Introduction

The sophisticated nature of communication sets humans apart from other crea- tures. Since prehistoric times, as evidenced in cave paintings, people have used images, placed where others would encounter them, to communicate important information.

For the past 120 years or so, rapid advances in technology have transformed human communication faster and to a greater degree than in all the time before. Since the development of the motion picture in about 1890 with the advent of Dickson and Edison’s Kinetoscope, the screen, with moving imagesand text, became a dominant form of communication (Figure I.1). At first a source of novelty, then entertainment, it also became a source of news, information, propaganda, and advertising within its ...

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