Mass media timeline

By leywei
  • 2900 BCE

    Writing and Papyrus

    Writing and Papyrus
    People used to write on leather from animal hides and walls of caves. Then the Ancient Egyptians used papyrus as a medium to write on. It was made from the papyrus plant and they used red and black ink to write on it.
  • 105

    Writing on paper

    Writing on paper
    First true paper making happened in China. Ts'ai Lun was an imperial court official who made the first sheet of paper from mulberry and other bast fibres along with fishnets, old rags, and hemp waste.
  • 1440

    The Printing Press

    The Printing Press
    The printing press was made by a German craftsman named Johannes Gutenberg. He made it by using movable metal parts that could be reused with a press to produce sharp impressions on paper which ink could be placed on over and over again.
  • Advertising

    Advertising
    Advertising started to get popular in the 1650's by people using it to promote their inventions and books. It gained popularity over war times because of propaganda being spread through newspapers, flyers, and other papers people would hand out.
  • Electronic Media

    Electronic Media
    The creation of the telegraph first started the spreading of Media over electronics. This advanced into the radio and eventually the television where people would rely on them from all the information they would get.
  • Social Media Arrives

    Social Media Arrives
    The first social media network was Six Degrees. This was your classic social media sites where you can create an account and connect with other friends who have an account of their own.
  • Social Media Takes Off

    Social Media Takes Off
    The early 2000s is when social media started to gain popularity. it is when people realized how good social media could be with the right development and coding. They took aspects from Six Degrees and made apps like Facebook in 2004 and Twitter in 2006 which was later changed to X in 2023.
  • More Social Media is Made

    More Social Media is Made
    People wanted a way to share pictures and videos of moments they were having which is what inspired Snapchat's creation and release in 2011. People also wanted a way to watch short videos that were entertaining but didn't take too much of their time. This is how Vine came to be in 2012. Following in the footsteps of Vine but making it music based is how the app Musically came to life. In 2018 Musically was changed into what is now one of the most popular social media apps, TikTok.