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Media Demassification

Demassification is derived from the word demassify which means to divide or break up (a social or political unit) into its component parts.

Unlike mass media communication where the target is everyone, demassification divides the masses into segments before choosing which segments to target. In specifically determinining the taget market and achieve the intended response.

Prehistoric Age

MBC news reported the discovery 40000-year-old cave painting in Sulawesi, Indonesia. Several other discoveries of cave art around the world have proven that even at a time when no known civilizations existed, the media have been a part of man’s life. The innate need for people to communicate is said to be the reason for their existence. Despite their lack of speech during those days, cavemen found a means to convey their thoughts. Although different from our methods, they have the same reasons we do for using the media.

After the Stone Age, ancient civilizations began to encourage long with a certain form of speech. The development of language made record keeping among civilizations possible. This is where the ancient forms of writing came into the picture. The earliest of which is the hieroglyphic script of the ancient forms of writing came into the picture. Egyptian civilization developed another notable ancient form of writing around 5000 BCE called the cuneiform (Mark, 2011)

These earliest scripts were initially inscribed on wet clay with a reed implement. Eventually, with the invention of paper, writing has become a lot easier. Many believe that the Egyptians developed the earliest paper through an abundant need found along the Nile, River. History, however, credits the Han dynasty for the invention of paper. (Violatti, 2013).

The creation of paper allowed ancient scribes to preserve history through manuscripts. These manuscripts are referred to as the earliest form of the print media.

Industrial Age

The industrial age brought improvements in mass media. In the book Industrialization in the Modern World, Hinshaw and Stearns cited the changes in mass media in the industrial age. In print, faster, steam-driven presses and methods of translating photographs to the printing press. The year 1850s paved the way for cheaper manufacturing of people. In 1890s automatic composing machines allowed semiskilled typesetting from keyboards to replace highly skilled manual setting.

Electronic Age

The electronic age of media began with the invention of the telegraph during the mid-1840s. According to Howe, it was a part of a widespread revolution in communications along with the mass production of newspapers, magazines, and books. Simply put, the height of the industrial age of media, paved the way to the dawn of a new era.

Bill Kovarik said that the invention of the telegraph led to the telephones, radios, and televisions. It revolutionized communication and media from the physical –print- to transmitted signals over distance. Through this, the barriers of space were broken allowing a quicker and easier communication during the electronic age.

Information Age

Today’s media has come a long form way cave paintings. While the traces of the industrial and electronic age still remain in modern media, the Internet is the prevailing platform of media in the information age.

The Internet is a development instead of an invention. What people know today as the World Wide Web began as more secure alternative means of communication during the cold war, called the ARPAnet. Janet Abbate defines the ARPAnet as a single network connecting a few dozen sites. By using packet switching or the process of breaking down information and sending it through different routes, the United States communication system can survive a Soviet Attack. (Abbate, 2000)

Its use, however, did not end the war. The ARPAnet continued to be used as an effective means of communication. Since it is single network, access was very limited. As more and more try to connect to the ARPAnet, integration became more difficult. An article published by the History channel credited Vinton Cerf in solving this problem through Transmission Control Protocol or TCP. The TCP allowed all of the world’s mini-networks to communicate with one another. Cerf made the evolution of ARPA net to a worldwide network possible.

Sending file to one another was the main purpose of the worldwide network throughout the 1980s. A decade later, Tim Berners-Lee led another Internet innovation. He developed the World Wide Web, where the Internet itself became a web of information. It is no longer limited to correspondence between two parties. It became a virtual space where information can be stored and retrieved by anyone who has access to it. His development is the Internet we know today.