When does a new medium become a mass medium?

Answer 1

This is a wonderful question, because we saw this process take place when the internet came along. At first, in the 1970s and early 1980s, the internet was more like an early version of the telephone. There were few people who had the needed equipment to connect with it, and you had to dial up to get a connection. Early users were generally in the military (it was originally known as ARPA-NET) or they were computer engineers on college campuses; most of the users were familiar with each other. But by the 1990s, all of that had changed. Connections improved, equipment became affordable, and suddenly there was a mass audience (often large numbers of people, none of whom knew each other). The internet was no longer a small activity for people in the army or computer engineers. Now, it had an international reach: it has gone from being an interpersonal medium to a mass medium, capable of reaching large numbers at the same time.

In general, a mass medium (such as radio, TV, movies, recorded music, newspaper, magazines, books, the internet) not only can reach large numbers, but the people in the audience (those who use it) are often anonymous. I write books, and bookstores carry them, as do online booksellers; but I have no idea the names of the people who bought my books; I've never met most of them. I know they exist, but they are anonymous to me. Further, a mass medium has delayed feedback. Information is sent out over the radio, for example-- the host makes some kind of controversial statement. You are furious and can't believe it. You call the station to complain. But there is a delay from when the host said it to when you call in, and even if you get through, you may have to wait on hold. I might love an article I read online, and send an e-mail to the author; but he or she won't receive it immediately.

Thus, when a technology is new, it tends to have only a small number of users, and its possibilities are only known to that handful of people. As it becomes part of the media landscape, and is no longer so new, it takes its place among the other media (the plural of mass medium is mass media). Now, it has users in diverse places, who are receiving the messages it sends and participating in what media theorist Marshall McLuhan called the "global village." Members of the audience of readers, listeners, viewers, etc. are now linked to people all over the world by both the old media (like books, which have been around for hundreds and hundreds of years) and the new media (like the internet, which has only really been popular with the mass audience since the mid-to-late 1990s).