The Media in the U.S.
    The media plays a vital role as a guardian of U.S. democracy./U.S. media have traveled a long road since the first newspaper was published in 1690./Within 50 years, magazines also began appearing in several major American cities./The advent of commercial radio at the beginning of the 20th century/ended print’s monopoly of the media in America,/giving nationwide and, later, global audiences unprecedented access to live audio programs./Television, an even more powerful medium,/entered the scene shortly after World War II./Defying predictions of their decline,/the other media have diversified to confront television’s dominant appeal./Satellite technology has allowed U.S. TV networks, especially cable networks,/to reach overseas au diences anywhere on the globe./Interactive media, fueled by the advance of digital technology/and the growing convergence of the computer, telephone and cable television,/represent the principal trend of the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st centuries./