History of News Communication in the UK
The term mass media was first used in 1920 with the creation of nationwide radio and widely circulated newspapers and refers to a form of media intended to reach large reaching audiences. Although the term is fairly recent, the first form of mass media was probably through the art of drama and dates back to Ancient times.
As for printing materials for wide circulation, the first dated printed book is the “Diamond Sutra” printed in 868 AD in China but it is generally known that books were printed at an earlier date. Due to the high cost of paper and low literacy, mass printing did not grow until the 1400’s in Europe.
Johannes Gutenberg printed the first book on a printing press with moveable type in 1453, but there are few surviving copies of these early prints. Gutenberg’s invention changed the way news was shared throughout the world although mass production of books would remain too expensive to grow rapidly for at least another century. The development of newspapers in 1620 paved the way for a more economical form of wider audience media circulation but still did not reach mass media proportions until the 19th century.
In 1830 technology began to expand and new and long traveling form of communication was birthed in telegraphy. Early telegraph messages were sent by operators utilizing electrical wire to transmit signals using an abbreviated alphabet, such as Morse code to another destination. The first transatlantic telegraphic cable was put in place in 1866 and within twenty-nine years, telegraphy was taken global making instant communication around the world possible. This development revolutionized mass communication for news and business and opened new doors of technology.
One of the new doors opened by telegraphy was the telephone. During the late 1800’s pioneers of technology were working hard to perfect the art of transmitting voices across wires. Antonio Meucci, Johann Philipp Reis, Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison, along with a few others, were each improving on one another’s ideas in what eventually resulted in the form of mass communications we now know as telephone.
Today, mass media is as simple as a click, but the technology behind our instant access is deeply rooted in the work of early visionaries who dreamed of one day reaching across the waters of the world to communicate with other countries.