History and Evolution of Technology and Mass Communication

Abstract

In the decades after World War II, the field of communication study came into its own, and one of the primary ways it did so was via an examination of mass communication. This American word used to communicate and indicate the growing problematization of media from the 1920s forward. Academics have recently argued about the term's ongoing usefulness, usually without considering its international or historical settings. To help fill in the blanks and enhance ongoing attempts to internationalise the subject, we provide a transnational background on mass communication that sheds light on the sociological, social, and geopolitical aspects of the medium's inception, propagation, and reception. We provide a technique and historical narrative to illuminate the early stages of globalisation of the field by mapping places of its acceptance, adaptation, and rejection across geographical regions. We demonstrate the term's lingering postwar American hegemonic connotations and make the case for a more self-aware approach to the research terms we use.