Different types of media

 Media

Media is an object or device used for recording, transmitting, and storing information. It may also be translated as a medium. It can be roughly divided into media for recording and storage and media for communication, but there is an overlap between the two.

Overview

For example, CDs, letters, telephones, televisions, etc. are used to convey information such as music, sentences, voices and images, and are called media in this sense.

The media often exists as an intermediary for communication. When information is transmitted from one person to another, there is often some kind of media in between.

In addition, it is often used as a synonym for "mass media" and "mass media" in the context of daily life. That is, it refers to newspapers, televisions, radios, etc. that transmit information to an unspecified number of recipients. In particular, it is often used in contexts that focus on the role of the press. In addition, these are sometimes referred to as "mass media" in particular.

When we refer to various media such as CDs and letters as media in general, we often focus on technology or the media itself, but in the context of focusing on the use of news media, the operating entity of such media. In some cases, it refers to media organizations (newspapers, broadcasting stations).

In a very broad sense, it refers to all the intermediary terms that some information goes through from the sender to the receiver. It's easy to see how broad it is, for example, when you think about a viewer watching a newscaster read aloud news about an incident on television. The words written in the hands of the caster as a news manuscript are mediated by at least the following factors before reaching the viewer.

In the broadcasting station

The sight and judgment of the caster who reads the manuscript

Voice and facial expression

Air vibration (sound) and light wavelength (color)

Shooting equipment such as microphones and video cameras

Editing equipment (inside the sub-control room)

Various staff (photographers, mixers, etc.) who operate shooting equipment and editing equipment

Cable and wireless (including communication satellites) communication

Radio waves for broadcasting from TV stations (transmitting stations)

TV receiver

Further, here, it can be considered that the news manuscript itself is also a kind of media, and conveys the "incident" that is the subject of the news through the writer of the news manuscript, words, and the like. In fact, in news research and media theory, we often pay attention to the values ​​and words of journalists from such a viewpoint.

If it is not a so-called live broadcast, processes such as recording, transportation, storage, and reproduction will be added here, but these are also a kind of media in a broad sense. This is easier to understand by assuming how a musical piece is produced by a small number of creators and reaches a large number of listeners.

Various forms of communication media

Media for communication often fall into several forms. An overview of some classification concepts will be helpful in considering specific examples and spreads of the media.

Mass media

Mass media is used when a specific small number of senders transmit some information to an unspecified number of recipients.

Typical images are television, newspapers, magazines, radio, and other so-called media outlets, but the film, music, and publishing industries are often included here.

These individual items are generally familiar and frequently used terms, but in reality they are not clearly subdivided. Television partially includes movies and music, and radio also overlaps with music.

Books, records, compact discs, cinemas, and many other things and facilities can be included here.

The mass media is often thought of in connection with the monopoly of information, the monopoly of means of expression, the tree structure, the hierarchical structure, etc., and is often negatively evaluated.

Network media

The information transmission mediated by the mass media is likened to a structure in which one point is the source and many points are the destinations, and refers to a mechanism in which information is exchanged from multiple senders to multiple senders. Sometimes called "media".

The Internet and personal computer communication are typical forms. Telephone and mail may be added here. Since the Internet is used for various purposes, electronic bulletin boards, e-mails, or blogs are used as network media, and web pages that transmit information to an unspecified number of people may be considered to be similar to mass media. The term social media has also been coined by the rise of SNS and Twitter, which are more closely linked to the spread of information.

Similarly, in television broadcasting, the composition of each individual program is from a small number of senders to a large number of recipients, but the degree to which the senders are limited is decreasing due to the increase in the number of channels. Some people think that. Depending on the region, some cable stations have a system in which local residents can produce and broadcast programs with the cooperation of local governments.

However, the physical infrastructure that supports these communications, especially communication networks such as cables, often has a tree-like structure, and in that sense, the network-like structure that is contrasted with the tree between many points. There isn't.

From the user's point of view, television and publishing only receive information supplied by a limited number of creators, whereas the Internet and telephone are so called because the senders of information are not so limited.

Personal media

Media that is mainly used by users to send, record, and edit information is sometimes called "personal media." This is contrasted with the mass media being a mass transmission of information. In addition, depending on the context, the exchange of information via these media occurs between acquaintances with relatively low anonymity, or occurs in a context called a personal network, interpersonal network, etc. May be emphasized.

Includes cameras, home camcorders, tape recorders, as well as mobile phones, ham radio, and email.

Interactive media

As a characteristic of media, properties called interactivity and interactivity may be noticed. Viewers are indirect and have very little influence on the content of TV programs, etc., and remain the "receiver", but in the case of telephone conversations, both sides raise a topic or have a conversation. It is possible to discontinue to some extent. In other words, it is possible to stand in the position of a sender and a receiver, and there is bidirectional transmission between the two, rather than always transmitting information from one to the other. Such media is sometimes referred to as "interactive media" or "interactive media."

This concept of interactivity and interactivity also has some breadth. Depending on the context, it may include more broadly interactive, such as websites and CD-ROMs, which allow the user to select the type and order of information they receive to some extent. .. Here, it can be considered that there is interactivity because the user's selection is "received" by a computer or the like and information is provided as a response to it.

Critic Higashi Hiroki contrasts content-oriented media (with asymmetry) and communication-oriented media (without asymmetry) depending on the presence or absence of symmetry between the sender and the receiver . On the one hand, communication-oriented media is equivalent to two-way media.