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Communications technology is not an end in itself, but rather a means of supplying and preserving information and content. The satellite and web technologies have enhanced the capacity of the electronic media to fulfill their role in producing, gathering and distributing diverse quality content to meet the political, social and cultural needs of all societies, both in developed and developing countries.
Electronic channels range from the electronic mail (email) to television and from the telephone to videoconferencing. When Samuel Morse invented the telegraph in 1835, no one imagined that electronic communication systems would have such a pervasive impact on the way people send and receive information. In general, electronic channels serve as transducers for written and oral communication. A fax machine, for example, converts text and graphic information into electronic signals to transmit them to another fax machine, where they are converted back into text and graphic images. Likewise, television converts oral and visual images into electronic signals for sending and then back into oral and visual images at the receiver’s end.
Electronic channels usually have the same basic characteristics as the other channels, but electronic media exert their own influence. The most obvious of these are speed and reach. Electronic channels cover more distance more quickly than is possible with traditional means of conveying information. The speed and reach of electronic channels create new expectations for both sender and receiver, and while the fundamental characteristics of oral and written communication remain, the perceptions of electronic messages are different from those of their traditional equivalents.
The advent of electronic communication channels created an awareness of whether communication was synchronous or asynchronous. Synchronous communication requires both the sender and the receiver to be available at the same time. Face-to-face meetings, telephone conversations, “live” radio and television (most talk shows, sporting events, and anything else not prerecorded), videoconferencing, and electronic “chat rooms” are all examples of synchronous communication. Letters and other printed documents, electronic mail, electronic conferences, voice mail, and prerecorded video are all examples of asynchronous communication.
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