Broadcasting History Assignment

B . Akmal Rahman
I M.sc (Electronic Media)
Madras University
Do we consider Mobile, Computer and Internet as Mass Media?
The term "mass media" is mainly used by academics and media professionals. When
members of the general public refer to "the media" they are usually referring to the mass media,
or to the news media, which is a section of the mass media.
Media (the plural of "medium") is a truncation of the term "media of communication," referring
to those organized means of dissemination of fact, opinion, entertainment, and other information,
such as newspapers, magazines, outdoor advertising, film, radio, television, the World Wide
Web, books, CDs, DVDs, videocassettes, computer games, and other forms of publishing.
Although writers currently differ in their preference for using "media" in the singular ("the media
is…") or the plural ("the media are…"), the former will still incur criticism in some situations.
Academic programs for the study of mass media are usually referred to as "mass
communication" programs.

The history of media follows the same path as the history of humanity and it is made of great
discoveries and progressive changes.

In the early 2000’s, for example, we get to know the seventh mass medium and the second
interactive media the mobile. Mobile media, like the Internet before it, is capable of swallowing
all of its older siblings, even the Internet itself. The consumption of news, the playing of music,
watching TV, listening to radio, even viewing movies are all possible on a mobile device. And
the Internet’s two unique capabilities, interactivity and search, are also available on the mobile
platform.

While mobile media is only few years old, it is growing and greedily capturing business
revenues and content from its older media siblings.

Mobile media can in fact replicate all of the capabilities of the other mass media while sporting
six unique benefits:

• The first personal mass media

• The first always carried media

• The first always-on media

• The first media with a built in payment mechanism

• The first media always present at the point of creative impulse

• The first media where the audience can be accurately identified

Here are some of the advantages and the Development of mobile phone.

Personal: My Media

It’s a fact that people today are more wedded to their mobile phones than to their wallets. And
the mobile is rapidly cannibalising our wallet too. A Unisys survey revealed that if we lose our
wallet, on average we report it in 26 hours. But if we lose our mobile phone, on average we
report it in 68 minutes. Meanwhile a 2006 survey by Wired found that 60% of married mobile
phone owners will not share their phone with their spouses. A Carphone Warehouse survey found
that 68% of teenagers won’t let their parents see what is on their phones. It is that personal.
Always Carried: The City in my pocket

It is no longer surprising that we will not leave home without our phone. A global survey by
BBDO in 2005 found that 6 out of 10 people sleep with the mobile phone physically in bed with
them. A worldwide Nokia survey in 2006 found that 72% of the population uses the mobile
phone as their alarm clock. The phone is taken to the restroom and it was quoted at Forum
Oxford that the bathroom is one of the common uses of both the mobile internet and mobile TV.

Always On

Some early opinions by the newspaper publishers were that maybe the internet could offer a rival
experience to the printed newspaper, but the mobile phone screen has so little “real estate” that it
could not fulfill this need. This is also being proven not to be true. Mobile offers an active screen
which can be far superior to the static printed paper view of a newspaper or magazine. It just
took a while for the mobile content industry to develop its formats to capitalize on the power of
mobile.

Continuing with Internet (also known simply as "the Net" or "the Web") can be briefly
understood as "a network of networks". Specifically, it is the worldwide, publicly accessible
network of interconnected computer networks that transmit data by packet switching using the
standard Internet Protocol (IP). It consists of millions of smaller domestic, academic, business,
and governmental networks, which together carry various information and services, such as
electronic mail, online chat, file transfer, and the interlinked Web pages and other documents of
the World Wide Web.

Contrary to some common usage, the Internet and the World Wide Web are not synonymous: the
Internet is the system of interconnected computer networks, linked by copper wires, fiber-optic
cables, wireless connections etc.; the Web is the contents, or the interconnected documents,
linked by hyperlinks and URLs. The World Wide Web is accessible through the Internet, along
with many other services including e-mail, file sharing and others described below.

The internet is quickly becoming the center of mass media. Everything is becoming accessible
via the internet. Instead of picking up a newspaper, or watching the 10 o'clock news, people will
log onto the internet to get the news they want, when they want it. Many workers listen to the
radio through the internet while sitting at their desk. Games are played through the internet. The
Internet and Education: Findings of the Pew Internet & American Life Project[2] Even the
education system relies on the internet. Teachers can contact the entire class by sending one e-
mail. They have web pages where students can get another copy of the class outline or
assignments. Some classes even have class blogs where students must post weekly, and are
graded on their contributions. The internet thus far has become an extremely dominant form of
media.

Computer play a main role in mass media, a computer is a machine that manipulates data
according to a list of instructions. Internet can be access using computer. Computer gaming
video production and designing are some of the important usage of the computer. The ability to
store and execute lists of instructions called programs makes computers extremely versatile.
Even though Mobiles, Internet and Computer has such a large audience it cannot be consider as
Mass Media. But it is been term as “New Media”.