The term mass media is defined as different multiple mediums or many ways to transmit information. Since mass medium is so broad, the history of mass media stretches from prehistoric art forms and writings to the hieroglyphics used by the Egyptians and others. But, we shall start at the invention of Gutenberg’s printing press in the year 1455. After that, the first weekly printed newspaper in Antwerp appeared in the year 1605. Next came the invention of radio by Guglielmo Marconi in 1896, that won him the Nobel Prize for Physics. While Italian innovator Antonio Meucci is credited with inventing the first basic phone in the year 1849, and Frenchman Charles Bourseul devised a phone in 1854, Alexander Graham Bell won the first U.S. patent for the device in 1876. Bell began his research in 1874 and had financial backers who gave him the best business plan for bringing it to market. A man by the name of John Logie Baird in the year 1925 invented television, which we all love watching. Up next came the internet (the World Wide Web) which was brought to us by Tim Berners Lee in the year 1990.
That is how Mass Media began around the world, but we’ll be focusing more on a little island that goes by the name of Barbados.
To my knowledge, the very first newspaper that was in Barbados was called, The Barbados Gazette. It was established in the year 1731.
The Barbados phone service dates back to the year 1884. Now, over 120 years later, it continues to be in forefront of the telecom sector. International Telecommunications Union (ITU) data showed that between the years 2000 and 2004, Barbados had 124 telephones for every 100 people on the island.
Radio was introduced a lot later, in the year 1963. The only station for a long time was The Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation which aired in 900 kHz (AM). Now it is aired on three stations, which are 94.7 FM, The One 98.1 FM and 100.7 FM.
In the year 1964, Barbados started its television service. The station was started with the aid of the TIE Ltd Consortium. Colour transmissions began sometime around 1980, using the NTSC colour broadcast system.
By 1982 fiber optic cables were introduced in Barbados, again a first for the Caribbean region. Cellular service came in 1991 and four years later 1995 the first Internet Service Providers sprung up.
References
Sehgal, S. (2019, January 21). The evolution of mass communication https://www.crises-control.com/blogs/the-evolution-of-mass-communication/#:~:text=The%20history%20of%20mass%20communication,1895%3B%20television%20by%20John%20Logie
Totally Barbados https://www.totallybarbados.com/articles/infrastructure/telecommunications/
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