ABSTRACT
Before they became big businesses in the nineteenth century, western media started as local institutions produced and consumed by economic and political elites. Media products were expensive and slow to create and expensive to buy-but they had a long shelf life. Elite print media, in particular, had serious content of a political, philosophical, literary, or economic nature. They had limited circulation. Before they could become mass media they had to overcome a number of geographic, technological, and political barriers. The isolation of cities meant media developed strong local allegiances-local ownership, local news, local audiences, local advertising. Only later did regionalism and nationalism become a factor. But even today, despite chain ownership and network television, the US government only licenses local radio/TV stations and holds them responsible for their programming. It does not license the national networks.
