Definition and meaning
The term media, the plural of medium, refers to the channels of communication through which we disseminate news, music, movies, education, advertising messages, and other data. It includes physical and online newspapers and magazines, television, radio, billboards, telephone, Internet, fax, and advertising boards.
It describes the different ways we communicate in society. Since it refers to all means of communication, anything from a phone call to the evening news on television can be called media.
When it comes to reaching a very large number of people, we say mass media. Local media, for example, refers to your local newspaper or local/regional TV – /radio channels.
We used to get all our news and entertainment through TV, radio, newspapers and magazines. Today, the Internet is gradually taking over. Print newspapers are struggling as hundreds of millions of people switch to news sources online each year.
Different types of media
Media can be divided into two main categories: Broadcast and Print. The Internet has also become a major player as a rapidly growing number of people around the world get their news, movies, etc.. online.
Print media includes all types of publications, including newspapers, magazines, journals, books and reports. It is the oldest type and is still used by a large portion of the population despite suffering since the advent of the Internet.
Broadcast media refers to radio and television, which were used in the early and mid-20th century. Most people still get their news from television and radio broadcasts-experts predict, however, that it won’t be long before online sources take over.
Cable news has grown in importance over the past twenty years.
The Internet-particularly Web sites and blogs-is rapidly becoming viable and important channels of communication as more and more people search online for news, entertainment, and educational material. The term “viable” in business means able to generate profits for many years.
Virtually every part of the Internet has become a communications medium – most free email services have little boxes that display ads and other messages.
The Internet as we know it today didn’t start until the 1990s. In 1995, only 1% of the world’s population was online, compared to over 49% today. The concept of the Internet began in the 1960s in the U.S. during the Cold War, when the military and scientists worried about a missile attack that could knock out the telephone system.
Stephen Hawking, a British theoretical physicist, cosmologist, author and director of research at Cambridge University’s Centre for Theoretical Cosmology, once said, “The media needs superheroes in science as in every area of life, but there really is a continuous range of capabilities with no clear dividing line.”
What is social media?
Social media is a collective of online communication channels where communities interact, share content and collaborate.
Social networking websites and apps, microblogging, forums, social bookmarking, wikis and social curation are examples of some types of social media.
The most well-known social networking companies are Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Instagram.
Twenty-one years ago, very few people around the world knew what the Internet was. Today, it has become a part of our lives. It is destined to become the number one channel for communicating with the world’s population
Media ‘is’ or ‘are’?
If media is the plural of medium, then you would think that grammatically it should be used in the plural – the verb that follows it should be in the plural form, right?
However, in most literature it is used as a singular noun and interpreted as a collective singular, similar to other collective nouns such as “team” or “group.” Therefore, it is perfectly acceptable today to write the “medium is.” Some people may insist it’s wrong, but it’s still acceptable – languages are constantly evolving.
According to Collins Dictionary, media is:
“The means of communication that reach large numbers of people, such as television, newspapers, and radio.”
It all began thousands of years ago
Human communication through designed channels-not speech or gestures-dates back many tens of thousands of years, when our ancient ancestors painted on the walls of caves.
The cave paintings at Lascaux in southwestern France, estimated to be over 17,000 years old, are no less useful media expressions than our current television shows and magazines.
The Persian Empire – c. 550-330 BC – played an important role in the history of human communication through designed channels. Persian Emperor Cyrus the Great (c. 550 BC) developed the first true postal system. It was an effective intelligence apparatus called angariae, a term that later referred to a tax system.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881), a Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher, claimed in the 1830s that the printing press created the modern world by destroying feudalism. Many historians say that the advent of the printing press was the birth of what we know today as media.
The term media, in its current application to communication channels, was first used by Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980), a Canadian professor, philosopher, and public intellectual who said, “The media are not toys; they should not be in the hands of Mother Goose and Peter Pan executives. They can only be entrusted to new artists because they are art forms.”
By the mid-1960s, the term spread to common use in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.