Media - What are they? characteristics, types, and more

Media - What are they? characteristics, types, and more
Posted on 02-03-2022

Media

Channels allow a communicative process to be carried out, by transmitting information relevant to human beings.

What are the media?

The media are channels that allow a communicative process to be carried out, by transmitting information relevant to human beings. These range from the written media to the various technological modes of transmission.

As media, we interpret those mass media that provide information and content to large masses, such as television, radio, and the internet, among others. Other intrapersonal channels, such as the telephone, are not considered mass media, even though they also facilitate communication between individuals.

Communication is a process of exchange and interaction between a person who sends a message and a receiver who receives it. In this way, the media are considered a way to transmit messages.

Media Characteristics

The main characteristics of the mass media, mass media, or mass-media (according to its terminology in the English language) are the following:

  • They do not necessarily require that the exchange be bidirectional between the sender and the receiver, that is, that they be in the same space and time; but what is relevant is that one of the agents sends a message to the other. In short, the media are systems that facilitate the sending of information from a communicative sender to one or more receivers.
  • They are routes in which transmitters and receivers, both individual and collective, are found. The contents in the mass media are directed towards a heterogeneous public and a diverse range of receivers.
  • The attitude of the receiving subject is usually more imprecise than in direct face-to-face communication. Broadly speaking, he can adopt a primary, voluntary, and conscious receptive attitude; secondary, conscious and involuntary, and tertiary, which corresponds to a passive receiver who receives a message without clearly perceiving it and totally involuntarily.
  • The media constitute the materialization of the need to relate to each other that human beings have, which can be carried out in a written, sound, audiovisual, or digital way.

Types of media

According to the format and the platform they use to transmit their messages, the media are classified as follows:

Printed media

This space includes all those publications written on paper, such as books, newspapers, magazines, or brochures.

This is the oldest mass media since it had its period of maximum splendor during the 19th century and a good part of the 20th century. Today, although they are still used, they have been largely replaced by digital media.

radio media

Medium based on the transmission of sound messages through the use of radio waves.

Unlike the written press, this medium remains fully valid, having as its main attributes its immediacy, its efficiency, and low costs, in addition to the use of both analog and digital media.

audiovisual media

They are those that focus on messages that can be seen and heard simultaneously, being located here to the cinema and television.

The cinema, prior to television, although in its beginnings (at the end of the 19th century) was considered an audiovisual means of communication between people, today it leans a little more towards aesthetic, cultural, and recreational purposes. Television, for its part, is currently considered the most popular and influential media of all, although with the incursion of the Internet its audience has been partially displaced, especially that which corresponds to the younger population.

Digital media

These consist of those new technologies, supported by the Internet, that have emerged strongly since the 1980s, managing to expand in an increasingly massive way.

Through digital media, information reaches a large number of people around the world in a simple and immediate way. The internet has broken the paradigm of unidirectional communication, expanding it towards the multidirectional model, which allows the active participation of the user. In this way, and according to the opinion of some experts in the field, digital media should not be considered as means of communication but rather as hypermedia, due to the large number and variety of possibilities that exist in this field.

Importance of the media

The media involve various forms of action and interaction in society, new types of relationships between people, and different ways of connecting with others and with oneself.

Since its main objective is to offer channels through which people communicate or obtain information, these media have played a very important role in human development and in societies.

In times of the current digital age, the media have managed to put individuals from different parts of the world in contact, not only through voice but also through the image; immediacy is one of the main qualities of the media.

Finally, the media, in addition to communicating and informing, serve as platforms for learning and entertainment. With communication media as agile and flexible as those of today, online distance education and training processes are becoming increasingly important. Likewise, the possibilities for entertainment today are unlimited, being possible to watch a wide variety of movies, listen to the music of all kinds or play video games at any time of the day, among other activities.

Media Examples

Some examples of mass media are the following:

  • Print media: New York Times, The Washington Post, ABC (Spain), Clarín (Argentina), El Nacional (Venezuela).
  • Radio stations : BBC London, Radio Nacional de España (RNE), WTOP (Washington – USA), Caracol Radio (Colombia), Radio Pudahuel (Chile).
  • Film Companies: Walt Disney, 21st Century Fox, Warner Bros., Columbia Pictures, Universal Studios.
  • Television networks : Radio Televisión Española (RTVE), Deutsche Welle (DW), Radiotelevisione Italiana (RAI), CNN, ESPN.
  • Digital Media: Google, YouTube, Netflix, Spotify, SoundCloud.
  • Social networks: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp, LinkedIn.

 

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