Media, Meanings of

In the 19th century, natural scientists had to name many newly discovered objects and processes. Most of the new terms were precise and effective, and they have stood the test of time. During the past half century, what has come to be called media studies has expanded greatly and in many directions, creating a need for definitions in this field. The word media has been treated as a singular, although the dictionary insists it is plural. It may be used to refer to organizations, such as newspaper publishers or television stations; to the content that is transmitted (such as a program or a book); to hardware such as a data disc; or to the whole phenomenon of communication between sender and receiver.

Medium, the singular form of media, is derived from Latin and originally meant middle or between. It refers best to what some have called the channel or the pathway for information between the sender and receiver. Because psychologists believe that information carried by each of the modalities to each of the senses is processed in different ways and parts of the brain, Joseph Wober proposed a detailed system of words to deal with these communication actors and processes.

Under this system, the term message systems refers to complex entities such as television companies and advertisers; these encode and display information via [Page 491]what might well be termed sign agents (e.g., programs, billboards, electronic speakers). From these screens, surfaces, and electronic (and human and animal) speakers, information passes through the media, of which the air carries three: light produces sight, molecular pressure carries sound, and particular molecules convey scent, thus reaching the three distance senses. Three other sensory systems internal to each human being transmit thermal, pressure, and movement and positional information. There are thus (at least) six media consisting of the pathways along which information reaches a human brain. In this view, there are no “new media,” although new message systems and new sign agents are continually being devised and marketed. When Marshall McLuhan coined his aphorism “The medium is the message,” this is surely what he meant—that the route by which data reach the brain has substantial consequences for how the brain deals with messages and therefore what kinds of meanings we can make of them.

This proposed set of labels indicates that television and the movies each involve two media (sight and sound); print works one medium (sight); radio and the many forms of sound speakers, one medium each; and perfume, one medium. A riot engages three or possibly four media (sight, sound, bodily pressure, smell). Individuals have to learn how to interpret signals received via each (sensory) medium; the skills for encoding messages (e.g., making programs, writing texts) and for decoding them (e.g., understanding movies, reading print) are different, and each requires the mastery of specific skills. In technically advanced societies, most people learn these skills without noticing the process; however, in other cultures and among individuals with learning deficits, these may be specific to particular sense modalities.

These labels invite us to think of the differences between encoding and decoding skills (making and understanding messages); such skills may be more or less well developed by our experiences specific to each medium. These labels also invite attention to the scope with which each medium can transmit information with more or less sophisticated codes. Vision is currently uppermost in print-literate cultures although the balance may be altering, with sound gaining in its diversification.

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