Mass media
The mass media is the whole body of
media reaching large numbers of the public via
radio,
television,
movies,
magazines,
newspapers and the
World Wide Web. The term was coined in the
1920s with the advent of nationwide radio networks, mass-circulation newspapers and magazines.
The mass media reaches a mass audience. That audience has been viewed by some commentators as forming a
mass society with special characteristics, notably atomization or lack of social connections, which render it especially susceptable to the influence of modern mass media techniques such as
advertising and
propaganda.
During the
20th century, the advent of mass media was driven by
technology that allowed the massive duplication of material at a low cost. Physical duplication technologies such as
printing, record pressing and film duplication allowed the duplication of books, newspapers and movies at low prices to huge audiences. Television and radio allowed the electronic duplication of content for the first time.
Mass media had the economics of linear replication: a single work could make money
proportional to the number of copies sold, and as volumes went up, units costs went down, increasing profit margins further. Vast fortunes were to be made in mass media.
We also need to discuss mass media in different countries.
Mass media in India is discussed in a separate section below.
The Internet and mass media
During the last decade of the 20th century, the advent of the World Wide Web marked the first era in which any individual could have a means of exposure on the scale of mass media. For the first time, anyone with a web site can address a global audience, although serving high levels of web traffic is still expensive. It is possible that the rise of peer-to-peer technologies may have begun the process of making the cost of bandwidth manageable.
\nSee also
\nNotable persons
\n* Silvio Berlusconi\n* William Randolph Hearst\n* Robert Hersant\n* Jean-Luc Lagardère\n* Marshall McLuhan\n* Rupert Murdoch\n* Conrad Black\n* Brendon Smith
Notable corporations
\n* Time Warner\n* Hachette Filipacchi Media\n* Hearst Corporation\n* News Corporation\n* The Walt Disney Company\n* Bertelsmann AG\n* Dentsu\n* Hakuhoudou
By location
\n* Media in China\n* Media in France\n* Media in Hong Kong\n* Mass media in India\n* Japanese media\n* Media of the United States
Other
\n* Propaganda model\n* Media Imperialism\n* Information\n* Metcalfe's law\n* Media literacy\n* marketing\n* advertising\n* Media studies\n* Trial by Media\n* Political campaigning
External links
\nMedia studies
\n*New School University - Media Studies Program\n*European Graduate School - Media and Communication Studies Program\n*University of Toronto - McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology\n*MIT Comparative Media Studies
Other
\n* Content is Not King, by Andrew Odlyzko\n* Federation Without Television\n* Open-Site Media - Information about the mass media from the Open-Site Encyclopedia.
List of Media
\nCanada
\nTelevision
\n* Radio-Canada, French national television\n* Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, English national television\nNewspaper
\n* La Presse, Newspaper\nMagazine
\n* L'Actualité\nInternet
\n* TennisQuébec.com, French web site about tennis\n* Horncastle News Website, Small town newspaper for comparison(See also Horncastle)\nUnited States of America
\nTelevision
\n* CNN, Television news network\nNewspaper
\n* USA Today, Newspaper\n* New York Times, Newspaper\n* Worcester Business Journal, Newspaper
