Mastery

The history of media begins thousands of years ago in Mesopotamia with the invention of writing. Empires were founded on this groundbreaking instrument. When Phoenician traders brought their alphabet to Greece, literacy exploded, spawning theater and democracy. It is not simply new communication technologies that have altered the globe; it is also access to them. Religious discontent was sparked by vernacular bibles, but it wasn't until the combination of cheaper paper and Gutenberg's printing press brought down the price of books by 97 percent that the Reformation was ignited. The Industrial Revolution made it possible for knowledge to travel faster and further than it had previously, but it also consolidated power in the hands of individuals who owned radio and television stations, major newspapers, and, eventually, authoritarian regimes.