Medium

The word medium has a long philological history going back to ancient Rome. In Latin, medium is something in the middle (media res), a point of public convergence (in medio esse; being in plain sight), or even something neutral (medium se gessit; to be impartial). Despite its contemporary richness, it is difficult to trace its evolution toward a collective noun denoting advanced communication technologies. It was not until the late 19th century that the substantive noun medium was fully connected with the act of conveying information. Today, the plural of medium, media, is an important part of society’s vocabulary, and the term has become so common that it is taken for granted as signifying systems of communication broadcasting on a global scale. Media studies, for ...