Defining media: concepts, types, and functions

¶ … media as an extension of the human society. Toward this end, this study will conduct a review of the literature in this area of inquiry. In today's society media is linked with almost every activity and as well, media saturates the lives of individuals. Social media, including such as Facebook, Flicker, and LinkedIn are used by many individuals to keep in contact with friends and family who live both near and far away.

The word media is a Latin derivation of the word medius which means 'middle' and as such, media serves as a mediator between media individuals and institutions in society. McLuhan (nd) writes that in a culture such as the one in which American society is presently situated and in fact, which the entire world society presently exists "it is a bit of a shock to be reminded that, in operational and practical fact, the medium is the message." (McLuhan, nd, p.7) This is reported by McLuhan to be "merely to say that the personal and social consequences of any medium -- that is, of any extension of ourselves -- result from the new scale that is introduced into our affairs by each extension of ourselves, or by any new technology." (p.7)

Postman (2005) writes of media stating, "Each medium, like language itself, makes possible a unique mode of discourse by providing a new orientation for thought, for expression, for sensibility." (p.10) According to Postman each medium or type of communication "…has resonance -- it has power beyond its first use, the power to direct us to organize our minds and integrate our experience of the world." According to Postman the "concept of truth is linked to the biases of forms of expression." Specifically stated by Postman of media truth is as follows:

"Truth does not, and never has, come unadorned. It must appear in its proper clothing or it is not acknowledged, which is a way of saying that the 'truth' is a kind of cultural prejudice. Each culture conceives of it as being most authentically expressed in certain symbolic forms that another culture may regard as trivial or irrelevant." (Postman, 2005)

This can be easily understood by considering media reports that are received from different mediums in that each media report will have its own flavor to add to the news being reported and each news report will be differentiated from the others in some way whether it is a minor or major difference.

Postman warns about media stating that media changes do not change the minds of individuals in society or the cognitive capacity of those individuals. Even a shift in ways of thinking will not result in everyone changing their view since television's influence is one that is challenged. Finally, Postman holds that an epistemology based on television serves to interject pollution into public communication but does not in the process interject pollution overall.

Hoynes, Crouteau, and Milan (2011) report that the pervasiveness of the media in the lives of individuals today and the significance of those media results in it being "surprising to realize that the mass media are relatively a new phenomena. Most forms of mass media are still in their infancy.' (p.7) The media product is stated to be such that different readers or viewers have differentiated interpretations. The active creation of meaning is referred to by sociologist as the "social construction of reality" which means, "while realities exist, we must negotiate the meaning of that reality." (Hoynes, Crouteau, and Milan, 2011, p.8)

The social process or the process of socialization teaches the individual to perform their "social roles as friend, student, worker, citizen…" and in this process the dominant values, beliefs and norms or society are reported to become our personal values and norms and "we learn to hold 'appropriate' values and beliefs. We learn to behave in socially acceptable ways." (Hoynes, Crouteau, and Milan, 2011, p.8) However, the individual also becomes aware of the "learned nature of our beliefs" and this happens through exposure to other cultures and societies. This enables the individual to think objectively about his or her own personally held beliefs and the beliefs of the society in which they are situated.