Defining Media
As a communications graduate, I have always been frustrated by the difficulty of explaining the concept of media. Using highfalutin philosophies and theories is not effective in the current era, when the time is ripe — indeed, overripe — for action-oriented media studies that truly guide humanity through a digital quagmire. Defining media is complex because it is interdisciplinary and multifaceted; however, it does not mean that it is impossible to make the difficult understandable for everyone.
In our current era, all shall strive to be students of the media.
The concept of media is not simply complicated. It is complicatedly simple, but its effects and influence are gargantuan. The more it is defined, the more it is debated. It is so important that it cannot be missed, but it eludes people the more it is pursued. It plays hard to get. The semantics are comparable to love, time, mind, god, and soul, where a universal definition does not exist; these concepts are so woven into everyday life that they cannot be separated from our being. Anything close to "I" is subjective.
Most people view media as a storytelling institution – it is the press, radio, and TV. It updates everyone on current events and serves as an intermediary between the nabobs and the masses. It exposes political anomalies and celebrates humanistic progress. It is expected to be our heroic watchdog and to give daily doses of inspiration.
With the immense power of institutional media, some will also inevitably view it as a biased, business-oriented community – it is the advertisers, PR professionals, and entertainment executives. It is those who exploit the attention and trust of the audience to intentionally grow profits by encouraging product consumption.
Nonetheless, media is technically accepted as communication technologies. Simply put, it encompasses anything that humans use to amplify or improve ways of sharing thoughts, stories, and ideas. In academia, students of the media normally study the history, production, and societal effects of books, magazines, photographs, the telephone, movies, music, and whatnot, aside from the classic triad of newspapers, radio, and TV. Of course, the Internet and social media are now included.
Jack-of-all-trades. This is where it gets interesting.
As media covers a lot, its technical definition begs the question of whether the eyes, voice, hands; podium, microphone, laser pointer; quotation marks, comma, and colon are included. The aforementioned are also used to communicate more effectively – why are these not in the foreground of discussion? Are these just underrated media, or are these outside the umbrella of media?
When media (medium in the singular) is defined by its essence in the ablative sense, it is simply but powerfully a means, an intermediary. It is viewed as that something making another possible . In this perspective, there are no categories of communication techniques and communication technologies. If something makes communication possible, it can fall under the umbrella of media. The human senses, oral communication tools, and punctuation marks qualify in the discussion. Scholars who usually accept this view are more interested in the history of communication and in how humans shape and are shaped by all inventions.
A pioneer in communication studies, Harold Innis, allowed stones and paper to share the same spotlight with radio and TV. Essentially, he analyzed media as materials that humanity created to make communication transcend the actual moment it is produced. According to him, stone is a time-biased medium that overcomes time, as messages carved onto it will surely last many generations; however, in this process, it consumes a lot of space because of its size and heavy material.
On the other hand, Innis regarded paper as a space-biased medium, because messages sent through letters can reach far-flung places; nonetheless, its material is weak when it comes to transcending time. Paper is easier to destroy – it can be burnt, cut, and crumpled in the blink of an eye.
In the current digital era, it is actually pragmatic to reintroduce this idea of media as communication materials that transcend time and space. It makes communication "durable," as it extends messages for a long time and as far as the eye can see. If media did not exist, humans could only talk in the current time with the people around their current location. The truth is simple yet profound: it binds humanity through preserving history and cultural traditions for posterity. The past, present, and future are united, and all countries, and even outer space, are bridged. Humans on Earth can now even communicate with astronauts on the Moon.
Obviously, the current most powerful medium is the Internet. It is unlike the stone that consumes space but transcends time. It is unlike the paper that consumes time but transcends space. It can both transcend time and space simultaneously. Humans can record, rewind, and replay previous conversations and stories; can send emails at a future date and time; and can also do activities without going out of the house. In this sense, media is also viewed as extensions of our bodies.
So, who is more powerful – the media or the humans? The latter created the former, but the former outlives and outpaces the latter.
With every use of media, humans are obliged to ponder its power. As it promises communication anywhere, does it affect personal space? Does it invade individual privacy? As it allows ideas and stories to be etched into eternity, does it affect the personal use of time? Does it tickle attention to consume an overwhelming amount of information?
No matter how long the debates on the definition of media continue, the core of media studies remains the same. Being a student of the media is tantamount to ensuring a mindful production and consumption of communication tools and technologies.
It literally benefits everyone. Who lives without the media?
If one claims that media does not have a place in his/her existence, Mark Weiser is screaming:
"The most profound technologies are those that disappear. They weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it."
Media is that which makes life possible.
Click my pic below to return to the main blog page. *lol, judged!*
