Johannes Gutenberg

Johannes Gutenberg's inventing of movable type printing is an important event in the history of mass media. Previously books had to be copied by hand. This job was mostly done by the monasteries of Europe, giving the Catholic Church a great deal of power over what literature was to be mass produced. Monks would copy books, like the bible, by hand for many hours. Once the printing process was in the hands of regular people though new ideas could be written about and shared with all of Europe. This would spark the Renaissance, the Protestant Reformation and later a scientific revolution.