Mass media

This book is a collection and assessment of the currently available quantitative descriptive information on the mass media industries of the United States. The core of the book is its more than 300 tables of data. These data are supplemented by a brief interpretative text, an analysis of source reliability and validity, and a listing of several sources of further information in each subject area.

The purpose of the book is to provide a single reference source for the most significant statistics describing communication industry trends in the United States since 1900. In compiling this information, the editors and their sponsors have endeavored to create something of a census or benchmark of currently available data which will allow researchers and media-industry professionals to focus on subject areas for which statistical information has been either unavailable or insufficient or widely scattered. It is hoped that this volume will support the eventual development of a series of statistical indicators through which communication industry trends can be more readily identified and understood.

This book can be approached in many different ways, depending on what the reader is seeking. There is strong historical tone to the book; for wherever possible, the editors have traced the development of given segments of the media over as many years as data are available. The editors have also purposely divided the book into seven general subject areas (ownership, economics, content, audience, etc.), rather than by media industries, in order to encourage the reader to think of the media in relation to one another.