National History Day 1993 Communication in History: The Key to Understanding

Cathy Gorn

To understand the historical importance of their topics, students must ask questions of time and place, cause and effect, change over time, and impact and significance.  They must ask not only when did this happen, but why did this happen?  Why at this particular time or place?  What factors contributed to its development?  What was its impact or lasting significance in history?  How did this topic change the course of events?  What effect did it have on a community, society, nation and/or the world (politically, socially, culturally and economically)?

The relationship of technology to communication comes to mind as an obvious means of addressing the theme of communication in history.  Indeed, modern society is dependent upon and inundated with technologies such as television, telephone, and radio.  These and other technologies, such as satellites, stereo systems and long distance cables, have had important and often dramatic effects ranging from the ways families organize their daily lives to the communication of ideas throughout the world.  Students must be cautioned that such technologies represent the means of communication; technology itself does not communicate.  For example, it is not enough to explain the invention of the television.  Students should ask questions about the historical changes that resulted from the development and spread of television:  what role has television played in American presidential campaigns?  How has television been used to shape our ideas and culture; about the products we sell and the ways we portray men and women?  What impact did the use of television have on communicating information about the Vietnam War to millions of Americans?  What role did television play in the success of Eastern European rebellions or the failure of the Tiennaman Square protests in China? 

Students may wish to create a project that explores the impact of the telephone in history.  How did this piece of communication technology help to revolutionize business practices?  What impact has it had socially and economically on society?  A performance might be created which analyzes the impact of the typewriter in facilitating communication in business and its impact on women in the labor force.  Or students might ask questions about the use and impact of communication systems and computers in intelligence operations during the Cold War era.

Throughout history, individuals, groups and organizations have used oratory and actions to communicate ideas to influence social change.  A paper might be written which analyzes Thomas Paine’s Common Sense and its impact on the ideology of the American Revolution.  Would a pamphlet be the method of choice to communicate political ideas in the nineteenth Century?  Today?  Students might create a project that compares the uses of non-violent protest to communicate ideas of freedom and civil rights by Mohandas Gandhi in India and Martin Luther King, Jr. in the United States.  Or a performance might be developed which dramatizes the use of labor strikes to communicate workers’ message and cause.  What method did strikers in Flint, Michigan use to communicate their message during the winter of 1936-1937?

People throughout history have sought improved means of communicating ideas with one another through language, codes and symbols.  What impact did Louis Braille have on communications?  How was he able to influence and improve written communication for the visually impaired?  How have institutions advanced communication and understanding?  What role has Gallaudet University played in educating individuals who are hearing impaired?  What role has sign language played in furthering understanding and communication?

How have ideas and messages been communicated in the absence of written language or to facilitate communication?  Students may want to create a project which analyzes and illustrates the transmission of cultural traditions and values through crafts or storytelling, or a performance which dramatizes the Native American’s use of oral history to convey cultural traditions and history.  What system of communication have the Zulus of South Africa used?  What is the Griot Tradition in West Africa and what impact has it had in history?  How did field songs enable slaves to communicate on southern plantations during eighteenth and nineteenth century America?  Why was such communication important for slave resistance?

Students may want to examine the means of communication before the invention of the telegraph or telephone.  For example, a performance might be created which interprets Paul Revere’s famous ride during the American Revolution.  What was he trying to communicate?

Literature and the arts have served as expressions of political ideas, social protest, human emotions and cultural traditions and values.  Students may want to examine the works of artists such as Theodore Dreiser, Francois Voltaire, or Jane Austin.  How did these authors use their novels to communicate social and political ideas?  A paper might be written which interprets the work of Langston Hughes and his impact on the Harlem Renaissance.  A project might be developed that examines the role that the sculpture of Gothic cathedrals played in late medieval society.  Students might create a media presentation which analyzes the music and counterculture of the 1960s.

The modern world is characterized by global communication systems which virtually put an end to world isolation.  What role did Cyrus W. Field and the Anglo-American Telegraph Company play in the history of trans-Atlantic telecommunications?  How has the space satellite been used to foster communication in history?  How has global communication changed since the nineteenth century and what impact has it had in history?  A paper may analyze the writings of Marshall McLuhan and the impact of ideas about communication on peoples understanding of changing technologies.

As long as humans have been communicating, some have tried to regulate or control communication, sometimes through government legislation, religious laws, propaganda or censorship.  What was the Radio Act of 1927?  The Communications Act of 1934 established the Federal Communications Commission.  Why was it created and how has the FCC had significant impact on communication in history?

What role has censorship played in relation to national security?  What were the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 and what was their subsequent impact?  What was the Espionage Act of 1917 and what was its relationship to World War I?  How has censorship been used to control freedom of expression?  Several famous court cases might be analyzed to understand attempts to control communication.  Why is the Scopes Trial (1925) important in understanding attempts to interpret the First Amendment?  How have religious organizations attempted to control ideas through accusations of blasphemy or heresy?  Students may wish to write a paper that compares the Scopes Trial and the trial of Galileo.

How did the rhetoric of Patrick Henry, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, “Big Bill” Haywood, Martin Luther King, Jr. or Betty Friedan help to change the course of history because of the ideas that they communicated?  What role has rhetoric played in civil rights movements for minorities and women?  Students might want to analyze the power of speech-making and rhetoric and the influence it had on Nazi Germany or post-revolutionary Iran.

What happens when individuals, groups, or nations fail to communicate?  What was the Zimmerman Telegram and what impact did it have on World War I?  How has history been affected when individuals or nations fail to communicate because of language or cultural barriers?  How has history been affected by the communication of false ideas such as craniology or ideas about racial inferiority?

How did individuals communicate in the ancient world?  What do hieroglyphics tell us about life in ancient Egypt?  What do artifacts and burial tombs tell archaeologists about the lives of Egyptian Pharaohs?  Students might create a project which analyzes the invention of alphabetic writing in Syria (1500 B.C.) and its impact on communication in history.

These examples are only a few of the scores of topics available for study.  Whatever topic is chosen, students should remember to place their topics into historical perspective.  Studies must include research into available primary and secondary sources and must indicate the topic’s significance in history, showing development over time.  After months of historical research and interpretation of the materials, students may then develop projects and use the National History Day array of local, state and national competitions as a forum to demonstrate their scholarly exploration on communication in history and its key to understanding.