In the Middles Ages the importance of public speaking grew less.
The political system was completely different of course so citizens were
basically left out of the political decision making process.
They couldn’t vote and held little political power, beyond the power to rebel.
But seeing that the ruler elite were practiced warriors who wielded deadly weaponry
and impressive armour, both extremely expensive,
even this was usually not much of a choice.
Although rhetorica was taught in Medieval universities to a small elite,
it had by no means the importance of classical times.
Not only was there little to no communication science in the Dark Ages,
the communication landscape had also changed drastically
since Roman times. Alfabecy numbers had dropped rapidly since the decline of Rome.
Almost none could write or read with perhaps some exceptions
among the ruler and religious elite.
But even among them evidence suggests readership was not high
and probably very limited to those of very high stations
or devoted to academic life in a monastery. It makes sense that written media
became less and less widespread. Important mass communication channels were
instead oral or figurative in nature. Town criers, architecture, statues and religious art
were still used to reach a large audience. Coins were other examples of visual media
that communicated something, typically who was in charge at a certain time.
The channels of choice were well suited for communicating who was in power and
and how citizens should behave.
We know the church played an important part in this and worked hand in hand
with worldly leaders to get this message through.
Often there were agreements between rulers and clergymen that at the end
or start of the Sunday mass more worldly news on taxes, wars
and basically everything citizens should know, was communicated to the assembled people.
Since most people went to church, this was for centuries a very effective method
to get a message out amongst the people
if the need arose. Other media also focused on visual and oral communication.
Plays and theatre still existed but theatres did not hold the audiences
of thousands as they did in Classical times.
Although written media had almost disappeared as a means of mass communication,
printed pamphlets with etchings or other figurative depictions were sometimes used.
Some people might think: they printed pamphlets? Haven’t we learned
that the printing press was invented in the fifteenth century by Johannes Gutenberg?
Well, actually, the printing press already existed long before this time.
However, it was quite expensive to print something because
basically every page had to be carved out in wood, stone or metal.
Because the potential audience that was able to read and pay was small,
it was usually simply not worth it. So what was this printing innovation of Gutenberg
that everyone always puts so much emphasis on? It was actually the very cunning
introduction of the cliché, a small letter that could be put in a box
to make words and sentences.
When the printing was done, the box was emptied
and new words and pages could be formed.
This innovation made it much quicker and cheaper to print texts
and is therefore rightly credited as a turning point in European history
and a huge catalyst for the Renaissance. Of course this technical revolution would probably
never have had a huge impact if there hadn’t been an audience to read and buy books at the
same time, which was the result of several long and complicated historical trends
towards a higher alfabecy level and the rise of a potential audience with buying power.
Not coincidentally while the mass communication landscape
started to flourish again with the rise of print media,
scholars again started to discuss the topic of communication on a meta level.
So started the Renaissance, not only of art, science and literature,
but also of our scientific discipline.