A TIMELINE OF MEDIA AND COMMUNICATIONS

c 3,300 BC Writing is invented in Iraq

c 1,600 BC The alphabet is invented in Lebanon and Israel

c 200 BC Paper is invented in China

c 1445 AD Johannes Gutenburg invented the printing press

1476 William Caxton introduces the printing press into England

1512 Henry VIII created the Royal Mail

1609 The first newspapers are printed in German

1621 The first English newspaper is printed

1690 The first American newspaper is printed

1702 The first successful daily newspaper in England is published

1752 The first Canadian newspaper is published

1783 The first daily american newspaper is published

1785 The Daily Universal Register is printed. In 1788 it is renamed The Times

1791 The Observer is founded

1821 The Manchester Guardian is founded. In 1859 it is renamed The Guardian

1635 King Charles I allows private citizens to send messages by Royal Mail for a fee

1837 The telegraph is invented. Isaac Pitman invents shorthand.

1840 Rowland Hill invents the Penny Post

1855 In Britain stamp duty on newspapers is removed making them much cheaper

1874 The first succesful typewriter is invented

1876 Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone

1880 The New York Graphic is the first newspaper to print a photo

1888 The Financial Times is first printed

1901 Marconi sends a radio message across the Atlantic

1891 The Daily Graphic is the first newspaper in Britain to print a photo

1900 The Daily Express is first published

1903 The Daily Mirror is first published

1922 The BBC begins radio broadcasting

1926 Television is invented

1927 The first transatlantic telephone line opens

1936 The BBC begins broadcasting television

1962 The first telecommunications satellite is launched

1964 The Daily Herald becomes the Sun

1978 The Daily Star is first published

1985 The first mobile telephone in Britain is made

1986 The Independent is first published

1989 Satellite television begins in Britain

1999 A free newspaper called Metro is published

2010 i an abbreviated version of The Independent is first published

COMMUNICATION THROUGH THE AGES

Communication in Ancient Times

The first means of communication was, of course, the human voice but in 3,300 BC in Iraq writing was invented. It was invented slightly later (about 3,100 BC) in Egypt and about 1,500 BC in China. However the only American civilisation to invent a true system of writing were the Mayans.

The next big step was the invention of the alphabet in what is now Israel and Lebanon about 1,600 BC.

In the Ancient World many civilisations including Egypt, Assyria, Persia, Rome and China had efficient postal systems to deliver messages to parts of their empires using relays of horses.

In the ancient world people wrote on papyrus or parchment. However the Chinese invented paper about 200 BC. The knowledge of how to make paper passed to the Arabs and in the Middle Ages it reached Europe.

The next major improvement in communication was the invention of printing. The Chinese invented printing with blocks in the 6th century AD but the first known printed book was the Diamond Sutra of 686. In Europe in the mid-15th century Johannes Gutenburg invented the printing press, which made books much cheaper and allowed newspapers to be invented. William Caxton introduced the printing press into England in 1476.

The first newspapers were printed in the 17th century. The first newspaper in England was printed in 1621. (However the word newspaper was not recorded until 1670). At first newspapers only printed foreign news. They did not print domestic news until 1641. The first successful daily newspaper in Britain was printed in 1702.

Meanwhile European monarchs set up postal services to carry their messages. In France Louis XI founded one in 1477 and in England Henry VIII created the Royal Mail in 1512. In 1635 to raise money Charles I allowed private citizens to send messages by Royal Mail, for a fee.

Meanwhile the pencil was invented. It was first described in 1565.

Communication in the Modern Age

Communication became far more efficient in the 19th century. In the early 19th century the recipient of a letter had to pay the postage, not the sender. Then in 1840 Rowland Hill invented the Penny Post. From then on the sender of a letter paid. Cheap mail made it much easier for people to keep in touch with loved ones who lived a long way off.

The telegraph was invented in 1837. A cable was laid across the Channel in 1850 and after 1866 it was possible to send messages across the Atlantic.

Meanwhile the first fax machine was invented in 1843. A Scot, Alexander Graham Bell, invented the telephone in 1876. The first telephone exchange in Britain opened in 1879. The first telephone directory in London was published in 1880. The first telephone line from London to Paris opened in 1891. The first transatlantic telephone line opened in 1927.

Meanwhile the first successful typewriter was made in 1874 and the first successful fountain pen was made in 1884.

In 1829 Louis Braille invented an embossed typeface for the blind and in 1837 Isaac Pitman invented shorthand.

Communication continued to improve in the 20th century. In 1901 Marconi sent a radio message across the Atlantic. Radio broadcasting began in Britain in 1922 when the BBC was formed. By 1933 half the households in Britain had a radio. Following the 1972 Sound Broadcasting Act independent radio stations were formed. In the 1990s new radio stations included Radio 5 Live (1990) and Classic FM (1991).

Television was invented in 1926 by John Logie Baird and the BBC began broadcasting in 1936. TV was suspended during World War II but it began again in 1946. TV first became common in the 1950s. A lot of people bought a TV set to watch the coronation of Elizabeth II and a survey at the end of the that year showed that about one quarter of households had one. By 1959 about two thirds of homes had a TV. By 1964 the figure had reached 90% and TV had become the main form of entertainment - at the expense of cinema, which declined in popularity.

At first there was only one TV channel in Britain but between 1955 and 1957 the ITV companies began broadcasting. BBC2 began in 1964 and Channel 4 began in 1982. Channel 5 began in 1997. In Britain BBC 2 began broadcasting in colour in 1967, BBC 1 and ITV followed in 1969.

Meanwhile in 1962 the first telecommunications satellite, Telstar was launched. Satellite television began in Britain in 1989.

Meanwhile telephones became common in peoples homes in the 1970s. In 1969 only 40% of British households had a phone but by 1979 the figure had reached 69%. The first mobile phone call in Britain was made in 1985. The first commercial text was sent in 1992.

The internet developed in the 1970s but it did not become accessible to the public until 1991. The first email was sent in 1971 and today email has become one of the most popular methods of communication.

Rupert Murdoch: 'Newspapers will change, not die'

Companies that expect a glorious past to shield them from the forces of change will fail, says Rupert Murdoch. But there is a way of meeting the new challenge crucial way in which the challenge can be met

The scientific revolution that began 300 years ago in Europe has accelerated exponentially, spreading knowledge at a speed that will, I believe, change our way of life.

It is difficult, indeed dangerous, to underestimate the huge changes this revolution will bring or the power of developing technologies to build and to destroy - not just companies but whole countries. For instance, we probably haven't heard the name of what will be the world's largest company in 2020. Indeed, that company may not even exist yet - although I hope that it does, and that I know its name!

Societies or companies that expect a glorious past to shield them from the forces of change driven by advancing technology will fail and fall. That applies as much to my own, the media industry, as to every other business on the planet.

Power is moving away from the old elite in our industry - the editors, the chief executives and, let's face it, the proprietors. A new generation of media consumers has risen demanding content delivered when they want it, how they want it, and very much as they want it.

This new media audience - and we are talking here of tens of millions of young people around the world - is already using technology, especially the web, to inform, entertain and above all to educate itself.

This knowledge revolution empowers the reader, the student, the cancer patient, the victim of injustice, anyone with a vital need for the right information. It is part of wider changes that reach far beyond the media industry.

Never has the flow of information and ideas, of hard news and reasoned comment, been more important. The force of our democratic beliefs is a key weapon in the war against religious fanaticism and the terrorism that it breeds.

The free flow of information is not just a building block of our democratic system; it is also the fuel of the technological revolution. We are making new discoveries across the spectrum of science: in medicine, genetics, biology, physics and in every field of technology because information is flowing like rivers between universities, drug and biotech companies, libraries, laboratories, and public and private research centres. And, of course, across most national boundaries.

That information is carried via print, newspapers, magazines and books. It is carried on television, laptops, personal organisers, cell phones and, of course, the web. The media use all these platforms to give the public access to this waterfall of information. This is how public opinion is shaped. And we know how public opinion can make history.

If print technology had allowed The Times newspaper to launch 100 years before it actually did in 1785, the American Revolution - and everything that flowed from it - might have happened much earlier. Had The Times reported the growing fury in the last decade of the 17th century among the North American colonies at taxes imposed by government in London, do we think it would have taken another 100 years before revolution ended colonial rule? I doubt it.

Since those days, and especially since the rise of the popular press at the turn of the 19th century, the power of the media to influence events and drive change has grown hugely.

But, as I said earlier, power is moving away from those who own and manage the media to a new and demanding generation of consumers - consumers who are better educated, unwilling to be led, and who know that in a competitive world they can get what they want, when they want it. The challenge for us in the traditional media is how to engage with this new audience.

There is only one way. That is by using our skills to create and distribute dynamic, exciting content. King Content, The Economist called it recently. But - and this is a very big but - newspapers will have to adapt as their readers demand news and sport on a variety of platforms: websites, iPods, mobile phones or laptops.

I believe traditional newspapers have many years of life left but, equally, I think in the future that newsprint and ink will be just one of many channels to our readers. As we all know, newspapers have already created large audiences for their content online and have provided readers with added value features such as email alerts, blogs, interactive debate and podcasts.

Content is being repurposed to suit the needs of a contemporary audience. This divergence from the traditional platform of newsprint will continue, indeed accelerate, for a while.

The same is true of television. Sky has already started putting programmes on to PCs and mobile phones. That old square television box in the corner of the room may soon be dead but the television industry is seizing the opportunities thrown up by the technology revolution.

PVRs - personal video recorders - streaming live TV on to mobile phones - beaming programmes onto computers via IPTV - internet broadcasts - this wave of innovation gives the consumer huge choice at relatively low cost. So, media becomes like fast food: people will consume it on the go, as they travel to and from work, watching news, sport and film clips on mobiles or handheld wireless devices like Sony's PSP, or others already in test by our satellite companies.

This does not mean that television and newspapers need lose their historic role of keeping people informed about what is happening in the world around them. Given the speed of change around us that role has never been more important. Consider the field of medicine where science fiction is becoming science fact.

Three years ago a group of scientists made a breathtaking breakthrough by publishing a genetic map showing the DNA breakdown of the human race. The DNA breakthrough happened because, throughout their research, scientists in the US were able to post their findings on the web, drawing information and inspiration from colleagues around the world.

The internet was crucial to that astonishing development and I am sure that the web will continue its rapid development as the prime media channel for information, entertainment, business and social contact.

One of the reasons I say that is the success of a company we bought last year called www.MySpace.com. This is a networking site in which millions of people, aged mainly between 16 and 34, talk online to each other about music, film, dating, travel, whatever interests them. They share pictures, videos and blogs, forming virtual communities.

Since launch just two years ago, the site has acquired 60 million registered users, 35 million of whom are regular users. This is a generation, now popularly referred to as the "myspace generation", talking to itself in a world without frontiers.

It is just one example of how the media, with its ability to reach millions with information, entertainment and education, can use the achievements of technology to create better and more interesting lives for a great many people. And it is one reason why I believe we are at the dawn of a golden age of information - an empire of new knowledge.

But knowledge alone is not a magic wand which can be waved to banish poverty and produce riches. Life is not like that.

Consider the words of the Nobel Laureate David Baltimore, president of the California Institute of Technology, who said recently: "We are creating a world in which it will be imperative for each individual to have sufficient scientific literacy to understand the new riches of knowledge so that he can use them wisely."

Those people, these companies, those nations which understand and use this new knowledge will be the ones to prosper and grow strong in our age of discovery.

From the wheel to the web, from the printing press to fibre optic cable, it has always been technology that has driven history. Those in the driving seat have always been those who fully understood and used that technology. Today one of our great challenges is to understand and seize the opportunities presented by the web. It is a creative, destructive, technology that is still in its infancy, yet breaking and remaking everything it its path.

The web is changing the way we do business, the way we talk to each other and the way we enjoy ourselves. As old and new technologies merge, the questions multiply. Will the internet kill fixed-line telephony? It is already happening via VOIP - Voice Over Internet Protocol. When high-speed broadband pipes TV and film on to enhanced computer screens at home, what happens to the television companies, the film studios and indeed newspapers?

I pose these questions - and there are many more thrown up by the web - in this context. There are about one billion people in the world who have access to computers, although only about 10 per cent to broadband. In 20 or 30 years there will be six billion such people, or two-thirds of the human race. We know the $100 laptop is on the way. In a few years, there could be a $50 laptop.

It would be folly for me to stand here and pretend I know what this really means in any detail for future generations. But I will answer a question I suspect is forming in your minds. What happens to print journalism in an age where consumers are increasingly being offered on-demand, interactive, news, entertainment, sport and classifieds via broadband on their computer screens, TV screens, mobile phones and handsets?

The answer is that great journalism will always attract readers. The words, pictures and graphics that are the stuff of journalism have to be brilliantly packaged; they must feed the mind and move the heart.

And, crucially, newspapers must give readers a choice of accessing their journalism in the pages of the paper or on websites such as Times Online or - and this is important - on any platform that appeals to them, mobile phones, hand-held devices, ipods, whatever. As I have said, newspapers may become news-sites. As long as news organisations create must-read, must-have content, and deliver it in the medium that suits the reader, they will endure.

Caxton's printing press marked a revolution that is with us 500 years later. But the history of that revolution is not one in which the new wipes out the old. Radio did not destroy newspapers; television did not destroy radio and neither eliminated the printing of books. And whatever you think about Hollywood, the film industry is very much alive.

Each wave of new technology in our industry forced an improvement in the old. Each new medium forced its predecessor to become more creative and more relevant to the consumer. In the first age of discovery, some 600 years ago, the great European explorers stood on the rim of the known world and set sail, literally, into the unknown. Technology had given them ships equipped, although barely so, for long voyages. Science provided rudimentary navigational aids, and royal and private treasuries the financing. But what sent Bartolomeu Dias, Christopher Columbus, John Cabot and Henry the Navigator across the ocean was not just a quest for new trade routes to the East. They consciously sought to expand the horizons of humanity, to risk their lives to find a new world.

That is where we are today. We are immeasurably better equipped than our ancestors to face the challenges posed by some of the issues I have raised. But we must not lose our nerve. We must be prepared to take risks and accept that we will make mistakes, sometimes very large ones. Above all we must have what those great seafaring explorers had in abundance: the courage to use the technological change unfolding around us to help make a better world.

We are all on a journey, not just the privileged few, and technology will take us to a destination that is defined by the limits of our creativity, our confidence and our courage.

This is an edited version of a speech Rupert Murdoch gave last week to the Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers