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Write brief 250-to 300-word answers to each of the following: Questions Answers What were the major developments in the evolution of mass media during the 20th century? The 20th century has thus far seen the fastest growth in mass media compared to any other century. Before the 20th century the most used form of media was printed in large scale thanks to the invention of the printing press that became very efficient in producing up too 500 pages an hour.
By the start of the evolution of ass media in the 20th century, most printing presses could produce up to 3,000 pages an hour. The media age may have been very well started by the telegraph in 1837, but the mass media age did not boom till the radio was found in homes across the country in the sass’s. Radios were easily obtainable by most Americans and were even less expensive than phones at the time. Radios were so largely popular at the time that a broad cast could reach the ears of more than 20 million listeners. The radio was the most popular form of mass media until the mid sass’s.
The next big jump in the evolution of mass media was the television. Televisions were rare in the late sass’s. Only 17000 on average could be found in America, but then by the mid sass’s, they could be found in two thirds of American homes. This was largely due to the booming consumer based economy that had a doubling gross national product in the ass’s then again in the ass’s. Broadcast television was the widest and most used form of mass media and was vastly controlled by three networks. The next big Jump was the availability of cable for your television.
Cable then offered much more variety of information and entertainment that was more person to person specific. How did each development influence American culture? The radio was the first non printed form of mass media in the 20th century. The radio could be used to spread information like never before. Unlike the news paper, information from a radio did not have to go through a long process of printed packaging and distribution. People in any given area were able to listen to the same story at the same time. This seemed to affect many areas differences.
A sense of one American culture evolved from this new way to spread information to the masses at a lighting speed. The radio also drove the American culture towards a more consumer based lifestyle by offering producers to be able to advertise products to a vast audience with a simple broadcast. The next big thing to have was the television which became the very prominent way for consumers to receive information from the mass media. This new form of receiving mass media gave the American a visual guide to what a “normal” lifestyle should look like for an American.
This in turn, also lulled a wide spread view of a counter cultural life style with the broad casts of protesters and the events of the Vietnam police action. The next thing to happen Include EAI a ten television. Broadcast television was now not ten only available way to receive information. Cable was now available and it offered much variety compared to the former broadcast. Where broadcast controlled 93% by 3 large corporations, cable was was only controlled by 28. 4% for the same corporations. This gave the American people much more variety in the opinions on events that were taking place as well as a variety in entertainment.