Effects of Mass Media
HUM/186
Jennifer Williams
July 27, 2015
Valerie Whelton

Digital media forms have fundamentally overturned traditional media business models, the ways we engage with and consume media products, the way we interact with one another, and the ways we organize our daily lives around various media choices (Campbell. Martin, and Fabos, 2015). The major developments in the evolution of mass media during the last century were film and radio. The 1950’s and 1960’s also brought about dramatic electronic change with the invention of the television. The printing press led to nationalism that in turn nourished the idea of idealism (Campbell. Martin, and Fabos, 2015). Society began to rely less on their community and traditional leadership for insight and guidance. This newfound individualism proclaimed the rise of commerce and increased resistance to government interference in the business dealings of independent business owners. The democratic impulse of individualism became a fundamental value in American society in the nineteenth and twentieth century’s (Campbell. Martin, and Fabos, 2015). The creation of the telegraph in the late 1860’s paved the way for future technological inventions such as the wireless telegraphy (later named radio), the fax machine, and the cell phone. Digital communication has changed the way we watch television, read newspapers and magazines, and even attend school. Digital technology has influenced the American culture with the use of email, text, Skype, Twitter, and Facebook which are responsible for the lack of mail placing the United States Post Office in jeopardy, the closing of Hallmark stores, and the possible elimination of the telephone land line in homes. The dictionary defines the term convergence as the act of converging and especially moving toward union or uniformity, two or more things