ABSTRACT
Outline the historical roots of mass media networks from the Chinese Song Dynasty through the Western European Renaissance. To be considered mass media content, often referred to as the media message, a story must travel to a broad audience by way of a network. Mass media networks— systems designed to communicate messages to a large number of people at once— are generally technology based, although this has not always been the case. The more efficient and effective the mass media network is in creating an overwhelmingly accepted view, the more powerful and potentially dangerous, depending on one's perspective it can become. Highly skilled storytellers, armed with written language, contributed to the development of many world religions through some of the most enduring examples of mass media known to humankind. From scholars to politicians to media pundits and critics, the debate rages on as to which group exerts the most power and influence in mass media—the content producers or the content publishers.
