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Communication & Argumentation · Module 6

The Story of Communication

The first five modules taught the craft of communicating today. This module steps back to tell the story of communication itself: how humans went from speech to writing, from handwritten scrolls to the printing press, from mass media to the networked world.

Along the way you will see a recurring truth: every new medium reshapes society, spreading both knowledge and falsehood, and provoking both hope and fear. Understanding this long arc makes you a wiser, more trustworthy communicator in any age — including today's.

Lessons
7 lessons
Estimated time
~6-8 hours
Assessment
Module quiz included

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Lessons

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The Story of Communication — Module Assessment

14 questions · pass mark 75%

  1. 1.According to the earliest evidence, one major early use of writing in Sumer was:
  2. 2.Which statement best captures why writing was revolutionary compared to speech alone?
  3. 3.What was Johannes Gutenberg's key contribution around 1440 to 1450?
  4. 4.Which statement about movable type and the printing revolution is accurate?
  5. 5.What made the penny press of the 1830s a turning point in the history of communication?
  6. 6.What is the most accurate historical assessment of the 1938 War of the Worlds broadcast?
  7. 7.Which statement correctly distinguishes the internet from the World Wide Web?
  8. 8.What is a balanced historical view of social media's rise in the 2000s?
  9. 9.What is the central claim behind McLuhan's phrase "the medium is the message"?
  10. 10.How should McLuhan's ideas best be treated today?
  11. 11.What broad pattern repeats with each new communication technology?
  12. 12.Which approach best strengthens trust in a surprising claim?
  13. 13.According to this lesson, what best explains why the essentials of good communication endure even as media change?
  14. 14.What does Plato's "Phaedrus" (roughly 370 BCE) illustrate about new communication technologies?
Answer every question to submit.