Antecedents Of Modern Mass Media
Introduction This training note is designed to help PGD students clearly understand how modern mass media evolved from earlier systems of public communication. Rather than appearing suddenly, modern media developed gradually from informal and formal methods of information transfer embedded in traditional societies. By tracing this evolution, students can better appreciate mass media as a social institution shaped by culture, necessity and power relations. The antecedents of modern mass media refer to the traditional forms of communication that existed before the emergence of newspapers, radio, television and the internet. These traditional media laid the foundation for organised mass communication by establishing patterns of information sharing, audience gathering, message authority and social influence. Broadly, these antecedents are divided into informal transference media and formal transference media. Informal Transference Media Informal transference media represent the earli...