Access to information through the invention of print was responsible for the…

Concept

Media are classified by the scale of their audience, the direction of communication, and the technology used to reproduce and distribute messages.

When a technology makes identical information reproducible and accessible to a large, dispersed public, it creates the basis for mass communication rather than a private interpersonal exchange.

Application

Printing made texts reproducible in many copies and widened public access to the same information. This one-to-many distribution model enabled communication with a mass audience; therefore the resulting form was mass media.

Contrast

• Mediated class distinction concerns social differentiation shaped through intermediaries; it is not a communication form created by printing.

• Media monopoly concerns concentrated ownership or control of media; it describes a market structure, not the basic communication form enabled by print.

• Mass media concerns distributing common messages to large, dispersed audiences, which is the scale made possible by print reproduction.

• An electronic device of interpersonal communication supports person-to-person exchange and depends on electronic technology rather than print reproduction.

Cross-check

The Gutenberg printing press expanded the production and circulation of books, newspapers, and other printed material. These are standard print-media channels within mass media, confirming the result: mass media.