Media
for the eye - for the ear - for the mind
Related: communication - mass media - media art - media theory - new media - technology
Cultural artifacts: books - CDs - DVD
Broadcast media: television - radio
Personal media: mail - telephone
Storage: book - CD - computer - DVD - film - paper - tape video - vinyl
Technique: drawing - engraving - printing - photography - reproduction - duplication
Device: turntable - VCR - Portable media center
A DJ and his media
Definition
A medium (plural media - it is directly a Latin word meaning "the one in the middle") is a carrier of something -- in the most popular sense, of information, mostly human ideas. Depending on the actual characteristics of the medium, it provides transmission or storage of information or both.For example:
- Speech, gestures, telephone.
- Stone scores, audio and video recordings, hard disks
- Paper, letter mail
- Mass media: recitations, newspaper, magazine, movies, broadcast media (television, radio, streaming media), Compact discs, DVDs
- Interactive media: computer games, online games, video games, edutainment, interactive television
- The Internet is a mix of mass media and personal media
- In art, a medium means a specific kind of artistic technique or means of expression or the materials used in a specific artistic technique.
- In biology and chemistry, a solvent serves as a medium for molecules.
- By metonymy, the industries which produce news and entertainment content for the mass media are often called "the media" (in much the same way the newspaper industry is called "the press"). In the late 20th century it became commonplace for this usage to be construed as singular ("The media is...") rather than the traditional plural.
Marshall McLuhan was famous for saying (among other things), "The medium is the message." --http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medium
Media timeline
Chronomedia is destined to become the most comprehensive and accurate timeline of developments in communications media ever compiled. By integrating references to all audio-visual media—film and cinema, radio and television, cable and satellite, interactive (multi)media, photography, telegraphy, telephony and even printing and publishing—it becomes easier to see the parallel developments and interactions that have formed the media scene we know today. --David Fisher, http://www.terramedia.co.uk/Chronomedia/chronomedia_years.htm45,000 BCE to 2002. 4,000+ entries -- http://www.mediahistory.umn.edu/time/century.html [Oct 2004]
Representation [...]
Representation - the production of meaning through language, discourse and image - occupies a central place in current studies on culture. This broad-ranging text offers a comprehensive outline of how visual images, language and discourse work as `systems of representation'. --Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices (Culture, Media and Identities , Vol 2) - Stuart Hall (Editor) [Amazon.com]
Media in the movies
Telephone: Bells Are Ringing (1960), Denise Calls Up (1996), Pillow Talk (1959) , Sorry, Wrong Number (1948)
Radio: Good Morning, Vietnam (1987), The Great American Broadcast (1941), Hucksters (1947), Play Misty For Me (1971), Radio Days (1987), Sleepless in Seattle (1993) , Talk Radio (1988) , The Truth About Cats and Dogs (1996)
Movies: Cinema Paradiso (1988), Day For Night (1973) , F/X (1986), Good Morning, Babylon (1987), Living In Oblivion (1995), The Player (1992) , Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), Singin' In the Rain (1952), Stardust Memories (1980), Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Television: Being There (1979) Broadcast News (1987) Ed TV (1999), A Face In the Crowd (1957), Medium Cool (1969), Network (1976), Pleasantville (1998), Quiz Show (1994), To Die For (1995), The Truman Show (1998), Deathwatch aka Mort en direct, La (1980) - Bertrand Tavernier, Secret Cinema (1968) - Paul Bartel
Internet: Desk Set (1957) , Hackers (1995), Johnny Mnemonic (1995), Lawnmower Man (1992), The Net (1995), You've Got Mail (1998), Antitrust (2001)