Society today, rely a huge amount on Media. Its used everywhere we go, and plays as a central part of our lives. We depend on it to deliver us important information and helps us understand about what is going on in the world and at home. Things like, natural disasters, wars, political and sporting events, weather etc; as well as providing us with entertainment. The media covers a wide variety of peoples interests and is very vast, complex and constantly being developed and improved.
As media products are 'shared' they're becoming part of our common culture and media images are becoming a common 'language'. Today, we are all very media 'literate', sharing some sort of a sophisticated understanding of this 'language' of media images, because they are constantly being shown and referred to.
Media convergence; the technology driven unification of different media channels.
For many years, different media types had a clear separation. Now, the internet and other digital methods of distribution have changed this. For example, music can be accessed over the internet and video, from a mobile phone. This now means different types of media are 'converging' together.
Web 2.0, is a term that is often being used to describe the way that the world wide web is developing.
Referring to the idea of a second generation of communities based on the web, such as social networking sites, wiki's, web blogs, podcasts and RSS feeds (automatic information updater).
Countries like Burma, China and Ethiopia are all examples of 'authoritarian countries'. Meaning that the media are largely restricted by the government in a sense of controlling the circulation of criticism and information through the internet. This highly regulated media is then used in a way that can 'win' over the hearts and minds of the nations people.
'Mediation', is the process of which a media text represents an issue, idea or event to us. It suggests the way in which things undergo change in the process of being acted upon by the media.
'Proliferation',is when there is a significant rapid growth increase in numbers.
'Saturation', is the constant interruption (or bombardment) of media. Such as, T.V magazines, internet, radio etc.
The term 'The Media' has basic characteristics, such as:
* Media products can be shared, and often regulated.
*Can be reached by a large number of people.
*The Media, rely only on certain sophisticated technology.
*The Media, are modern and expensive to produce.
