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       • Some programs are entertainment programs, others are documentaries or news.

       • Nowadays, entertainment is often mixed in in documentaries and news programs, to make them more interesting. (The mix is info + entertainment="infotainment.")

â–º What is the best way to keep informed: watch TV news, listen to news on the radio, or read a newspaper? What do you think is the best way? Why?

205 In the Old Days, There was no Mass Media
       • During the Medieval Period (=The Middle Ages) there were few books in Europe. If you wanted your own copy, you had to copy it by hand! (Or pay someone else to do so, which took a long time and was very expensive.) 
       • A German, Johannes Gutenberg, invented a technology that changed everything.
       • Gutenberg made small letters (a, b, c,...) of metal. Then he combined the metal letters to make a line of text.  He could combine the letters to print a page of any book, again and again. That sounds simple — individual metal letters. But, is there any other invention which changed society so? Hardly. 
       • Gutenberg's invention made it much easier to spread information. The book became the world's first mass media.
       • With the passage of time, Gutenberg's technology was replaced by even simpler and cheaper methods. Nowadays, Kista Library alone has more books than there were in Europe before Gutenberg!
       • The Chinese had been printing books for a thousand years, but the news had not spread to Europe. It took an extremely long time for news to spread globally!
       • Nowadays there are, of course, many ways to spread information quickly: TV, radio, newspapers, etc. Not least, we have access to an enormous and growing amount of information through the internet. We know what is going on in distant lands.

â–º Which was the first mass media of all time?

â–º Which invention lead to the first mass media of all time?

â–º Summarize the development of mass media since the Middle Ages.

â–º Internet gives us access to an enormous amount of information. Does it make us wiser? Explain your answer!