Mediums

MEDIUMS COMMUNICATE MESSAGES LIKE WEAPONS IN THE WAR OF IDEAS

Media Campaigns

Conversations between individuals T.V. broadcasts to audiences are examples of mediums. Together they are the media.

Using Mediums to Spread Messages

People have a vast array of tools at their disposal for the purposes of communicating ideas.

Medium Properties

“The medium is the message.” —Marshall McLuhan

Different mediums have different properties that change the way in which they work. Some messages are ideally suited for particular mediums.

For example, action movies on television are much more visually exciting to watch than reading stories about action or listening to old-fashioned radio dramas. But informational television pales by comparison to books in transmitting expert knowledge on important subjects. And radio makes opinionated debate highly entertaining because you can call in and participate. And none of these can persuade someone as effectively as a real converstation can, limited though its reach might be. Not all media outlets using a given medium are influentially equal. Even media using the same medium will vary in several important ways.

Reach

Mediums have varying reach. Reach is the number of people who might receive the medium. Actual reach varies quite a bit even for a given medium because the number of people watching, listening or reading a broadcast or publication fluctuates. Your reach may not be equal to the reach of the overall medium. For example, if you write an article that appears in a daily newspaper, your reach may be a fraction of the newspaper’s overall reach because only a minority of readers will read your article depending on its prominence.

Reach

How many people can you send your message to. In talking, this is just one person at a time. In speaking, this is as many people you can pack into the room. In broadcasting, this is a very wide number.

Timing

A million factors tie into the reach, such as the time of day(rush hour means more people are in traffic listening to radio and midnight means people are asleep), the geographical location (more Americans have radios than Haitians), and the weather (hot days make people go outside), to name a few.

Medium Audiences

All mediums reach particular audiences of people. For example, newspapers reach an older audience than does television. Blogs reach people with internet access. A medium’s audience can be broken down into multiple audiences. The reach may vary between the differing audiences if the medium reaches some more than others.

Message Length

Media are of necessity always limited in length, due to the restrictions of the medium such as page count or ultimately by the attention span of the audience.                                                                                     

Links Between Media

By linking from one message to another, a page can connect readers with a forum and a forum can refer readers to pages. Radio can refer listeners to pages which provide archives of radio, and so on. People persue links if they are persuaded by the article and a Curiosity test. Referrals occur when one message mentions how to find another message. Hyperlinks occur when a message contains an internet link that takes a single click to draw the visitor.

Medium Examples

• Carding
• Podcasting