Concentration
on a medium of communication implies a bias in the cultural development
of the civilization concerned either towards an emphasis on space and
political organization or towards an emphasis on time and religious
organization. Introduction of a second medium tends to check the bias
of the first and to create conditions suited to the growth of empire.
The Byzantine
empire emerged from a fusion of a bias incidental to papyrus in relation
to political organization and of parchment in relation to ecclesiastical
organization. The dominance of parchment in the West gave a bias towards
ecclesiastical organization which led to the introduction of paper with
its bias toward political organization.
With printing,
paper facilitated an effective development of the vernaculars and gave
expression to their vitality in the growth of nationalism. The adaptability
of the alphabet to large-scale machine industry became the basis of
literacy, advertising, and trade. The book as a specialized product
of printing and, in turn, the newspaper strengthened the position of
language as a basis of nationalism.
In the
United States the dominance of the newspaper led to large-scale development
of monopolies of communication in terms of space and implied a neglect
of problems of time. Regional monopolies of metropolitan newspapers
have been stregthened by monopolies of press associations. The bias
of paper towareds an emphasis on space and its monopolies of knowledge
has been checked by the development of a new medium, the radio. The
results have been evident in an increasing concern with problems of
time reflected in the growth of planning and the socialized state.
The instability
involved in dependence on the newspaper in the United States and the
Western world has facilitated an appeal to force as a possible stabilizing
factor. The ability to develop a system of government in which the bias
of communication can be checked and an appraisal of the significance
of space and time can be reached remains a problem of empire and of
the Western world.