Media
The space between the event and the audience. Print, broadcast, digital, social β and now, the algorithm. (see also Algorithm)
How We Say It
meeΒ·deeΒ·Ι
Where It Comes From
Latin media β plural of medium, meaning middle, intermediate. From medius β middle. The use of 'media' to mean channels of communication emerged in the 1920s, shortened from 'mass media.' Marshall McLuhan's Understanding Media (1964) gave the term its current theoretical weight.
How It's Been Used
Plural in formal use β 'the media are' β though singular use is now standard. Distinguished in scholarship by type: print, broadcast, social, digital. 'The media' as a collective political actor β to be praised or blamed β is largely a late-20th-century usage. Media literacy as an educational discipline emerged in response to the saturation of information environments.