## 2 Information as a Variable in Media Ecology Analysis
### Dissemination and Conditions of Attendance  
The Shannon-Weaver Model represents what in technical terms would be called point-to-point transmission. In human face-to-face communication, this most closely resembles dyadic situations such as conversation and dialogue, albeit minus the back-and-forth. Such interpersonal communication can also occur in the context of small groups without much altering the essential quality of one-to-one transmission. It is also possible to have communication on a one-to-many basis, such as we associate with public address and oratory (as well as other forms of oral performance). In ancient Greece, where the written word had given rise to both a larger, more complex form of social organization in Athens and its neighbors and colonies, and a more sophisticated form of public speaking through the development of rhetoric (the use of writing to review, edit, and study oratory), the conflict between the philosophers and sophists represented a contrast between the two types of relationships, one-to-one and one-to many. And while dialogue emerged as the generally accepted ideal form of communication, public address remained highly significant in politics, law, and religion [36]. The printing press with moveable type introduced by [PERSON] in the mid-15 th century, in mechanizing the act of copying written works, provided unprecedented possibilities for the mass production of messages. This new ability to communicate from one-to-many eliminated the noise introduced via scribal corruption, and made the mass dissemination of information a reality. Speed of dissemination was limited, however, by the fact that the press was for the most part powered by human muscle until the introduction of steam powered printing in the early 19 th century truly ushered in the age of mass communication. By the end of the century, [PERSON]'s wireless telegraphy opened the door to broadcasting, a new kind of mass communication, and commercial radio became commonplace during the 1920s. Mass dissemination of information is not easily separated from mass opinion, advertising and public relations, and propaganda--indeed, the term _information_ is used as an euphemism for propaganda in the United States and elsewhere (e.g., the United States Information Agency). While steam-powered printing and broadcasting are similar in their potential for the mass dissemination of information, they differ in that printing requires physical transportation from the point of production out to the mass readership, reinforcing the center-margin relationships that can be traced back to the first empires of the ancient world, made possible by the written word and lightweight writing surfaces. Broadcasting, on the other hand, does not disseminate a fully formed message in the way that printing does, but rather sends out a signal that is transformed into a message at the point of reception, by the user's radio or television set. In this, the electronic media follow the bias towards decentralization associated with electricity and electric technology more generally, as [PERSON] first observed [37]. For [PERSON], this meant the dissolution of center-margin distinctions, so that anywhere and everywhere is potentially a center, at least as long as it is in range of broadcast signals [7, 29, 30, 31, 38]. This shift is further realized by computer networks and mobile devices. Moreover, electronic communications facilitate many-to-many communication in a manner never before possible. The potential was first glimpsed in the early days of radio, when the medium was still dominated by amateurs, and continued in the relatively narrow part of the spectrum reserved for citizen's band and ham radio operators. It was the internet, however, that revolutionized many-to-many communication, so that information now is seen as distributed, to a large extent, through decentralized networks, along with being shared through one-to-one interactions, as well as disseminated from one-to-many.