User:Steelers2018/sandbox

The seven mass media is a term which refers to the different means of mass communication over time. Originally used to acknowledge mobile devices as the latest mass medium, it also highlights each form of mass media and their time of prominence. The seven forms of mass media in order of appearance go as follows:


 * Print
 * Recordings
 * Cinema
 * Radio
 * Television
 * Internet
 * Mobile phones

PRINT: The use of print as a form of mass communication goes as far back as the fifteenth century. Although printing was first seen on wood blocks in Asia as early as 220 AD, Johannes Gutenberg began working on his printing press in the late 1430s. His innovation in movable type printing is considered one of the greatest inventions of that millennium. In the 1840s, letterpress printing was developed and allowed for a much higher production of paperback books. The evolution of print contributed greatly to the spread of knowledge and stories across the globe. Pieces of writing became accessible to the general population and people were able to interpret things differently, letting their voices be heard. It also kept people informed on current events around the world and updated them quicker than ever before.

RECORDING: The recreation and reproduction of sound waves and music were utilized by the gramophone starting in the 19th century and has lately been used by CDs and DVDs. Prior to this, the recording of music primarily took place with music notations. However, these notes were not extensive enough to cover rhythm the way present day recordings do. Sheet music was still more profitable to sell than music recordings as late as the 1920s. The creation of radio in 1901 became a household item in the late 1920s, which helped to propel recordings and music to a surge in popularity. This coupled with Jukeboxes were major components in making recordings a form of mass media. Phonograph disc records first originated in the 1880s, while vinyl records became mainstream in the 1950s. Disc Jockeys continued to use records well past other mediums such as tapes and CDs rendered them obsolete. This form of media helped people to hear stories and their favorite songs through the airwaves. This was even faster and, in some ways, more effective than communication through print.

CINEMA: One of the earliest booms for the cinema industry was in Pittsburgh in 1905, The Nickelodeon Theatre charged 5 to 10 cents per ticket. In the next three years, there would be 20 motion picture production companies vying for dominance across The United States. By the 1930s, this was narrowed down to 8 main companies, which of which are still producing movies today. Their theatres were spread across the country and each company was known for a different style of film. MGM conveyed more American, middle class values while Paramount was viewed as the most European of all studios. In the late 1920s, companies made the jump to begin including sound in most of their films, changing the format in which a story is told when using film as a medium. Movies were able to reach a global audience, bridging the gap being differing cultures in some cases.

RADIO: The first to be transmitted through the radio came in 1906 from Massachusetts. Between 1922 and 1925, recreational broadcasts began to hit the airwaves in the United States. The first commercial was sold by AT&T through WEAF and was a fifteen-minute real estate advertisement. By the end of the decade, radio was seen as an ad medium that reached a great amount of people every day. During the golden age of radio, an estimated 28 million homes across America owned a radio. However, over the course of the early 1950s, TV began to take over radio's core audience and their number of listeners began to tank. As many famous radio personalities attempted to make the transition into television, its time as the dominant form of mass media dwindled.

TELEVISION: The television was first successfully demonstrated in 1927, and the license for the technology was purchased by RCA in 1939. Full scale commercial didn't fully hit the airwaves until 1947 in the United States. In just 8 years from then, half of all American households owned a television. CBS and NBC were the original channels that dominated in terms of popularity. PBS was eventually created, which was a government funded non-commercial station. Cable network television did not rise into contention until the 1970s and carried such channels as ESPN, HBO and Nickelodeon. This form of mass media places historic events in anybody's living room to witness, such as Super Bowls and presidential speeches.

INTERNET: The internet was created over 50 years ago by The United States government as a weapon during the cold war. Since then, it has evolved immensely to the point that society cannot function without it. In the year 1991, the world wide web was created as a way to find and exchange information, not just to send messages back and forth. The next year, The University of Illinois developed a user-friendly browser for students and congress allowed the web to be used for commercial purposes. Total users have jumped from 738 million in 2000 to over 3.2 billion people today. As mobile phones become more common and prices for internet become cheaper, these numbers continue to rise. As of 2014, nearly ¾ of all American households are connected to the internet.

MOBILE PHONES: In 1983, the Motorola DynaTac 8000x hit the market, which is widely considered to be the first truly mobile cell phone. By today's standards, it was a massive device, but it is considered a cell phone due to it being just small enough to carry with you. Gradually, phones became less about talking and more about a variety of functionality. Soon, voice mail and emails were added to certain models and eventually texting. With cameras and internet connectivity, they were becoming one in all tools known as smartphones. They've become smaller and sleeker, making reaching out to family and friends or checking for directions simpler than ever. In 2017, 223 million people in the United States owned a smart phone. Of this, 90 million of them own specifically an Apple brand device, the most popular brand in the country.

Sources for Research:


 * http://www.iacact.com/?q=massmedia
 * http://www.bizbuildupelevation.com/seven-mass-media/
 * https://printinghistory.org/timeline/
 * https://medium.com/@Vinylmint/history-of-the-record-industry-1920-1950s-6d491d7cb606
 * https://www.britannica.com/art/history-of-the-motion-picture/The-pre-World-War-II-sound-era#ref52153
 * https://www.nyu.edu/classes/stephens/History%20of%20Television%20page.htm
 * https://www.history.com/topics/inventions/invention-of-the-internet
 * http://time.com/money/3896219/internet-users-worldwide/
 * http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/09/19/census-computer-ownership-internet-connection-varies-widely-across-u-s/
 * https://www.artinstitutes.edu/about/blog/the-history-and-evolution-of-cell-phones
 * https://www.statista.com/statistics/236550/percentage-of-us-population-that-own-a-iphone-smartphone/
 * https://www.britannica.com/topic/radio#ref301724
 * http://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/feature/radio-in-the-1930s/

The article I have chosen to edit is titled 'The Seven Mass Media'. So far, there is currently nothing added to the page, so I'd basically be starting it off on my own. This term covers different forms of media, some of which are over a hundred years old. I think that I could find a lot of detailed passages about each form of mass media, considering how prominent they were in their given time periods. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Electric

Since this company is rather old and has a lot of history, I could probably find quite a bit of information about it to use for the Wiki page. There's a lot of information already on there, but Wikipedia says it needs work and has many issues.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WMAQ-TV

A lot of information on the Wikipedia already, but it needs a lot of work.

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Seven_mass_media&action=edit&redlink=1

No one has worked on this page yet, and there's a lot of information about these various types of media already on the internet. I think I'd be able to put a lot of quality information on this page.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skip_and_Shannon:_Undisputed

I watch this show a lot after class and the Wikipedia page has almost no information on it. I could probably add a lot about it.