What is the media?

We explain what they are and what the media is. In addition, how the media emerged, and how they are classified.

1. What is the media?

A means of communication is a technical system used to carry out any type of communication . This term normally refers to those media that are massive in nature, that is, those whose communication extends to the masses.

However, there are media that are set in small groups of people and are of character exclusively interpersonal. The clearest example of this is the telephone.

Today individuals and communities access this type of channel to have informative material that describes, explains and analyzes data and events of various types , which can be: political, economic, social or cultural, and can also refer to the local level or to the global context.

2. How did the media come about?

The printing press , originally invented by Gutenberg, is considered the massive beginning , the historical event that gave rise to the circulation of millions of pamphlets and newspapers.

However, there are other scholars on the origin of the media that stress that previously the figure of the ” preacher ” was dedicated to announce the main news , regardless of the material support of the newspaper. The “word of mouth” was for them, the source of transmission of myths and fables , while stating how certain social values and set of shared ideas.

In our societies, these channels are the way people interact by sharing common guidelines. These means of communication are the materialization of the need that people have to interact . Through them a general opinion is formed at a given time about knowledge , and judgments about the reality that surrounds us.

At the same time, these media are media corporations ; We must not forget that the social function of the media in a given society is also juxtaposed on many occasions with the interests of the capitalist corporate enterprise that seeks the lucrative benefit from the channeling of information. Hence the social relevance that this implies, in relation to the national political sphere.

3. How are the media classified?

The media are classified according to the physical structure that serves as support for the transmission of information, we can distinguish:

• The audiovisual media.  they are the ones that can be simultaneously heard and seen. They are based on technological devices that emit images and sounds in order to transmit information, such as television and cinema .
  • Television. It appeared in the 30s, it is the medium with the highest public index worldwide. Viewers from all over the world receive the signal of this informative tool in real time, live or deferred. Almost any world event can be transmitted with image and sound to almost any part of the world. From this, a whole industry of television manufacturing and also of transition channels emerges .
• The radio means.  they are the only medium that relies exclusively on information transmitted under sound format . It requires a much simpler production process than television. Its level of access is also an aspect in which it surpasses the rest of the media. On the other hand from the point of view of radio broadcasting it is also really very simple, since to achieve the broadcast requires few sound machines, microphones and few people. The main limitation has to do with geographical distance and accidents that prevent transmission, and the sound is affected.
• The print media.  They include magazines , newspapers , magazines , brochures  and pamphlets , all publications that contain information to be transmitted. At present, these media, due to the high cost of production and Internet intrusion , are declining in that their public prefers other media when it comes to information. Many points are required to certify a quality production in this medium, for example: publishers, proofreaders, good paper quality, recognized writers and analysts, etc.
• The digital media.  emerged in the 1980s. These “new technologies” have managed to expand massively. They are based on personal computers , as well as cell phones, tablets and all kinds of technological devices, more and more rapidly transmitting information reaching thousands of people.