Information Transmission

Welcome to class!

In today’s class, we will be talking about information transmission. Enjoy the class!

Information Transmission

Information Transmission is the process of sending out processed data from one person or place to another in a meaningful form through a communication medium. Human beings have been transmitting information since ancient times thus there are both ancient and modern means of transmitting the information.

Ancient methods of transmitting information

These are the methods used by our forefathers. They include the following:

Oral (Face to Face) Communication: This is a method whereby the sender (informant) meets with the receiver (recipient) face to face in order to pass information across.
Beating Drums: Drum beating is another way of transmitting information from the sender to the receiver. Drums are used to inform the Villagers of certain invents such as hunting, farming, death announcement etc. Every event has its unique tune that the villagers can understand.
Smoke Signals: This method is used to pass information by bush burning to alert the people in the environment of the incoming danger.
Making representation: Information could be sent from one village to another with the use of representation. E.g. Tying a cutlass with a red cloth which will inform the receiver that something bad is coming, if proper attention is not taken.
Town Crier: Information was passed by town crier shouting the information repeatedly around the town.
Drawing diagrams: The diagram will be drawn on the walls or on the banks of trees. The messages are always understood by the person it was made for.

Modern methods of transmitting information

With the development of technology, it is now possible to pass information straight to the audience. Ancient means of communication have been replaced by more efficient modern ones. Modern means of transmitting information include:

Writing: Instead of making marks or using objects to communicate, in modern times, information can be transmitted by writing, which is done either by hand or by using machines such as computers or typewriters.
Printing Machine: Printed materials are just like typewritten ones. Printing allows mass production of informative materials that could be spread far and wide e.g. Production of invitation cards, handbills newspapers etc.
Radio: Voice information is broadcast to a group of people in a geographical location at the same time within a few minutes.
Television: This is used to broadcast information in the form of both voice and pictures to people in a different location.
Internet: This means international network, the information, in this case, is globally broadcast to the whole world for those that have interest in updating themselves.
Fax: This transmit text and graphic messages from one location to the other, it might be within the country or outside the country with the use of a series of numbers called fax number.
Telephone: Telephone allows people’s voices to be transmitted over long or short distances.
Telex: A telex machine is used to transmit textual information from one person to another usually over a long distance.
Satellite: A satellite is an object which has been placed into the orbit by human endeavour in other to improve sending radio, telephone and internet signals to any part of the world. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellite to distinguish from natural satellite such as the moon.
GSM: GSM means Global System for Mobile Communication. We use this to send and receive phone calls. One benefit of GSM phone is the addition of a SIM (Subscriber Identification Module) card.