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The mass media surrounding us have their roots in mass communication. Mass media are the industries that create and distribute songs, novels, newspapers, movies, Internet services, TV shows, magazines, and other products to large numbers of people. The word media is a Latin plural form of the singular noun medium, meaning an intervening material or substance through which something else is conveyed or distributed.

We can trace the historical development of media through several eras, all of which still operate to varying degrees. These eras are oral, written, print, electronic, and digital. In the first two eras (oral and written), media existed only in tribal or feudal communities and agricultural economies. In the last three eras (print, electronic, and digital), media became vehicles for mass communication: the creation and use of symbols (for example, languages, Morse code, motion pictures, and binary computer codes) that convey information and meaning to large and diverse audiences through all manner of channels. And in the era we’re experiencing today, these channels have also converged, changing the dynamics of media production, distribution, and consumption that held for much of the twentieth century. For example, you can now read magazines in their print edition as well as their online version. And you can watch movies at theaters as well as on your iPhone.