Though mass media today is known in relation to capitalist modernity, it has a history. It may not have taken the characteristics of capitalist modernity or of capitalist media; nevertheless like all cultural forms media also has a history.

Following John Gutenberg's printing press in the 15 th century, for the first time there was wider dissemination of knowledge for a growing readership in the 17 th and 18 th centuries in Europe. The texts which were printed in the 15 th century were mainly religious, literary, medical and legal in nature. By using these texts as tools we can explore what kind of culture was there in Europe, particularly in 15 th century England.

When we move on to the 16 th and 17 th centuries, we find that the printing press further produced periodicals and newspapers. Newspapers and periodicals forms of mass media were produced after the printing press revolution really began and in the 17 th and 18 th centuries these mass media forms were added to hitherto existing books and pamphlets.

In the 19 th century we had book and newspaper industries and there was a phenomenal increase in the reading public and also this industry was developed because the rising middle class had the availability of leisure time to read books and newspapers. Women formed an identifiable and separate segment of readers around this time. In the 20th and 21 st centuries we have radically different forms of electronic media and new media which added new dimensions to media.