Communication Media in the world

Media and communication throughout the world is vast, differs in many ways and is constantly evolving. A reading of both professional journals and current literature would suggest that these forms of media and communication seem to be the most accepted and thus successful types of communication: Print; Radio; Television; Direct Marketing; Ambient; and the Internet. These forms each have their advantages but also there disadvantages, whilst some being stronger and more effective than others in the communication and media world.

Media and communication

So what is media and communication in the world? “Very broadly, that world includes radio, Internet, television, newspapers, magazines and outdoor billboards.”(Helen Katz 2003). It is possible to select a preferred website or desired magazine but you still receive that information through a form of communication, hence there are many possibilities of media from which to communicate, some furthermore being direct mail, food containers, key rings, coupons, these and many more provide us with a way of delivering information to the world.
Towards the final decade of the twentieth century came the emergence of global interactive technologies most predominantly being the Internet, into our everyday sphere dramatically transforming the possibilities of communication medium. Following on from (Marc 2000) who stated the significant rise of this new medium was most certainly based on interactive media, from which some have pointed out how certain technological forms of mass broadcast have headed towards the favour of market specific communication through the use of interactive communication. Culture is created through communication, social nexus, interpersonal relations and technological innovations are all deemed around communication, it is just as important now as it was hundreds of years ago the difference being in the advancements of media we communicate on or with.  Media and communication are part of a whole process that is constantly with us throughout our lives. People watch television at home, listen to the radio or read a newspaper and are affected by what they see or hear which in turn can affect their attitude towards family and friends. It has changed our patterns of living and will do so long into the future as technology grows and expands and the demand or pressure of media and communication increases.
In any topic or discussion concerning communication media there is a general focus on what is considered ‘new media,’ due to the rate of change that media develops in its services, uses and technologies. Thus it would not be adequate enough to simply list the latest advances in media, calling them ‘new media’ as they would quickly become outdated, more so it is better to refer to the ongoing strong types of media that are constantly evolving, progressing and continually growing well into our future. “We can define new media as those forms that combine the three Cs: computing and information technology (IT), communications networks and digitised media and information content” (Miles 1997; Rice 1999; Bar 2000). Media such as the Internet, Television and Radio are always pushing the boundaries of communication and interactivity and can be also thought of as digital media. Digital media consists of integrated data such as images, text, sound and videos of all kinds stored in digital format that are communicated to us via networks across broadband fibre-optic cables, satellites and microwave transmissions. According to AAR figures for 2007-2008 revealed in campaign magazine show that, “Advertising pitches fell by more than six percent”, while “digital pitches increased by 19 percent,” “After a sharp decline in direct marketing reviews in 2007, the sector displayed a recovery last year with an increase in pitches of ten point four percent,” “The media sector also fared well in 2008 with full service media reviews increasing by thirteen percent.” (Source: Campaign Magazine, 16th January 2009, pp.2). However although these on going advancements are dominating the current media and communication market, we still talk to each other in small groups at a party, in class or in a store, we still listen to and turn up to live speeches or make the effort to be present at a city council meeting. These contacts are influenced by the mass media and our constant dose of communication that is situated everywhere, thus the media weather categorized new, digital or mass can reach large, anonymous audiences fast and transient by effecting the source of which most mass communication occurs, in small intimate group settings. (Holmes 2005) argues the digital media age “received its greatest momentum in the wake of the domestic take-up of the Internet from the early 1990’s.” Trevor Barr’s account of the Internet, ‘Electronic Nomads: Internet as Paradigm’ (Barr 2000) emphasises Holmes argument by his account “An inherent strength of the internet is its anarchy compared to the established models of ownership and control of traditional media: there are no direct equivalents to the ‘gatekeepers’ of content and form which characterize the major media of the past few decades, the press and broadcasting. Everyone who has access to the Net can become their own author, expressing their own sense of identity to other net users scattered throughout the world.” This aids in the confrontation of critical issues “such as the lack of media freedom in many parts of the world, the rising global concentration of private media ownership, the absence of media legislation and the challenges facing public service media”(Nordic Review 2007, Ulla Carlson, pp. 225). It is true that since that time there has indeed been a growth of a large quantity of sources ranging from technical guides to interactive computing about the Internet and how it is and continues to change our lives. It has also been the topic of a number of journalistic writings from the early 1990’s through to the present, a few including, Howard Rheingolds The virtual community (1994), Nicholas Negropoponte’s Being Digital (1995), Poster’s Sherry Turkle’s Life on the screen: Identity in the age of the Internet (1995), Bill Gates In the Road Ahead (1996) and Pierre Levys Cyber Culture (2001). The significance of the Internet is so much that it is a more powerful medium than say Television or radio, due to it providing a platform of which its sub media contain both broadcast and interactivity. Some web sites become more popular than others and over a shorter period of time, Tanjev Schultz has observed it is due to the fact they serve as “mass media” on the medium of the Internet, which allows for all kinds of media and types of communication. This growing convergence of computer technologies, radio and Television also including the emergence of various specialisations demonstrates that a variety of electronic media, information and communication are becoming quintessential. However this emergence of Interactive media also imply invitations to risky behaviour in conjunction with media use, it seems the time for simple media effects has passed as our technologies further develop. “Instead the issues of media content and media use need to be contextualised in a multi factor, risk based frameworks as concluded by several researchers”(Hargrave and Livingstone 2006).
It is also important to view the future of media and communication, noting how the power of digital media is influencing and effecting children.

Figure 1
Average daily minutes children spent with media at a certain age.
Source: Nordicom Review 1-2/2005. Special Issue: The 15th Nordic conference on Media and Communication Research. Ellen Wartella, New Generations-New Media, pp.24.

With age the use of all media increases except for Television. It can mainly been seen in the more interactive forms of communication such as the telephone, computer and Internet, again enhancing the argument that they serve as both platforms, broadcasting and interaction. The use of social communication increases hence the large increase in the telephone. It can also be noted how Television can play a large communication influence in a child’s development both socially and intellectually whilst they are advancing with age, as can be seen in the graph it is the most used form of media at a young age. It is now becoming a state where by learning information to simply use the media and gain its communication benefits are essential, thus schools now have computers with the internet, the use of electronic whiteboards and projectors are becoming more accepted and children are being taught the use of these new powerful digital forms of media, both for academic and social contexts.