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Electronic media

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Stapleymas229 (talk | contribs) at 11:10, 3 November 2008 (→Uses: I expanded on the 'uses' of electronic media, discussing medium communication and how each medium differs in this area.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

A screenshot of a web page. The computers to store, transmit, and display the web page are electronic media. The web page is an electronic medium.
File:Samuel morse telegraph.jpg
The electrical telegraph owned and built by Samuel Morse, one of the earliest known forms of electronic media.
Graphical representations of electrical audio data. Electronic media uses either analog (red) or digital (black) signal processing.

Electronic media are media that utilize electronics or electromechanical energy for the end user (audience) to access the content. This is in contrast to static media (mainly print media), which are most often created electronically, but don't require electronics to be accessed by the end user in the printed form. The primary electronic media sources familiar to the general public are better known as video recordings, audio recordings, multimedia presentations, slide presentations, CD-ROM and Online Content. Most new media are in the form of digital media. However, electronic media may be in either analog or digital format.

Although the term is usually associated with content recorded on a storage medium, recordings are not required for live broadcasting and online networking.

Any equipment used in the electronic communication process (e.g. television, radio, telephone, desktop computer, game console, handheld device) may also be considered electronic media.

History of development

Uses

Electronic media are ubiquitous in most of the developed world. As of 2005, there are reports of satellite receivers being present in some of the most remote and inaccessible regions of China. Electronic media devices have found their way into all parts of modern life. The term is relevant to media ecology for studying it's impact compared to printed media and broadening the scope of understanding media beyond a simplistic aspect of media such as one delivery platform (e.g. the world wide web) aside from many other options. The term is also relevant to professional career development regarding related skill sets.

Different mediums of communication (such as television and radio) have their uses, which are often limited by their technological capabilities.[1] For example, to communicate a rock concert to the audience, the mediums of television, radio, magazines, CD/cassettes and the Internet would all communicate the experience to you differently. Radio provides the concert's sounds, but no pictures. The television provides pictures, but often no text. Magazines can provide still pictures and text after the event, without sound. CD's and cassettes provide sounds and often text provided with the packaging, however would only provide videos if a DVD was provided with the CD. Finally, the Internet can provide all aspects of the rock concert, with videos, pictures, sounds and text, as well as possibly providing a 'chat' feature to discuss the concert with others who experienced the concert.

As you can see, the various media technologies give us different ways of 'communicating' something, giving rise to the medium theorist Marshall McLuhan's phrase, "The Medium is the Message."[2] The message is being given to us, but the way it is communicated to us and how it "extends our senses"(Croteau & Hoynes 2003, pp307) is determined by the medium.

The media technologies' uses shape their development and application.[3] The Internet (for example) did not simply appear out of nowhere fully developed and ready to be implemented. People need to use new technologies, and this has to be profitable in most cases, therefore media technologies go through social processes, and as a result, their development and application are never fixed and never predictable.[4]


Primary uses of electronic media:

See also

  1. ^ Croteau, David and Hoynes, William. 2003. Media Society: Industries, Images and Audiences (third edition) Pine Forge Press, Thousand Oaks.
  2. ^ IBID.
  3. ^ McQuail, Dennis. (2000) McQuail's Mass Communication Theory (fourth edition) Sage, London pp16-34
  4. ^ Douglas, Susan. (1987) Inventing American Broadcasting. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore
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