In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, for the first time in the three-hundred-year history of journalism as a social institution, the periodical press gained a truly mass audience. This confirmed the transformation of periodicals into mass media.
This was made possible by a complex of factors generated by the industrial revolution and the development of market relations. Economic and social factors were shaped by the development of mass machine production and the expansion of the marketing of goods and their consumption. The use of machines made it possible not only to sharply increase labour productivity in industrial production, but also to multiply the volume and variety of goods on the markets. In the nineteenth century in countries undergoing the stage of industrialization, people’s incomes and solvent demand increased. The “lower classes” got an opportunity to spend part of their earnings on entertainment and spiritual needs. A reduction in the length of the working day allowed them to increase the leisure time they needed.
During the 30 years preceding the beginning of the 20th century the total annual duration of the working day decreased in the leading Western European countries and the USA on the average by 250-300 hours, and on the eve of the Second World War it was already 600-1000 hours less than in 1870.
In connection with the needs of industrial production in the U.S. and Western Europe, compulsory primary education was introduced, which helped to overcome mass illiteracy and form a workforce adapted to the conditions of work with the use of machines. For example, in England in 1870 the corresponding law on education in schools was introduced. The elimination of mass illiteracy helped to create conditions for the production of high-circulation periodicals, addressed to those segments of the population who had not previously experienced the influence of the printed word.
The growing participation of workers in trade unions and other public associations and the emergence of the socialist movement stimulated the development of interest in current political events and in the content of periodicals. The struggle for democratic rights led to the proclamation in the most advanced countries of that time of universal suffrage (which applied in most cases only to adult males). A mass electorate capable of significantly influencing election results was formed. This increased the interest of the political and economic elite in influencing the behavior of the new strata of the electorate – in particular, through the press.