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

But in the cacophony of a campaign in its final week, the tempest over endorsements felt like a holdover from a passing era of mass media consumption. —Simon Montlake, The Christian Science Monitor, 1 Nov. 2024

Politicians have long known that mass media polarizes societies and that this process has become significantly more dangerous with the advent of recommender algorithms and social media. —The Physics Arxiv Blog, Discover Magazine, 31 Oct. 2024

The big picture: With trust in mass media at an all-time low, more publishers are choosing to avoid the potential blowback of endorsements. —Sara Fischer, Axios, 25 Oct. 2024

The only representations they were allowed were through mass media or images of migrants on canoes collapsing in front of European fortresses. —Jasmine Vojdani, Vulture, 24 Oct. 2024

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