History of mass media
In this section we review the evolution of mass media. We will also compare the roles of different media and types of power exerted on society.
Reflection
Time to reach 100 million users worldwide
According to the Boston Consulting Group[1], the time to reach 100 million users for the following technologies is reported as follows:
- Telephone: 75 years (1878)
- Mobile phone: 16 years (1979)
- World Wide Web: 7 years (1990)
- Facebook: 4 years and 6 months (2004)
- WhatsApp: 3 years and 4 months (2009)
- Candy Crush Saga: 1 year and 3 months (2012).
They also report that for every 100 people in the world, there are:
- 95 mobile prescriptions
- 40 internet users
- 32 active broadband subscriptions
- 25 social media users.
Evolution of media and power dynamics
Consider the following questions:
- What roles do different types of media perform in society?
- What forms of power are exerted through different types of media over time? (That is, economic power, political power, military power and symbolic power.)
Readings
- Read section 1.3 on the Evolution of Media in: University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing (Ed.). (2010). Understanding Media and Culture: An Introduction to Mass Communication.
- Read: Damito, C. (2012, December 23). A Brief History of the Mass Media.
Task
Construct a table with columns for media type, roles and power example and complete for two media types. See for example table below:
| Media | Role(s) | Power examples |
|---|---|---|
| Printed book (invention of movable type) | Educational and informational | Political power exerted by Catholic Church by introducing censorship in 1487 requiring church authorities to approve all books before publication, for example forbidding printing of the Bible in any other language than Latin. Political and cultural power exerted during the Protestant Reformation with Martin Luther insisting that people should be able to read the Bible in their own language. |
References
- Dreischmeier, R., Close, K., and Trichet, P. (2015) The Digital Imperative. Boston Consulting Group
Last modified: Tuesday, March 13, 2018, 5:49 PM