Short answers, pulled from the story.
The first dated print book known as the Diamond Sutra appeared in China in 868 AD. This event predates the true birth of mass media as a global phenomenon which began much later in Europe. Johannes Gutenberg's invention of the printing press in 1453 marked the first time books could be produced on a scale that transformed society.
The phrase the media began to be used in the 1920s. The notion of mass media was generally restricted to print media until the post-Second World War era when radio, television, and video were introduced. These audio-visual facilities became very popular because they provided both information and entertainment.
Mobile phones were introduced in Japan in 1979 but became a mass media only in 1998 when the first downloadable ringing tones were introduced in Finland. Soon most forms of media content were introduced on mobile phones, tablets, and other portable devices. The Internet is a more interactive medium of mass media and can be briefly described as a network of networks.
The largest deal in history was the acquisition of Time Warner by AOL Inc. for US$164,746.86 million. Between 1985 and 2018, about 76,720 deals have been announced in the media industry, summing up to an overall value of around US$5,634 billion. The three major waves of M&A in the mass media sector occurred in 2000, 2007, and 2015.
In 1997, J. R. Finnegan Jr. and K. Viswanath identified three main effects or functions of mass media: the Knowledge Gap, Agenda Setting, and Cultivation of Perceptions. The Knowledge Gap refers to the influence of mass media on knowledge gaps due to factors including the extent to which the content is appealing. Agenda Setting describes how people are influenced in how they think about issues due to the selective nature of what media groups choose for public consumption.
Media artist Joey Skaggs has demonstrated the ease with which mass media can be manipulated using fabricated press releases, staged events, and fictitious experts. His long-running series of media hoaxes reveal how news outlets can be drawn to sensational narratives, often publishing stories with minimal fact-checking. Skaggs' work has been cited as a critique of journalistic practices and a case study in the vulnerabilities of modern media systems.