOW DID MEN COMMUNICATE?

In the beginning, man communicated with each other through signs, then came language through speech, the first words, soon after came the drawings recorded through rock art, which are records of a set of images produced on rocky supports sheltered in caves or grottos, but also outdoors on walls and slabs (Viana, 2017), using two methods:

Engraved – includes various techniques for removing or opening the rock surface, such as pecking and abrasion;

Painted – represented by techniques involving the addition of pigments of different colors, dry or pasty, using brushes, fingers, blowing, or stamps.

For Viana (2017), rock art emerged in the Upper Paleolithic period, between 40,000 and 11,000 BC (Before Christ), among human groups who mastered fire, possessed diverse technologies for producing flaked stone tools, and who, in terms of physical constitution, were similar to modern humans.

This was the type of communication we had until the invention of writing, which, according to Andrade (2001), is divided into three phases:

Table 1 – Stages of writing.

Source: Andrade (2001).

Nowadays, with the world becoming increasingly globalized, practically all languages ​​have an alphabet and are written from left to right and top to bottom, but there are a few exceptions. Andrade (2001) states that:

To this day, no one can truly explain the primary cause of writing’s origin. By the time people became aware of its importance, it had already become established through widespread use. Therefore, many societies considered it a gift from the gods. Thus, it is difficult to pinpoint the primary cause for the creation of writing, which was probably not the same for all peoples, nor was it certainly just one, but rather the confluence of several. What can be said with complete conviction is that the invention of writing was a major advance in the development of humanity, as it represents our ideas, which can be recorded for many years, unlike speech, which, if not recorded, quickly vanishes. Furthermore, the mastery of written language marks the beginning of human history (Andrade, 2001, translated by the current author).

This is confirmed by Perles (2001) when he states that the combination of sounds in sequences of varying lengths can, in addition to describing objects, represent ideas. The possibility of graphic signs being represented by sound units smaller than words gave rise to the concept of letters. With them, humanity formed alphabets. Before the alphabet took the form we know today, it underwent numerous transformations. First, syllabaries emerged, consisting of a set of specific signs to represent each syllable, arriving much later at the Greco-Latin alphabet. In this way, we will identify the first forms of communication, already with writing.

FROM LETTERS TO AN INTERCALATION BETWEEN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE

Letters were the primary means of communication between people and their administrative institutions (king and queen, prince and princess, etc.). Letters were used to communicate public events, or even for simple confidential correspondence. Londoño (2002) reveals that in Jesuit missions, religious leaders exchanged information through letters. For the clergy of the Roman Catholic Church, communication through letters was common among religious leaders, not only among the clergy, but also between kingdoms, official appointments, everything was done by letter or decree. Even to start a territorial war, as was common in the Middle Ages, archers would tie letters to their arrows and direct them to the leader of the village they would confront.

For many years, this was the primary means of communication, with a sender and a receiver, and in between, a deliverer, who could be human or animal (birds). Several documents remain on record to this day in various parts of the world. But it’s important to reflect on individual privacy and intimacy, to also consider the private and the public.

For Ariès (1991), individual privacy was a conquest that occurred in Europe from the 16th and 17th centuries onward, as the state and the community ceased to control all social spaces. But it was only in the 19th century that people sought to protect themselves from the gaze of others, choose their lifestyle, and find shelter within the family. Along this path, Ariès (1991) finds the following evidence of the progressive privatization of the period:

The emergence of a literature of civility, in the form of manuals on behavior, hospitality, and conversation;

The writing of intimate diaries (as a form of self-discovery) and letters between friends and lovers;

The discovery of the pleasure of being alone;

The deliberate choice of friends;

The transformation of the home, with smaller, specialized spaces (the living room) and intimate spaces (the study).

The first phase of the privatization process, according to Ariès (1991), was the conquest of individual privacy: “The social spaces that the conquest of the State and the retreat of community sociability left free will give way to the individual, settling into isolation and the shadows.”

The next phase involves the organization of community groups. These are associations for conversation, reading aloud, and debate. These groups, broader than the family, more restricted than the community, are a form of escape from both the crowd and loneliness. In the 18th century, some of these groups became institutionalized as clubs, think tanks, and academies. Ariès (1991) observes that with this movement, such groups lost their informality and spontaneity. This was a form of individual and collective communication in past centuries. On the other hand, what Habermas (2003) calls the public sphere emerges when private individuals begin to make public use of reason. Therefore, the public sphere is based on the private sphere, and private life is constitutive of the public sphere.

In the third phase of the construction of private life, according to Ariès (1991), the family transforms from an economic unit and a center of control over each member’s actions into a “place of refuge where one escapes from outside gazes, a place of affection where relationships of feeling are established between the couple and their children, a place of care for childhood.” Ultimately, what Ariès (1991) observes is the transition from anonymous sociability (on the street, in the courtyard, in the community), when the private and the public were confused, to a restricted sociability.

THE EMERGENCE OF THE PRESS

The printing press was a discovery that marked history, not only for its new mode of disseminating information, but also as a tool that fostered social, political, and psychological change. This altered all aspects of 15th-century European culture. As an instrument of change, it contributed significantly to the emergence of science, religion, culture, and politics. It contributed, in a way, to the emergence of a new model that was emerging: the modern era (Bacelar, 1999). Considered one of the symbols of the Renaissance, the mobile press fostered the breakdown of the rigid social structure that determined laws, contributing to the emergence of an intellectual middle class.

Printing technology triggered a revolution in communications, significantly expanding the circulation of information, altering ways of thinking and social interactions. A significant shift in the purposes and methods of education can be observed as a result of this new technology. Beginning in the 15th century, the view that the primary purpose of schooling was to transmit information, one-to-one, or one-to-a-few, in a face-to-face context, began to erode. With Gutenberg’s invention, it became possible to transmit information from one person to thousands or millions. Information spread more democratically, as knowledge ceased to be held by a few and became accessible to a greater mass. Information gained new frontiers, and thought spread to areas or regions previously inaccessible, even though literacy was a privilege of the few. In this sense, there was a break with the previously limited retention of knowledge (Chaves, 2005).

Around 1450, Gutenberg invented the movable type printing press. With this invention, it became possible to print thousands of identical copies of pamphlets and books. By the end of the 16th century, there were literally millions of printed books scattered throughout the Western world. From then on, written communication, through letters, pamphlets, and books, became a well-established social practice, even though it had been used for at least two thousand years (Chaves, 2005).

Until the 15th century, civilization was predominantly composed of illiterates, and in a social structure based on the pillars of the Church and the nobility, social control was exercised by faith and dogma. Scripture was imposed on the people without question. With Gutenberg’s invention, the social structure gained a new dimension and began to acquire a new meaning. Faith was shaken, and the book, in this context, would be the “cornerstone” for the democratization not only of information, but of the entire way of thinking of future times. In a way, it is impossible to consider reality without considering the contribution of the press and books to the progress of society.

The emergence of the first printed newspapers was also a major milestone of the 16th century. Gutenberg’s mechanical technology automated the text production system and anticipated what would become the Industrial Revolution, which began in England in 1750. Therefore, it is no exaggeration to say that typography established modern communication technology, given that, before that, what we had were primitive technologies (drums, horns, smoke) or archaic (clay tablets, papyrus, parchment).

The World Newspaper Association accepts as true the evidence that the first newspaper on the planet was Relationen, produced by Johann Carolus in 1605. According to the website Observatório da Imprensa em 2005, Carolus resided in Strasbourg, which in the 17th century belonged to the German Empire and today belongs to France. The newspaper’s discoverers, Martin Welker and Jean Pierre Kintz, guarantee that the periodical had been circulating in handwritten copies since 1604. Furthermore, it is not uncommon to come across texts that claim that the Actas Diurnas, published in Rome since 59 BC, are the origin of journalism.

FROM PHONE TO RADIO

As stated in the introduction, the inventor of the telephone was Alexander Graham Bell in 1876, and since its invention, the use of this device has raised questions about the social role of this invention and the forms of relationship between public and private spaces. For Careto (1997):

Today, communications are seen as a global and increasingly international business. However, the international dimension of communications is intrinsic to the sector, as evidenced by the following: a) The telephone was invented in 1876, eleven years after the creation of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in 1865; b) Just eight years after the invention of the telephone, the first international connection was established, between Paris and Brussels; d) In the case of postal services, the organization responsible for this activity within the United Nations (UPU) was founded in 1874 (Careto, 1997, translated by the current author).

Today’s society benefits from the results of various past revolutions, whether industrial, technological, scientific, political, or thought-provoking. Indeed, daily life has not been the same since the invention of the telephone in 1876. This laid the foundations for the development of the telecommunications sector and the implementation of new means of communication that irreversibly shaped the way of life of future generations.

At the end of the 19th century, telecommunications, through electromagnetic waves, began to change the dimensions of the world. In September 1895, Guglielmo Marconi made the first radio transmission. In 1897, he obtained patent number 12,039 in London for the transmission of electrical impulses and signals with a radio.

In 1901, Marconi made the first transoceanic transmission, sending signals between Cornwall, England, and Newfoundland, Canada. This was a breakthrough for the time. On a social level, radio was met with some distrust; both political and social circles failed to recognize its value. This happened because the invention of radio was accidental and there was no social pressure; in other words, it did not arise from a social need. 

Another reason for this distrust was the era of the telephone. Radio as a Mass Communication Medium (MCM) lacked the privacy of the telephone; its messages reached many people’s ears and were not kept secret. Therefore, it was initially used as a means of entertainment rather than as a MCM.

Politics was the first power to recognize the importance of radio. In Italy, during Mussolini’s reign, he used radio to convey fascist ideals. He published three chronicles a week and extolled the current regime.

The same thing happened in Germany. Hitler spread Nazi ideals and prepared for World War II by mobilizing soldiers. In the US, it was used by politicians during the presidential elections of Franklin and Hoover. The world uses radio for political purposes. In the US, radio coincided with a period of economic liberalism. There were no regulations governing the installation of stations. But at a certain point, radio legislation began to be passed, regulating advertising, charging and imposing taxes on stations, and censoring some content.

Germany usurped radio, monopolized it, and used it for political purposes. There was no freedom for stations to use it. England initially approved the private exploitation of radio, so there were many stations. But these private stations were banned, and the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) was formed, a union of several stations that began to share a common interest. Radio was important during World War II because it enabled communication between armies.

In the US, radio became an instrument for broadcasting advertising and commercial services. In Europe, there was no possibility for private agents to embed their advertising. Thus, two distinct services emerged, expressing two poles: public service and commercial service. Europe was experiencing a war situation. The role of the State was stronger. Advertising was banned on the radio due to totalitarian regimes.

Why was the invention of the radio accidental? What was actually sought was a cordless telephone. However, at the time, there was a problem with the transmitter, as it was necessary to install antennas measuring large meters. This was because the transmitter had to be capable of both transmission and reception, meaning a huge transmission antenna had to be installed in each home.

But it turned out that it was much easier to have multiple receivers for reception and a single transmitter for transmission. Thus, thousands upon thousands of people now had a small radio for reception and a single transmitter. This wasn’t what they were looking for, but due to technological limitations, radio emerged. The Cold War was a period in which there were two world powers: the USA and the USSR. During this period, there were the capitalist and socialist blocs.

The role of radio in this case was the same as it was in WWII, except that in this case it wasn’t communication between armies, but rather the defense of capitalist and socialist interests.

THE GREAT INVENTIONS OF THE 20TH CENTURY

According to Abreu (2012), back in the 19th century, in 1817, Swedish scientist Jakob Berzellus noted the photosensitivity of selenium when exposed to light. Berzellus’s discovery, that selenium had the ability to transform light energy into electrical energy, was only confirmed 56 years later, in 1873, by Irish telegraphist Willougeby Smith May, who conducted further research on selenium.

In 1884, German Paul Nipkow patented a proposal for transmitting images over a distance, earning him the title of the founder of television technology. Nipkow produced a disk filled with small perforations, mounted so that, rotating at high speed, it could project the image of a small cross over great distances.

Also in the 19th century, in 1892, German scientists Juluis Elster and Hans Geitel invented the photoelectric cell, expanding on Smith’s research. In 1900, Constantin Perskyi presented a thesis at the International Electricity Congress in Paris describing the operation of a device based on the photoconductive properties of selenium, transmitting images over a distance. The title of that work was “Television,” a word he coined from the combination of two terms: 1) tele, which can be translated from the Greek as “far,” and 2) videre, which in Latin means “vision.” In 1906, Arbwhnett developed a system for remote viewing (television) using cathode rays and the mechanical scanning of mirrors. Boris Rosing, in Russia, also developed a similar technique.

In 1920, building on Niptow’s work, Scottish scientist John Logie Baird made the first transmissions using this mechanical system. The iconoscope, an invention that used the cathode ray tube, a special tube that eliminated the mechanical process developed by Nipkow, emerged in Russia in 1923, based on the studies of Wladimir Kosma Zworykin.

The Scottish Baira managed to transmit the outlines of objects from a distance in 1924; and the following year, 1925, John Logie Baird transmitted, from his home, remote images of his neighbor William Taynton to the house next door, making Taynton the first person televised live in the history of television, using the mechanical standard and 30-line definition. In 1927, Phil Farnworth patented a cathode ray image dryer system, but its resolution was unsatisfactory, thus inventing electronic television.

In England, in 1930, the BBC was inaugurated, pioneering the world’s first television broadcast with a 240-line image, a minimum standard that technicians called “high definition” because it ensured good quality and clarity. Within three months, the BBC’s official system already had 405 lines. Years later, René Bartelemy promoted the first broadcast in France. Further deployments of the television system spread throughout Europe.

Germany was the first country to install public television, in March 1935, adopting a “medium definition” standard: 180 lines and 25 frames per second. In 1936, three BBC London electronic cameras broadcast the coronation ceremony of King George VI of Great Britain, reaching approximately 50,000 viewers, cementing the importance of British television worldwide. Clearly, the image and transmission quality were nowhere near what we see today. In Russia, television began operating in 1938.

A year later, in the United States, the television broadcast, with both image and sound, of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s speech at the New York Trade Fair marked the beginning of electronic communication in the Americas.

The United States is the country that best understood and embraced the new media era. NBC debuted in 1941, introducing the marketing format of mass communication, with advertisers and sponsors guaranteeing programming. Zworykin coordinated the RCA group, which produced the Orticon, the first television tube produced on an industrial scale, starting in 1945. It was in the United States that television achieved its most significant achievements, especially after the end of World War II.

Regarding the quality of television broadcasts, the information obtained indicates that in 1950, the French broadcaster operated with 819-line definition, the BBC in London with 405 lines, in Russia with 625 lines, and in the United States and Japan with 525 lines.

Regarding cable TV, Abreu (2012) states that:

Cable TV is synonymous with consumer-paid TV, with the trade-off of a greater variety of channels than broadcast TV (as the name suggests, it’s non-pay TV) and greater interactivity, such as purchasing exclusive movie and sports program packages, which broadcast TV doesn’t offer. Cable TV was the result of a challenge encountered by television retailers in the U.S. states of Pennsylvania and Oregon. In cities in the mountainous regions of those states, television picture quality was only satisfactory in stores, as they were connected to an antenna. Retailers then began running cables to customers’ homes, charging for this service, and sales increased. Thus, cable began to be used to distribute not only local channels but also signals from stations in other cities, via a short microwave path. Thus, it was possible to broadcast exclusive channels on certain topics because broadcasters knew their audience and, to a certain extent, what they would like to watch (Abreu, 2012, translated by the current author).

The Internet emerged in 1967 as ARPANET, a project to keep American bases connected during the Cold War, becoming popular in the 1990s (Lins, 2013). With the emergence of the first home computers in 1974 and the sending of the first email in 1972, technology took a huge leap forward in a short time with the emergence of the first cell phone. Soon after, in 1981, the Windows operating system emerged, and less than 10 years later, the first notebooks hit the market. In 1983, the first Internet provider, AOL, emerged.

THE DEMOCRATIZATION OF ACCESS TO INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN THE 21ST CENTURY

For Lins (2013), the democratization of access to technology in the 1980s and 1990s, and the popularization of the internet, even through dial-up connections, were fundamental to the modernization of the 21st century, where today we have internet access in the palm of our hands through touchscreen technologies.

Da Silva, Ribeiro, and Filho (2018) present the current types of cable or wireless connections, which emerged commercially and were developed in the mid-2000s through the following technologies:

I. ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) – provided by a fixed-line telephone operator that uses the telephone line to transmit this connection with a data frequency of kilobits and/or megabits per second, where the download speed (receiving files) is greater than the upload speed (sending files); II. Copper wire coaxial cable – provided primarily by pay-TV companies, uses the same type of connection to transmit TV channels through the “Frequency Division Multiplexing” (FDM) method, which provides equal download and upload speeds; III. Fiber Optic – not yet widely adopted by Brazilian users, but is already expanding in large urban centers, uses a more consistent connection, and can reach gigabits per second; IV. Radio – widely used in rural areas or in urban areas far from the coverage of the analog or digital signal of the telecommunications network or satellite; V. Mobile networks – provided by mobile phone operators, currently in the fourth generation of wireless mobile telecommunications technology, which consists of providing internet via satellite using signal reproducing towers. (Da Silva, Ribeiro and Filho, 2018, p. 270-271, translated by the current author)

Today, with mobile networks, it is possible to share information and connect with people anywhere in the world at any time, in real time, while simultaneously mobilizing thousands of people through digital social media. The internet has changed the way we communicate, influencing virtually every professional field, and anyone with even the slightest knowledge can operate tools, applications, and devices and share this knowledge with those who have difficulty using these technologies. In governance, the vast majority of services are digitized and virtualized, thus reducing lines and waiting times at government offices, banks, etc.

The advent of social media was another crucial milestone for the democratization of information and freedom of expression, allowing minority movements to have a voice and today building a movement of activism in which they participate in political decisions, mobilizing online in the virtual world, but also in the real world.

Technological advancement brought fundamental milestones such as Gutenberg’s printing press, which democratized access to information and fostered social, political, and educational transformations. Later, inventions such as the telephone, radio, and television expanded mass communication, being appropriated by political regimes and the market. In the 21st century, with the expansion of the internet, mobile networks, and digital technologies, access to information became even more democratized. Communication became instantaneous and global, profoundly influencing social, political, and economic relations, in addition to redefining everyday practices, including digitalized public services.

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS

The evolution of human communication, from primitive signs to sophisticated digital technologies, reveals a continuous process of adaptation and innovation. Each new invention, from rock art to alphabetic writing, from handwritten letters to printed books, marked a turning point not only in how information was shared but also in how societies organized themselves culturally, politically, and socially. This trajectory highlights that communication has always been a fundamental pillar of human development, deeply intertwined with transformations in knowledge production, governance, and collective life.

With the emergence of mass media, particularly the printing press, radio, and television, the dissemination of information reached unprecedented scales. These technologies not only amplified the public’s access to content but also redefined the boundaries between private and public life, empowering individuals while simultaneously enabling political regimes and markets to appropriate these tools for persuasion and control. In parallel, the consolidation of the press and the development of regulatory frameworks helped shape a media environment that oscillated between freedom of expression and institutional constraints.

The advent of the internet and mobile digital technologies in the late 20th and early 21st centuries marked the dawn of a new communicational paradigm. Real-time, decentralized, and global, digital communication has made information more accessible, participatory, and interactive. Citizens are now able to engage in political debates, access public services online, and co-create content across various platforms. This shift has also led to a redefinition of citizenship, transforming it into a more active, networked, and digitally mediated experience, while simultaneously raising new ethical, political, and social challenges, such as data privacy, algorithmic control, and digital exclusion.

In light of this historical journey, it becomes clear that communication is not only a technical or informational process, but a deeply social and political practice. Its evolution reflects the complexity of human experience and the ongoing struggle for inclusion, freedom, and equity. Understanding the dynamics between technology, media, and society is essential to navigating the present and shaping a future in which information circulates freely, critically, and responsibly, fostering a more democratic and inclusive world.

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