What are the mass media

1
What are the mass media?

• Print media
• Audio-visual media
• The role of technology in making media available
  to the masses.
• In looking at the development of the mass media,
  we are looking at the development of the modern
  world.
• Who controls the technology?

2
Book advantages

• Compact
• Portable
• Can be used anywhere
• Cheap
• Easy to read
• Simple overview skip, skim, read, refer
• You know where you are with a book
  (centuries-long practice)
• Non-volatile

3
Book disadvantages

• Limited information
• Physical effort, time etc. of accessing
  references (no hyperlinks)
• Cant copy and paste
• May be lost no automatic back-up
• Time-lag in production
• Cost of production, distribution, archiving etc.

4
Studying the German Print Media

• How many of you read a newspaper every day?
• Broadsheet or tabloid?
• On the internet?
• How many of you read a magazine?
• How many of you read a book?

5
The Print Media

• History of the Print Media
• Newspapers and magazines today

6
The Origins of Printing

• Johannes Gutenberg (1398-1469)
• The Gutenberg Bible

7
Martin Luther

• Translation of the Bible from Latin into German
  1522-1534
• Making the Bible available to the common people

8
The dissemination of books

• Up to the 18th century Markets and fairs
• From 18th century libraries
• Reading societies

9
The book as mass medium

• 1867 Reclams Universalbibliothek
• 20th century Books as sources for other media
  film, television, radio
• 1990s Books on the Internet www.gutenberg.de

10
Newspapers

• 1600s Newspapers as weeklies
• First daily newspaper Einkommende Zeitungen
  (Leipzig 1660)
• End of 17th century 170 newspapers with
  editions of up to 1500 copies
• Who was the readership the bourgeoisie
• Literacy rates 4 of population in first-half of
  the 19th century

11
Newspapers

• The battle for free speech
• Freedom of the press Otto von Bismarck
  (Chancellor) abolishes state pre-censorship
• Sozialistengesetze (1878)
• Artikel 5 of the Grundgesetz(1949)

12
What are newspapers for?

• To disseminate information
• To advertise
• 1872 Berliner Tageblatt
• By 1980 of DM 7.8 million raised by daily
  newspapers, 5.3 million raised by advertising

13
Newspapers in the 20th century

• In 1866 300 German newspapers
• In 1900 3500 German newspapers
• In 1910, 36 of the population read newspapers
• Media moguls Alfred Hugenberg
• Media in the Third Reich under the control of
  Josef Goebbels (Propaganda Minister)

14
Newspaper Circulation 1932-1944

• year circulation ns circulation total
  newspapers ns newspapers
• 1932 26 million 1 million 4275 94
• 1939 16 million 6,1 million 2288 200
• 1944 25,1 million 20,7 million 977 352

15
West German Newspapers after 1945 - Key features

• Large number of newspapers (1995 - 389 dailies)
• Strong representation of local newspapers
• Few supra-regional newspapers

16
Regional Newspapers

• Local Loyalties

17
(No Transcript)
18
West German Newspapers after 1945

• Media empires
• Springer Verlag - 23 of daily newspaper market
• Titles Die Welt (Berlin), Berliner Morgenpost
• Bild (4.7 million copies)
• Political influence?

19
Other supra-regional papers

• Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
• Frankfurter Rundschau
• Süddeutsche Zeitung (München)

20
Other supra-regional newspapers

• Die Zeit
• Weekly, published in Hamburg
• 482,000 copies

21
Alternative Newspapers

• taz (die tageszeitung)
• Founded 1979
• Rejection of hierarchical editorial roles all
  workers paid the same
• Low level of income from advertising (10)
• 1991 reorganization along more traditional lines

22
Newspapers in the GDR

• Newspapers connected to parties
• Eg. LDPD - Der Morgen
• Neues Deutschland (paper of leading party SED)
  the most ideological, highest circulation
• Other papers more strictly censored and lower
  newsprint allocations
• Postzeitungsliste
• Monopoly of state news agency AND
• Special training for journalists

23
Magazines

• 1688 Monatsgespräche
• 19th century Gartenlaube
• Illustrierte photography
• The significance of magazines in the post-1945
  era

24
Magazines in West Germany

• Der Spiegel (1947) 1995 1.1 million copies
• Focus (1993)
• Stern (1948)
• Hör Zu (1946)

25
Magazines in the GDR

• Far fewer than in West Germany
• Wochenpost, Freie Welt, Neue Berliner
  Illustrierte
• Thinner - less advertising!