9781422272688

copying. The monks would cover blocks of text in ink and then use them as stamps against sheets of paper. Japanese and Korean cultures also adopted this method of producing documents so more people could access them. This technique was slow, but it served its purpose for hundreds of years. Each copy of a document or book had to be handwritten or block printed. The average person who wanted to create copies would painstakingly copy documents by hand, which would take hours. Even after the invention of paper, it would be 1,500 years before Johannes Gutenberg invented a printing press that used moveable type. Gutenberg took the idea of using the block printing method but turned each letter and punctuation mark into its own block. The press would mechanize the process of putting ink to paper. Finally, publishers could mass produce books, newspapers, and pamphlets. Newspapers became more common during the seventeenth century, but few people could actually read. By the early eighteenth century, the Times of London developed a large readership. Thanks to the printing press, large numbers of newspapers could be published for distribution quickly, and big ideas could spread throughout the population with speed the world had not seen before. It became clear quickly that mass media would play a crucial role in politics, government, and even entertainment. The next major development along the way involved the invention of the electrical telegraph in the 1830s

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Overview and the History of Media Bias