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____________________ :"C~H::_A::_PT_:_:E~R:_I:__::_M::_ed::_i::a..,and the Soct<tl \\\Hid 9
The Print Medium -fi-t-' l<:. ~ , .
IV''»-'~"""'
When Am:r evolutionaries founded the United States, there was only one form of
mass media (See Cassata and Asante 1979; DeFieur and DeFieur 2009. and \k<._?u.ul
2010 for summaries of the rise of mass media.) The technology for printing dates b~ark to
the beginning of the 15th century, when inventors in Korea first created the cas1 met411 type·
that made printing possible. In 1450,Johannes Gutenberg made printing more prarurabl~
by converting a winepress into the first printing press with movable type \Vhale tht- trch·
no logy evolved, media content changed little. Reflecting the power or the Church ut Europe
at the time, the Bible, which scribes had previously hand copied. was the book moM ohrn
produced by early printers. Thus, as was true for later changes.$?cial forces other ch01n
technology determined the direction of media development (see Exhibit I 41 \ 1,, , .
For several centuries, print media-ln the foim-ofDOOks. newspapers. and pamphlrls
served as the only means for reaching a wide audience from a distance. However. the need
for physical distribution limited print media products (unlike later electronic medta) :"\("'\\.~.
for example, traveled only as fast and as far as a horse, train. or ship could carry n It rou·
tinely took four to eight weeks for information to travel from Europe to the Unilcd Stairs
Even distances that we now perceive to be quite short-from New York to Washington. for
example-were separated by a vast communication gulf. The only way to communtc.lte
across such distances was for messages to travel physically between the two locartons
While improved transportation technology increased the speed of communication through·
out the 19th century, in the years immediately preceding the development or the telegraph.
it still took several days for news to travel from one city to the next (see Exhibit I 51 1\oth
routine and extraordinary information, from holiday greetings to news or the outbre.ak or
war, traveled at a slow speed difficult to ima ·ne toda . ~ r--:---1
Not until the ~ i t e technological innovation or the]relegraphlallow for near
'II\ instantaneous com ·cation over ion distances that ere h icall wired IOitJher For
cOM -iif" the irst 1me. there was a ~~nd tqng-dislance cominunl·
. ~rf"\;111 _cation. Since it did not reach a large audience. the telegraph was not a mass rned•um. but
¥1"'1 it'iflaspeed up the dissemination of information through newspapers. Reporte" could
send news stories instantaneously over a long dista~ to nert:i?fl'M"':S I hat would then pnnr
and distribute the story locally. The invention of th<\!l'lepbon<fin WJ>pened I he way for
more widely accessible personal long-distance communication as well as facllu.aung the
work of reporters.
Sound Recording and the Ejlm Medium____
In l!!lT·".j.homas Edison developed the\p--h=-o-n_o_g_r-ap-h] which marked the begmnm~ of I he
first new mass medium since print. In 1887. phonograph records were tntroduct'd and.
·later, other forms or sound recording proliFerated. In 1948, the long-playmg iLPJ 3 "l 11"1 rpm
record was launched by Columbia Records and became the recording industry stand.ud for
more than 30 years. Magnetic tape originated in the 1 920s and became most popul.1r .n 1U
easy-to-use cassette form, introduced in the 1960s. In the early I 980s. sound_~~<~-'~'~lf
went digital, and the compact disk (CD) emerged as the dominant recordmg rorm.11 R1 thr
late 1990s, newer digital file formats, such as MP3, were allowing music to be more ~Pf't"d
ily distributed via the Internet and stored on mobile MP3 players. such as the •Pnd