The global village of noise

In 1963, Melvin DeFleur and Sandra Ball-Rokeach refined the communication system developed by previous theorists. Their major contributions were the concepts of noise and feedback . Between the sender of a message and the recipient to whom it reaches, we find the code (the language used, which can be spoken or written, encrypted, drawings, signs, etc.), the channel (the means by which the message travels, which can be airborne in oral communication, or the telephone or the Internet in modern communications), and the context (which helps to properly interpret the message).

With DeFleur and Ball-Rokeach, we discovered that there are other factors to consider. With feedback, the theoretical description of communication is no longer considered linear and is understood as circular. The back-and-forth messages between a sender and a receiver, who constantly reverse roles, make everything go around, just like the world.

The far right dynamites communication by placing a peripheral element at the center of the discourse.

But what DeFleur and Ball-Rokeach didn't imagine was the importance noise would acquire in our times. The noise they theorize is interference, that is, any distortion of the signal that diminishes the quality of communication. Some theorists define noise as anti-information, the dark side of information.

But this distorting and sometimes unexpected element, when the goal is to ensure proper communication, has now become the most coveted element by the far right. Why? Because it has placed noise in the place of the message, so that objective information has been relegated to the periphery, while noise, interference, has occupied the center of the communication system.

What political extremism has done is dynamite every system based on the desire to transmit and communicate a message correctly. This is increasingly happening on the international information highways, controlled by powers like the US and Russia, but also on the national radio networks of this fried-egg Spain.

Etymologically, the word "noise" comes from the late Latin rugitus, meaning roar or rumble. Marshall McLuhan defined the three eras of civilization, beginning with the pre-alphabetic or oral society, followed by the alphabetic or written society, and ending with the electronic or global village. Little did he imagine that his prophecy of the global village would become such a surprising reality, as well as the ease with which it has been shattered.