Advertising in the Twentieth-Century - Essay Example

ADVERTISING IN THE TWENTIETH-CENTURY Introduction Advertising is a general media for boosting a product or service to the public. The art of advertisement has evolved over the past centuries from shouting in open places to publishing adverts in electronic and print media. The first advert was in the form of a flyer and with time adverts were able to be incorporated in newspapers after the invention of the printing press. The different types of advert in the contemporary world may be in the form of broadcast, text messages, media, internet media, and print media among others. Media has a great influence on advertisement industry as it helps in reaching the targeted audience over a short span of time. Advertising plays a predominant role in the mainstream media, and a high percentage of revenue is attributed to the advertising culture in the twentieth-century. Goods and services can penetrate new markets as a result of mass publicity in the newspapers, televisions and magazines produced by mass media. Without advertising, the media content in many media outlets would be very different. Also, without advertising, many media on which people rely for information might not be what they are known today (Artz, 2007). Advertising took a different dimension in the twentieth century, and the increase also brought about more efficient advertising channels. It is well informed to discuss the various forces that have shaped advertisement and mass media industry in the twentieth and nineteenth centuries respectively. The Fashion of Advertising in the 20th Century In the nineteenth century, advertising was lowly regarded by the press that was reluctant to accept adverts in the prevailing media channels. Instead, advertising was popularized by the advertising agencies (Tambini, 2007). The nineteenth century was the age of newspapers which acted as the primary media for advertising. The twentieth-century media industry was uplifted by numerous innovations that made information widely available within a short time. The efforts tilted the dimension of advertisement in the twentieth-century from press to several channels like text messages, television, radio, internet, among other mediums. In the last century, the newspaper could no longer depend on revenue generated from adverts for its economic sustenance. The rapid expansion of television advertisement is attributed its popularity as an entertainment media. The advent elicited spontaneously competition with print media as the dominant avenue for advertisement and a prime source of revenue for the media houses. The development of internet in the 1990s breathed fresh air of stiffer competition in the ad industry (Sparks, 2007). All forms of print publication have forever since been threatened by the use of internet as commercial conduit. The written press has adapted to the eminent commercial threat by applying consumption-oriented features in their adverts. Print media inculcated specialization of their content by shifting into classified advertising where colour was used to attract adverts from the food and beverage industry. Influence of Radio in Advertisement The relationship between the press and advertising remained contentious in the two centuries, with newspapers remaining a preferable medium of publicity. However, with the new ways of reaching customers in the twentieth-century came new strategies for advertisers to appeal to the customers. The tremendous increase in advertising efforts in the twentieth-century sparked the need to make it more useful. The significant milestone in advertising was the spontaneous growth of radio in the first quarter of the century. Adverts could now be heard as they were broadcasted live on the radio. The adverts could also be fused with music and spoken words to appeal to a wider audience previously assumed to be literate. The only cost associated with purchasing a radio just had to hear the adverts. Multiple programs were dedicated to broadcast of adverts in order to raise the revenue scales of radio broadcasting stations. Radio adverts were designed to interrupt desired programs and could steal the attention of listeners, therefore increasing the effectiveness of radio adverts (Silverblatt, 2007). Impact of Television in the 20th Century The invention of television in the 1950s brought tremendous effects in the advertising industry. The television offered candid colour and detail in the adverts as opposed to the other mediums. The explosion of satellite, cable and terrestrial TV channels in the 1990s resulted in fragmentation of audience (Stafford, 2005). The advancement alternatively changed broadcasting to narrowcasting, pointing advertising as well. In the nineteenth century, the press mainly focused on news and related information that was printed. Advertising was not popularized in the print press. Influence of World Wide Web on Advertising The growth of internet usage due to growth of personal computer use welcomed a new era of publicity. The rapid internet penetration offered an opportunity to advertisers to reach users directly, sometimes with specific adverts based on their web data information. The growth of internet as an advertising medium made the advertising environment very competitive. The internet duly sent information on the desktops, and other connected gadgets and could play both music and videos to the people (Weerakkody, 2009). Companies could set up online shops complete with product specifications for people to access and buy at their desirable time. After that, companies started using the Internet for brand building besides offering details about their products. At the fall of the twentieth-century, several online websites like Google begun providing ad services to internet users based on their browsing information. The Internet was the most powerful and predominant form of advertising in the last century. The Case of the 19th Century The press in the nineteenth industry, particularly the newspaper, was an exploding industry. There was a newspaper for demonstration, political parties, general news and religious functions whose objective was deeply rooted in the morals of the society. Besides printing news, the newspapers allocated space to literature in the form of published fiction and poetry. Recipes and comedy were regarded as pastimes that promoted the press business (Tambini, 2007). The development of railway and telegraph further accelerated media development in the nineteenth century. The most important factor that made the news free was copyright. The press of the day operated in a different control system that allowed free flow of information. There was no copyright law and, therefore, the information could be easily copied from one newspaper to another without any legal hindrance. Editors could quickly clasp information from another newspaper and use it in their publications as this was entirely legal (Sparks, 2007). All the other newspapers relied on that kind of information exchange. The small size of information gathering staff of most media houses accelerated the exchange system in order to have as much content as necessary to generate adequate revenue. Technological limitations hindered transmission of information to a larger population over long distances in a short time span compared to the preceding century. The main shift in the media industry rose as a result of the printing press in the nineteenth century. Control of information remained in the hands of selected few, who had a vast network for information dissipation. In the contemporary world, news is disseminated alongside advertisement, which ploughs revenue for the media business. The growth has been accelerated by market forces that have allowed multiple players to be involved in information dissemination. Information in the nineteenth century was more polarized and biased due to low penetration of information collection mechanisms contrary to the last time (Artz, 2007). A Case of Nineteenth Century Britain The press industry in the nineteenth century had its share of intricacies in streamlining political structures and was equivocal in articulating public opinions. Newspapers and magazines expressed criticism of the political class and the inability of corrupt governments to deal with rising social problems like poverty, poor housing and susceptibility of new economic laws of capitalism in an autocratic fashion (Tambini, 2007). The middle-class radicals insisted on including political content in newspapers and magazines to encourage the working class define their political destiny through the Chartist movement. However, in the mid-nineteenth century, there was a dramatic change in content due to competition. More attention was focused on including entertainment and culture in the newspapers while retaining a commitment to the ‘people’s course’ in the content. The written press was widely seen as a means to strengthen and maintain stability in the social fabric. Conclusion Apparently, the twentieth-century expressed a center stage for advertising link with the media. Advertising continues to play a critical part in defining the aspects of mass media that prevail at the present. It has shaped the dynamics of operation by generating the most revenue for media houses and associated information links (Weerakkody, 2009). The advent of mediums like television and radio in the twentieth-century modeled the spheres of advertisement by presenting open opportunities. The arrival of the World Wide Web spontaneously sparked pervasive change in the face of the ad business in mainstream media. The development has permanently changed the relationship with media in the past century and continues to spread in the modern times. The media continues to be a powerful tool in information dynamics with regards to the ad industry. The initial function of the media has evolved from merely disseminating news on the newspaper, to acting as an influential instrument of change. Technology has brought information gathering close to individual level, limiting dependence on broadcast media. Internet access in most parts of the globe has continued to have pervasive effect that has enabled ads to reach more people using mobile phones. The ad industry has to adapt to the changing socio-economic landscape in order to survive the current competition. Specialization has swayed ad agencies to employ techniques that can absorb competition and remain relevant. Today, the press continues to increase ad airtime in order to tap more revenue from the lucrative business and therefore other objectives like entertainment and news continue to bear the brunt of the sideline. People are forced to contend with the state of affairs in favour of promotions and therefore proving the inarguable role played by media in content control. Reference List Artz, L., & Kamalipour, Y. R. (2007). The media globe: trends in international mass media. Lanham, MD, Rowman & Littlefield. Silverblatt, A. (2007). Genre studies in mass media: a handbook. Armonk, N.Y., M.E. Sharpe. Sparks, C. (2007). Globalization, development and the mass media. Los Angeles, SAGE. Stafford, M. R., & Faber, R. J. (2005). Advertising, promotion, and new media. Armonk, NY., M.E. Sharpe. Tambini, D., & Cowling, J. (2007). From Public Service Broadcasting to Public Service Communications. Institute for Public Research, London. Weerakkody, N. (2009). Research Methods for Media and Communication. Oxford, Australia: Oxford University Press Read More