Free newspapers with which mailboxes are clogged; Popular news site Radio, pleasing your favorite music - all this is the media, abbreviated as the media. What is included in this concept, and how are modern media classified?
What is the media: concept, transcript
Media (media) refers to any print or network publications, television and radio channels (or individual programs) or individual television and radio programs, as well as any other means of delivering information to a wide range of readers / viewers / listeners. In this case, the media is recognized as such subject to three conditions:
- frequency of exit (at least once a year);
- the presence of a permanent name;
- focus on the mass audience (from 1000 people).
Media can also be called mass communication media (QMS), mass media, and their combination - media space.
The main types of media
All existing media are traditionally divided into five main groups.
- Print press. These are magazines, newspapers, almanacs and other periodicals that use traditional paper as a “medium of information”. This is the oldest of the existing types of media. It is believed that the first printed newspapers began to appear in China: here in the VIII century, the “Capital Herald” was published - a leaflet with the emperor’s decrees and reports on the most important events. The publication was laborious: the prototype of the page was cut out on a wooden board, after which the resulting “stamp” was covered with ink and made prints. In recent decades, the question of whether the print press has a future, or whether it will completely disappear under the onslaught of more modern electronic media, has been actively questioned. However, it’s too early to talk about the imminent death of the press - people’s trust in print publications is higher than what they write on the Internet. And against the backdrop of a global fake news epidemic, the demand for traditional media as a source of “verified information” is growing. A study conducted by the sociological company Kantar in 2017, in the first place in the "level of trust" are just printed newspapers and magazines.
- Radio. The specificity of this type of media is obvious: broadcasting technology allows you to transmit sound, and in "real time", which ensures efficiency, allows you to conduct live dialogs, provides interactivity, etc. At the same time, radio is the only modern media that is not a “time eater”: the process of obtaining information “through the ears” can be combined with any other activities. The history of radio as a media has been around for a century: regular and experimental radio broadcasts began to appear in the early 1920s in many countries of the world. Moreover, the "radio content" was very diverse: concerts, gramophone records, literary readings and "radio plays" played out on the air were broadcast; reports from sports matches.
- Television is a technology that allows you to transmit a moving image over the waves, which is most often accompanied by sound. Television as the media is only slightly younger than the radio - the first regular broadcast channel was launched in Germany in 1934. The "birthday" of television broadcasting in Russia is considered September 1, 1938, when the Experienced Leningrad television center began broadcasting twice a week. We watched them collectively - in the houses of culture and work clubs. The opportunity to reinforce the story with the appropriate video sequence, to turn viewers into witnesses of the event, provided the television media with a huge credit of trust. Television remains the most influential type of media. According to a survey by the Public Opinion Foundation, in 2017, it was TV that was the main source of information for 78% of Russian citizens.
- News agencies, the main task of which is the collection and transfer of operational information to the media, are not always referred to as the media. However, in accordance with the Russian law on the media, they are simultaneously subject to the status of the editorial office and the distributor of information; and their work proceeds in the same legal field as the work of other media. The first news agency appeared in Paris in 1835. It was discovered by Charles Gavas. He started the business of trading information by translating materials from foreign periodicals and selling them to the offices of influential French newspapers. The next step was the organization of a wide international correspondent network: Havas agents quickly transmitted telegraph messages from their places of residence, and the local press readily printed them. The first domestic information service - the Russian Telegraph Agency - was created in 1866. The agency sent out information to subscribers 2-3 times a day, using a telegraph for this. Modern news agencies can disseminate information of various types (not only news, but also photos, video or audio recordings, etc.) using various distribution mechanisms - from their own media (for example, websites, print media) to the traditional subscription scheme.
- Online media. They are often called "electronic media", but this term cannot be called exact - after all, both radio and television also use electronic technologies to transmit information. Internet media is a young and rapidly growing media segment. The first online publications appeared in the 90s, and by the beginning of the XXI century the traditional media had seriously suppressed. The features of modern Internet media are extreme responsiveness, interactivity and multimedia (that is, the transmission of information simultaneously in different forms - text, photo, video, audio, computer animation, etc.). Internet media can be very diverse - from electronic magazines to Internet radio stations or personal blogs (they can also be registered as media). Some online publications are independent, some are a “mirror” of media outlets in a different form (for example, the site of a printed newspaper, where information published on paper is duplicated or the site of a television channel where you can watch live broadcasts or view recordings from the archive).
At the same time, many modern mass media cannot be rigidly assigned to one of the traditionally distinguished main types: convergent mass media are becoming more widespread, when the same editorial office, working under a common brand or as part of a large media holding, “reaches the audience” using simultaneously different methods information transfer, both traditional and modern multimedia.
Classification of media by content and function
The concept of any media, the principles of material selection, content, features of the "presentation" are determined by its content orientation (main purpose). According to this criterion, the following main types of media can be distinguished:
- Official. They are issued on behalf of state bodies or institutions, and one of their main functions is to convey certain information to a wide audience. For example, the Rossiyskaya Gazeta, established by the Government of the Russian Federation, is the official publisher of state information, and the texts of all federal laws, regulations, etc., appear on its pages without fail. - at the same time, the publication itself becomes an "official document".
- Socio-political. In this case, the emphasis is on socially significant, socially oriented materials affecting the interests of a wide range of readers. Their function is not only to inform the public, but also to influence it, such publications can be openly propagandistic in nature.
- Infotainment. Their main task, as the name implies, is to entertain the audience and take their leisure time. This class of media includes entertainment television channels, and numerous print media that print gossip about the stars, and popular television guides, and music radio stations.
- Cultural and educational media are focused on satisfying the needs of a more intellectual audience. It can be popular science projects, cultural or regional media, literary critical almanacs, etc.
- Specialized. They focus on a specific segment of the audience (for example, motorists, young mothers, knitting lovers, military personnel, subject teachers, computer game lovers), offering information that is relevant specifically for this category of people. This category also includes industry media.
- Promotional. The main function of such media is to disseminate information about the goods and services offered. Moreover, they can be both thematic, oriented to those who, for example, are going to buy real estate, choose furniture or play a wedding, and to an indefinitely wide audience (for example, newspapers of free classified ads).
