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The word "media", which is the plural of the word "medium", is not easy to define in a single sentence. The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary gives it numerous definitions, ranging from “a voiced stop” to “a liquid with which pigment is mixed by a painter.”
For purposes of this article, I will focus on the definition that most people recognize: “the means of communication, as radio and television, newspapers, and magazines, that reach or influence people widely” (as defined by Dictionary.com).
Types of media
The description of exactly what comprises the media gets a bit confusing because it encompasses several sub-headings:
- Broadcast media: Radio, television, and cable.
- Print media: Newspapers, magazines, books, brochures, etc.
- Digital or new-age media: The internet, cell phones, and satellite.
- Music: CDs, streaming radio, music files including WAVE, AIFF, mp3s, etc.
- Film: DVDs and cinema.
- Video Games.
Other uses of the word
The word "media" is incorporated within other terms to denote a plethora of various concepts and devices:
- Social media: The means by which we network and communicate "socially" on the internet: e-mail, blogs, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Digg, etc.
- Mass media: Any single medium or combination of the media which reaches the mass population.
- Multimedia presentation: A presentation that combines audio, video, text, animated graphics, and/or live narrators.
- Interactive multimedia presentation: A multimedia presentation where the audience is involved or interacts.
- Media players: Software applications that play audio and/or video on a computer, such as QuickTime, Microsoft Media Player and Shockwave. The term can also be applied to a variety of handheld hardware devices (like iPods) which play back audio and/or video.
- Mixed media: There are two definitions: 1. The combined use of broadcast, print, and digital media for advertising and related services; and 2. A painting that is created using a combination of methods and materials.
- Hypermedia: The term which describes the process that accesses pictures, graphics, audio, video, text and hyperlinks for a particular subject.
- Rich media: A term that describes internet advertising which uses advanced technology by incorporating sound, video, peel-back ads, floating ads, etc. It employs technologies such as Flash and Java.
- And don’t forget terms like media event, media frenzy, media circus and media blitz!
Footnote
Since the word "media" is the plural form of "medium", it is often misused grammatically. For example, we say "The media is getting out of hand!" when we should say "The media are getting out of hand!" That rule will probably change soon because of the universal usage of the word as a singular term.
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