A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE MEDIA
By Tim Lambert
It could be said the modern media began when the printing press was invented in the 15th century. It allowed the mass production of books and made newspapers possible.
Newspapers began circulating in the 17th century. The first newspapers were printed in Germany in 1609. The first newspaper in England was printed in 1621. (However the word newspaper was not recorded until 1670). At first newspapers only printed foreign news. They did not print domestic news until 1641. The first successful daily newspaper in Britain was printed in 1702.
The first American newspaper as printed in 1690. It was called Publick Occurrences Both Forreign and Domestick. In the 18th century the first magazines began. At first they were for the educated middle classes.
In 1785 the Daily Universal Register was first published. In 1788 it was renamed The Times. In 1814 The Times was printed with a steam-powered press for the first time. In 1848 The Times used a rotary printing press with the printing face wrapped around a cylinder for the first time. The Daily Telegraph was fist published in 1855. The Manchester Guardian was founded in 1821. It changed its name to The Guardian in 1959. The Sunday Times was first published in 1822. The Financial Times began in 1888.
In the mid-19th century reporters began to use the telegraph as a means to get news to their newspapers quickly. Then in 1880 The New York Graphic became the first newspaper to print a photo. In Britain the first tabloid newspaper was the Daily Graphic published in 1890. In 1891 it became the first British newspaper to print a photo.
However newspapers did not become common until the late 19th century when most people were literate and had some disposable income. The Daily Mail was first published in 1896, The Daily Express was first published in 1900 and the Daily Mirror began publication in 1903.
In 1964 The Daily Herald became The Sun and The Daily Star was founded in 1978. Meanwhile The Sunday Telegraph was founded in 1961 and in 1962 The Sunday Times became the first newspaper to publish a Sunday colour supplement. The Mail on Sunday began in 1982.
The Independent was first published in 1986. Also in 1986 Today became the first newspaper to publish colour photos.
By the beginning of the 20th century Fleet Street was the centre of the British newspaper industry. However in the 1980s newspaper owners moved away from Fleet Street. At that time computer technology replaced the old labour-intensive methods of printing.
The Press Complaints Commission was created in 1990.
Metro, a free newspaper for commuters was first published in 1999.
At the end of the 19th century the first comics were made. Comics became really popular in the 1930s. The Dandy was first published in 1937 and The Beano followed in 1938. Adult comics began in the 1960s.
In the 20th century newspapers began to face competition from radio and later from television. Radio broadcasting began in Britain in 1922 when the BBC was formed. By 1933 half the households in Britain had a radio. Following the 1972 Sound Broadcasting Act independent radio stations were formed. In the 1990s new radio stations included Radio 5 Live (1990) and Classic FM (1991).
Television was invented in 1926 by John Logie Baird and the BBC began broadcasting in 1936.
TV was suspended during World War II but it began again in 1946. TV first became common in the 1950s. A lot of people bought a TV set to watch the coronation of Elizabeth II and a survey at the end of the that year showed that about one quarter of households had one. By 1959 about two thirds of homes had a TV. By 1964 the figure had reached 90% and TV had become the main form of entertainment - at the expense of cinema, which declined in popularity.
At first there was only one TV channel but between 1955 and 1957 the ITV companies began broadcasting. BBC2 began in 1964 and Channel 4 began in 1982. Channel 5 began in 1997.
In Britain BBC 2 began broadcasting in colour in 1967, BBC 1 and ITV followed in 1969.
Meanwhile in 1962 the first telecommunications satellite, Telstar was launched. Satellite television began in Britain in 1989.
Meanwhile a National Museum of Photography, Film and Television was founded in Bradford in 1983.
The internet was developed in the 1960s although the number of users was at first very small. However in the 1990s the internet boomed and it is now one of the main sources of news and information throughout the world.
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