News history

''The last 20 years have been more significant in terms of media and it's role in society than the whole of the previous 200 years?''

Over the last 20 years, the Media has continued to grow as technology increases. Within the last 20 years, there has been a particular increase in digital media. Examples are: social networking sites (Facebook and Twitter), online videos (YouTube), advertising on TV as well as online, mobile apps and many more. All of these platforms have a link to the media in one way or another. There are social networking sites, mobile apps and YouTube channels with News pages such as BBC and Sky News.

However, 500 years ago is where we first began to discover the Media platform through news spreading. 500 years ago, news spread through word of mouth. In the 17th century, the printing press began which was the birth of Newspapers. The downfall of this was that it was essentially producing 'yesterday's news' as it would take time for journalists to develop and write the story then when it was published it would need to be printed and consumers would read the news from yesterday. During the 1920's, the first addition to the broadcast platform was born which was radio. This was great as it provided up to date and live news for consumers. Also, those who were illiterate had a way to have the news communicated to them without having to read it from a newspaper. During the 1930's, black and white television was introduced, however was very expensive and only the more well off people from the community could afford them, therefore there were only a few in households. To continue, in the 1930/40's Universal Newsreel began. This was a short clip/trailer which would be shown in a theater and highlighted news from around the world to audiences before their film began. This was not however always up to date. In 1972, The Washington Post made a big impact in the media as the water gate scandal revealed the president had organised to break into a hotel of democratic's to find out what was to come in the upcoming election. Moving on, CNN was introduced in 1980 which was the first 24 hour news broadcast. This lead the the 9/11 attack being filmed live and reported at the time of the incident on news channels in 2001.

In my opinion, the media over the years has allowed audiences to be able to access things on a greater and wider scale. However, i agree to a certain extent that the last 20 years has been the most significant as it has allowed us to access the media with growing technology. On the other hand, without the introduction to media 200 years ago, we would not be provided with the broadcasts and facilities we have today as these were designed because of the media originally.