The beginnings of modern mass media

Johann Gutenberg developed the modern printing press in Europe around 1440. At first, it was used mostly for religious books, such as the Bible.

From the mid-nineteenth century, newspapers reached mass audiences. For the first time, people who would never meet each other read the same news at the same time.

The scholar Benedict Anderson argued that this created a 'we feeling' among strangers. A reader in one town imagined thousands of others, in other towns, reading the same paper. So the nation became an 'imagined community': people feel they belong together without ever meeting most of their fellow members. Print helped people imagine a nation.

In India, the nationalist press played this role, spreading ideas of freedom and opposing colonial rule:

• Kesari (edited by Tilak, in Marathi);
• Mathrubhumi (Malayalam);
• Amrita Bazar Patrika (Bengal).

The British saw the danger and imposed censorship, banning papers and jailing editors. Even so, the nationalist papers kept going.

Early pioneers: Raja Rammohun Roy started the Bengali paper Sambad Kaumudi in 1821, which campaigned against sati and for reform.

Radio: under the British, radio was wholly owned by the state, used for government purposes and news the rulers approved.