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to any one who might pass by that spot. Plainly to carve letters in stone is an
expensive and laborious business. It was mainly used by those who wished
their message to be conveyed to the future generations. Two examples of
major inscriptions used for propaganda are the inscriptions in Ankara in
Turkey and that of the epicurean philosophy of Diogenes at the town centre
of Oenoanda in Asia Minor. The Ashoka pillar in Old Fort, Delhi, in the 3rd
century BC is yet another example.

The Written Word

Written word had certain advantage as a means of communication. Even
though one has to take into account the advantages of printing, the advan-
tage of the written word still remains. The most obvious advantage was that
it was a means of communicating from a distance. Secondly, it made anony-
mous writers publish their works. Everyone can see a person delivering a
speech. However, one can tell who has composed a piece of writing. This is
important for the purposes of propaganda. Words, whose genuine source
might obviously be tainted, could circulate freely. The written word made
possible the consultation of the work as a permanent record. The historical
writings are, thus, a kind of reference for the statesmen. The written word
made the development of prose style easier.
We have started from non-verbal communication and ended with the
written word. There was a Greek myth about Cadmus of Thebes. One of his
achievements was to introduce the alphabet. His other achievement was to
sow the dragon’s teeth and reap a harvest of armed soldiers. McLuhan wrote,
‘Like any other myth this one encapsulates a prolonged process into a flash-
ing insight. The alphabets mean power and authority and control of military
structures at a distance.’

Theories of CommuniCaTion

The history of theories of communication is a record of the tensions between
material and in material networks, biological and social paradigms, nature
and culture, technical device and speech, economics and culture, micro and
macro perspectives, village and globe, actor and septum, free will and social
determinisms.
The notion of communication theory poses just as many problems as that
of communication itself and that, too, has given rise to contradictory debate.
First, as often happens in the human and social science, there is a strong
opposition between one school or epistemology and another concerning the
status and definition of the theory. It is left to the discerning reader to judge
whether it is the clearer formulae of one theorist or the weighty philosophical

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