mass media

noun

plural of mass medium

: forms of communication designed to reach many people : the newspapers, radio and television stations, websites, etc., through which information is communicated to the public

—used in singular or plural constructions

The twentieth century had been dominated by media that delivered the same material to millions of people at the same time—radio and newspapers, movies and television. These were the kinds of one-to-many, top-down mass media that Orwell's Big Brother had used to stay in power. Now, however, Americans were catching sight of the internet. They believed that it would do what earlier media could not: it would allow people to speak for themselves, directly to one another, around the world.

—Fred Turner

… the country had a really robust history of regulating media in the public interest, a really strong conviction that mass media were so important to—not just the economy—but to politics.

—Gary Gerstle

In countries where mass media information is unreliable or heavily controlled, social networking sites serve to communicate the truth.

—Hitoshi Mitomo

Film festivals and Hollywood movie studios alike have been racing to keep up with the trends in mass media, where cell phones, video games, and subscription streaming services are changing the ways consumers engage with screens and stories.

—Noel Murray

Because of these changes in mass media and also the emergence of radio, this was the first time when the entire country could really obsess together over a scandal out of Washington, D.C., in nearly real time following each day's developments.

—Carolyn Kellogg

also : the information or content so communicated

In her 1951 The Origins of Totalitarianism, Hannah Arendt argued that a tyrannical regime, wielding bureaucracy and mass media, could achieve permanence by conscripting the citizenry's consciousness.

—George Will

There were various advantages in point-to-point communication—particularly as new forms of transportation arose—but radio also came to be seen as a way to transmit mass media.

—Vince Guerrieri

Examples of mass media in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Additionally, the report found the decline in tobacco product use is likely linked to several strategies that have been implemented across the U.S. including price increases, mass media campaigns to educate about the harmful effects of tobacco product and smoke-free policies. —Mary Kekatos, ABC News, 17 Oct. 2024

During the Eisenhower administration, the State Department dropped even the pretense of seeking public input, preferring to sell its policies through the mass media. —Daniel Bessner, Foreign Affairs, 5 Apr. 2017

And Johnson did all that after selling Black Entertainment Television (BET) for $3 billion in 2001 to mass media company Viacom with her former husband Robert Johnson. —Byamanda Gerut, Fortune, 8 Oct. 2024

What was once limited to self-help books and exclusive retreats is now front and center in mass media, with influencers, celebrities, and thought leaders championing holistic living. —Ashlee Marie Preston, Forbes, 3 Oct. 2024

By the 1930s, AM radio was a dominant form of mass media in America, served by networks of stations – NBC, CBS and Mutual – with both local and syndicated programming. —CBS News, 1 Oct. 2024

Locke’s raucous conservatism, however, is not the only reason for his ubiquity on social media; like many Pentecostals before him, Locke has an instinct for celebrity culture, mass media, and business. —Andrew Cockburn, Harper's Magazine, 19 Aug. 2024