Media and the ‘Social’

Within groups we were tasked with mapping what we understood by the term ‘Media’ so on paper we wrote down all the different forms media takes, and without listing them we concluded that people are influenced by media in every aspect of life. Media by definition is anything which can convey a message, so with that in mind we divided our list up into the different types of media, focusing on the way the user /audience is engaged, to produce the following mind map using free software available from http://www.mindmeister.com/.

The three main areas which represent the different ways publishers interact with the audience are,

• One to one communication




• One to many communication




• Mass media communication

As you can see both the one to one, and one to many communication routes have relatively few outlet possibilities compared to the mass media, but do offer a wide possibility for feedback/response, and are able to change their audience size to fit their needs. Mass media tends to be one way, and published by large organisations.

“The mass media have two important sociological characteristics:
First, very few people can communicate to a great number; and, second, the audience has no effective way of answering back”

C. Wright Mills “The Power Elite” 1956

Mass media also takes the form of what many would consider traditional media types, like TV and cinema, radio, photography. All of which were developed during the period of 1860-1930, when people didn’t have the opportunities like today to self-publish so media was a very one way thing. Of course there were dangers attached with this one way, one side, process. Adolf Hittler’s use of propaganda through print and radio during WW2 shows the possible dangers of mass media, but also there overwhelming power and success. During the late 17th century it is believed that early newspapers were the cause for the increased spread of literacy and education, however it is now believed with modern electrical entertainment, and people having so much freedom of speech and limitless platforms on which to be heard (i.e. blogs, facebook , Youtube etc), that we are now in the reverse of that trend.
Do I believe either form should dominate? No, I feel that both mass media and our own outlets are very important in today’s world. However mass media is heavily monitored and regulated, so maybe with everyone now having the capacity to generate ‘media’ something/someone should be responsible for the ownership of that content, because when you can look on somebody’s own website to find out ‘how to make a bomb in your kitchen’ or racial/religious commentaries on why one group of people deserves to live, the other deserves to die, what is the difference between that person and Hitler’s use of the media in the 1930’s? Both give the reasons and tools.