What is media studies?

 source: A level media studies essential introduction

Defining the Media

The definition within the subject of media, but also within social and political discussions, is increasingly difficult to pin down.

This is in part due to the proliferation of media forms, a consequence of the development of digital technologies and the changing relationships between producers and audiences. 

The main means of mass communication [broadcasting, publishing and the internet] regarded collectively. 

-a dictionary definition provides an objective categorisation but little sense of how the media function in relation to an audience and vice versa.

In media studies, the term 'media' is most helpfully understood as a process, something that shifts and changes as it is produced and consumed- a form of mediation.

Mediation refers to what media do, and to what we do with the media. It is a term that defines the media as actively creating a symbolic and cultural space in which meanings are created and communicated beyond the constraints of the face to face. Readers, viewers and audiences are part of this process of mediation because they continue the work of the media in the way they respond to extend and further communicate what they see and hear on the world's multitude of screens and speakers.

-Roger Silverstone (2006), an academic who was influential in the development of media studies as subject arguing mediation is central to a definition of media

In this definition, the process of mediation - the construction of meaning - is as much a part of the definition of media as the forms themselves.

The combination of a dynamic process of production and consumption, along with specific forms that we recognise as belonging to the media is a good starting point for a definition. 

In conceiving of the media we also tend to include assumptions about a type of audience (mass rather than individual) that is addressed simultaneously by a mass form of communication. 

While this definition is still often useful in considering the nature and influence of the media (e.g- millions who watch tv programmes like the X-factor or strictly at the same time on a Saturday night) the approach has altered with the changes to the media landscape.

Traditionally, there was a clear distinction between the media that was consumed by a mass audience at the same time (fixed tv broadcast before streaming, morning paper before news websites) and other forms such as novels that were consumed individually at the time a reader chose. 

Part of the concerns about the power of the media was the fact that it was the media institutions that controlled the time and pace of consumption rather than the audience. This relationship between broadcast and consumption as a definition of the media has clearly undergone a major shift with streaming sites allowing 'binging' at the time consumers choose, news websites that are constantly checked and updated and social networks that often rely on very few posters and consumers operating at a particular time. 

Media Forms

The different types of media can be referred to as 'Media Forms'

• Television
• Film
• Radio
• Newspapers
• Magazines
• Advertising + Marketing
• Online, social and participatory media
• Video games
• Music video

Traditional Media

Refers to the media forms and platforms that existed before the use of the internet and digital technologies became widespread (approx. late 1990s) 

Traditional media is made up of

• Television
• Radio broadcasting
• Print Media
• Music
• Film

Media Platforms

Is where a media form is presented - broadcast, print, online etc - This is sometimes a fairly simple definition, such as the form of tv being presented on a broadcast platform such as the BBC, but new technology makes this distinction more complicated is facebook a form or a platform? Perhaps the blurring of distinctions is another difference between traditional and new media forms.

The list of media forms is a useful framework to mark out the territory of media studies, but it also suggests the problem of defining forms in the contemporary media landscape. For example, advertising and marketing exist across various forms and platforms; a radio is no longer simply a form of broadcast but has shifted online as a podcast.

Defining producers and audiences

One of the major shifts in the move from traditional to new media has been the breakdown of in the old relationship between producers and audiences. 

The media landscape is undoubtedly still dominated by powerful media institutions (News International, Disney, the BBC etc) but there is also much greater access for individuals to become producers of media content, particularly through online platforms.

Media Institutions

Any company that is responsible for the production, distribution of exhibition of a media product. An institution may be local, national or global, and it may be commercial or publicly funded. In media studies, there is a particular focus on the role of media conglomerates- media companies that usually have a global presence and own many other smaller companies producing a variety of media for across platforms.

 Examples include

• Time Warner US
• Vivendi France
• Bertelsmann Germany