Old media (traditional media)
Old media, often termed traditional media, encompasses the various information and communication channels that were prevalent before the rise of the Internet and digital technologies. Key examples include newspapers, television, radio, magazines, and books. Unlike new media, which is characterized by interactivity and targeted content, traditional media typically operates on a one-way communication model, delivering content from a centralized source to a broad audience. Historically, the evolution of traditional media began with written communication, gaining momentum with the invention of the printing press in the 15th century, which significantly increased literacy and access to information.
By the 20th century, newspapers and radio had established themselves as primary sources of news, later followed by the widespread adoption of television. However, the introduction of the Internet and mobile technology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries has dramatically shifted audience behavior, leading to a decline in traditional media consumption. As digital platforms gained traction, many traditional outlets struggled with dwindling circulation and viewership. Despite these challenges, traditional media continues to play a notable role in the communications landscape, even as it adapts to a more digital-centric world.
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Old media (traditional media)
Old media, often referred to as traditional media, are the sources of information and communication that thrived prior to the proliferation of the internet and digital technology. Among the more notable examples of traditional media are newspapers, television, radio, magazines, books, and other print publications. Old media is sometimes called legacy media to contrast it with new media sources such as websites, blogs, streaming video and audio, mobile apps, and social media. While the spread of information in new media is often interactive and targeted toward a specific audience, information in traditional media tends to be one-way, geared toward a larger audience, and controlled by the source. With the growth of digital technology in the twenty-first century, traditional media has lost its place as the primary source where most people get their information. However, it still contributes a significant share of the modern communications landscape.
Background
Throughout history, humans have used various methods to express ideas and communicate with each other. While cave paintings left on the rock walls of prehistoric shelters can be considered an early form of mass media, a more lasting distribution of information did not begin until the invention of writing around 3400 BCE. The oldest known books were written on clay tablets in ancient Mesopotamia, while later civilizations wrote manuscripts on wood, bone, or early forms of paper. The earliest known “newspaper” dates to about 50 BCE when the Romans begin posting official news announcements called the Acta Diurna, or “Daily Acts,” on metal or stone tablets in public places.
The audience for written media remained relatively small for centuries, constrained by the cost and difficulties of reproducing the material and the lack of literacy among the population. Then, in the 1450s, German printer Johann Gutenberg started a revolution when he invented a system of movable type that allowed the mass production of books. His innovation not only created a dramatic increase in the number of printed works, but it also contributed to a rise in literacy throughout Europe. By the seventeenth century, newspapers were being printed and consumed by readers across Europe. Settlers also brought the medium across the Atlantic when Europeans settled in the Americas.
At the dawn of the twentieth century, newspapers were firmly entrenched as the dominant source of media in the United States. However, this same period would see the birth of other media that would challenge newspapers in the coming century. Radio was invented in the late 1890s and rose to become a primary media source in the next few decades. Even more impactful was the growth of film technology that spawned a multibillion dollar movie industry. By the mid-twentieth century, television was introduced in homes across the United States and soon became a dominant force in the American media landscape. Its reach grew so wide that, by century’s end, most homes had multiple television sets and the medium had replaced newspapers as the primary source of information for most Americans.
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The late twentieth century also saw the birth of the internet that went on to explode in popularity in the twenty-first century. In the 1990s, the growing number of personal computers in US homes fueled the rise in the internet’s popularity. This trend increased dramatically in the 2000s with the introduction of mobile smartphone technology, which allowed users to have internet access in the palms of their hands. At the same time, social media platforms such as Facebook, X (formerly known as Twitter), and YouTube sprang up online, allowing users to digitally interact with others and to create and share their own content such as blogs, photos, and videos.
The impact of this new media was so great that it quickly began to replace traditional media in popularity. By 2008, more Americans got their news from online sources instead of newspapers for the first time in history. The shift took a heavy toll on the newspaper industry, which saw its circulation numbers plummet. According to the Pew Research Center, daily newspaper circulation in the United States fell from more than 60 million in the early 1990s to roughly 28.6 million in 2018 and to 22.1 million by 2023. Larger newspapers such as the Wall Street Journal and USA Today still have circulations totaling in the millions, but many smaller papers have been forced to close. In response, newspapers and magazines have put additional focus into their online presence, some even going as far as totally replacing print editions with digital-only versions.
Television maintained its hold as the dominant media source into the 2010s, but by 2018, it too faced a growing challenge from new media. According to the Pew Research Center, between 2012 to 2016, total television watching dropped by about 19 percent, with the biggest drop among viewers ages 18 to 24. The audience for cable television news increased 8 percent in 2018, but network news viewership was down 4 percent and local news dropped by 10 to 14 percent. By 2024, though 33 percent of adults said they often get their news from TV, 86 percent said they at least sometimes got their news from a digital device, and 57 percent said they often receive their news digitally. Over the 2020s, digital platform viewership skyrocketed. For example, the video-sharing website YouTube boasted more than 2.5 billion monthly viewers in 2024, and the streaming service Netflix reported 300 million subscribers that same year. Notably, the time people spent viewing digital media had surpassed the time viewing traditional media. On average, people spent 400 minutes a day on digital media and 275 minutes on traditional media, with television making up around 180 of those minutes.
In general, traditional media is viewed as information sources that are available only offline, though some newspapers count online readership among their circulation numbers. New media is considered to be more interactive than traditional media with users creating and sharing their own content and choosing what content to view and when to view it. In contrast, traditional media is one-way media, meaning its content is created by a news organization or entertainment studios and is distributed in a predetermined manner with little input from readers or viewers. It is more likely to be geared toward a wider audience to generate a greater amount of attention. Traditional media is also constrained by elements such as deadlines and production costs, limiting its ability to be disseminated and updated immediately. This has some benefits in that it allows more time to ensure the accuracy of the information, but it also lacks the expediency consumers have come to expect.
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