Mass media


Mass media are those 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.

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.

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.