ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that global systems of communication have to some degree compressed time and space. In other words movement and communication across space is more fluid. It is possible, for example, for millions of viewers around the world to view the same live instantaneous broadcast. The first major period was between roughly 1900 and 1940. The earliest theories of media effects viewed the audience as highly susceptible to manipulation and propaganda. The European “mass society” tradition was highly critical of moves towards mass education and the development of the press. Both mass society theory and the hypodermic model were challenged during the 1940s by the rise of a new commercially oriented approach to the media in the usa. This became known as the “uses and gratifications” approach and dates from approximately 1940 to 1960. In contrast to earlier theories, it was based upon empirical research into the ways in which people use the media.
