Narrowcasting has traditionally been understood as the dissemination of information (usually via Internet, radio, newspaper, or television) to a narrow audience; not to the broader public at-large. Also called
niche marketing or
target marketing, narrowcasting involves aiming media messages at specific segments of the public defined by values, preferences, demographic attributes, and/or subscription. Narrowcasting is based on the
postmodern idea that
mass audiences do not exist. While the first uses of the term appeared within the context of subscription radio programs in the late 1940s, the term first entered the common lexicon due to computer scientist and
public broadcasting advocate
J. C. R. Licklider, who in a 1967 report envisioned