Types of Mass Media, Print, Electronic and New Media (Overview)

Mass Media

Mass media influence our daily life more than any other cultural institution. They are our main sources of news and entertainment. They define our purchase decision, voting behavior, academic achievement and so on.  Because of this all-encompassing impact of mass media, politicians, businessmen and government agencies depend on media to influence people. During election time, we witness politicians spending millions of rupess for political campign through mass media. Business firms across the world spend billions of dollars to market their products with the help of mass media advertisements. We are informed of the policies of our governments through newspapers and electronic media. Likewise, we people need mass media to express our needs, complaints and wishes to the authorities.  In short, role of mass media in our society is omnipresent.

Defining Mass Media

According to Wilbur Schramm ‘a mass medium is essentially a working group organized around some device for circulating the same message, at about same time, to a large number of people’.

From this definition, let us know that there is a well organized system behind each mass medium. For example, a newspaper is produced everyday with the collective efforts of a lot of people using various information sources ranging from local reporters to international news agencies. Same is the case of distribution of the newspaper also. Everybody from circulation manager to local newspaper boy is actively engaged in smooth circulation of each copy of a newspaper. Moreover, every county has its own policy, laws, and telecommunication systems to facilitate mass media. In this sense, the production of a mass medium is the result of a well organized system.

And, the messages are disseminated to a large number of people ie. mass. They are called the audience. No media can sustain without a sufficient audience. We learned the characteristics of mass audience in the earlier unit. The definition again talks about devices of circulating messages.

These devices are technological means through which messages are communicated to the audience. Devices include printed documents, television, radio, DVD, cassettes, the internet etc.

 Types of Mass Communication

Mass media can be categorized according to physical form, technology involved, nature of the communication process etc. Given below are the major categories of mass media.

Print Media

Johannes Gutenberg’s invention of the moveable metallic type in the fifteenth century paved the way for proliferation of the print media. The printing press using moveable types introduced the method for mass production of texts. Before the invention of the printing press, books were expensive materials affordable only for the aristocrats and royal families. Printing reduced the cost of books and made them available to the common men also. Rapid duplication of multiple copies of handy texts led to the innovation of modern newspapers.

Print Media include

 Newspapers

 Magazines

  books

 other textual documents

Electronic Media

The history of electronic mass media starts with the invention of radio by Marconi. The first radio station was set up in Pittsburg, New York and Chicago in the 1920s. Following the USA, European countries also started radio stations for broadcasting news and entertainment content. The colonial powers like Briton and France set radio stations in Asian and African countries in the early years of 20th century. The next step in electronic communication media history was the invention of cinema. Following cinema, television broadcasting was initiated in the US on experimental basis during 1920s. But, the dramatic impact of television  as a mass medium began in 1950s. Parallel to these, recording  industry was also boomed in the western countries. In short, the term electronic media mainly include:

 Radio

  Movies

  Television

  Audio and Video records

New Media

Online and digital means of producing, transmitting and receiving messages are called new media. The term encompasses computer mediated communication technology. It implies the use of desktop and portable computers as well as wireless and handheld devices. Every company in the computer industry is involved with new media in some manner. The forms of communicating in the digital world include

  CD-RoMs

  DVDs

  Internet facilities like World Wide Web, bulleting boarding, email etc.

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