Introduction to Media Studies

 Media is the plural of Medium (what is between two things), and something through
which information is brought to the sense. It is also a channel of communication.
 Communication is a process that involves a lot of components.

I. Mass Media/ Mass Communication:

Mass: stands for the potential to reach a large numbers of people.
Media: Technological tools, material, instruments, devices, and channels that transmits
messages and contents.
1- Media prints: Newspapers, magazines, brochures, billboards
2- Electronic Media: Television, radio.
3- New Media: Mobile phones (smart phones), computers, the internet, electronic books.
II. Characteristics of Media: (Fitches and Aspects)
1- Ubiquitous: ( the ubiquity of media)
 Media is present everywhere
 Media penetrate every moment of our existence
 We cannot avoid them

2- Massive:
 Media intended to reach a mass that is large and diverse (different).
EX: Newspaper can sell thousands of issues everyday
Millions of people are connected to TV or internet in the same time.
3- Mediate:
 Audiences get messages through media.
 Impersonal communication is marked by distance relationship between senders and
audiences.
III. A brief history of media:
- The invention of writing allowed people to connect overtime and distance, it allowed
the spread of knowledge.
- The invention of Mass writing by Printing Press and the movable type press allowed
people to communicate in larger numbers.
- The invention of Telegraph in 1930 it made two way communication at the speed of
light. Communication quickly spread across continent and oceans. This technology was
enhanced, improved, ameliorated by the Telephone which brought communication
opportunities and new way of interconnectedness of families, communities, cultures
and nations.
- Electronic media devices: Ex Radio, Photography, film, and the TV. These created new
opportunities for learning and entertaining.
- The invention of computers and communication satellite: computers served as
transmitters of vast amount of information, and the satellite permitted this
instantaneous transmission of messages throughout.
IV. Role of media:
+ Provide rapid dissemination over distance.
+ Media play an important role in entertaining people, informing them, and helping them to
understand the world.

1) Informing: Presenting overwhelming amounts of information.

  Overwhelming here stands for the power of social media in spreading
information.
Ex: - the overwhelming in sea  Drawing in sea

 Media “Serve to define what is of political system, of economic importance, of

cultural interest to us”
2) Educating: People can take courses , learn about different school subjects, and
conduct research through different kind of media
3) Entertaining: The most predominant role of media.
 Predominant: substantial, significant, fundamental, special, dominant, essential,
emphasis…
“Media is entertaining people more than enlightening their minds.”
V. Mass Media & Mass Communication:
Communication
1) It is the need to explore the fundamental process of human communication to
understand the development of mass communication and mass media.
2) It is the process of exchanging information and ideas with others.
3) It is a human activity that occurs/happens through speech (language) and through
nonverbally (non-verbal communication).
4) It enables the transmission of messages to one or more persons by means of symbols.
5) It helps us to share our thoughts, ideas, and information about ourselves and about
current events.