The term “Media by Alex Graham

The term “Media" by Alex Graham

It's really shocking just how broad the term “media” really is. Merriam webster defines the word media as being, "the system and organizations of communication through which information is spread to a large number of people"; however, this definition does not portray just how many different forms of media exist. After reading the wikipedia article, I was able to grasp the multitude of media sources through which we obtain information. Something as mundane as words on a birthday cake is a form of media. I believe forms of media that carry sentimental value such as a birthday cake or a handwritten letter are much more effective than other forms of media because we subconsciously tie the information presented in those sentimental forms of media to the feelings we get from that source of media. For example, if someone says "Happy birthday" to you on Facebook, it carries very little value and nobody would burst into excitement from it unless it came from someone famous or someone they really care about and that they were shocked that they remembered their birthday. if someone goes out and makes your favorite food in the shape of the words "Happy Birthday!", then you would probably tie a lot of sentimental value to those words not only because they would taste good, but because you were surprised and that form of media has sentimental value.

I personally am drawn to auditory forms of media such as songs and ebooks. I prefer these forms of media because they leave room for the imagination to build upon ideas that were skipped over. As opposed to movies or plays, where there is not much left to the viewer to imagine, audio sources provide ample amounts of detail while still letting the listener imagine details that are left out. I find myself most commonly interacting with media in the form of printed text. Printed text and media from the internet are probably the most common forms of media among college students. Since I do not watch television, it’s rare that I come across media through television; however, I do not feel as if I am missing out on important information since there are so many other sources of media today.

The media we encounter every day has so much more importance than we think. Media is increasingly becoming more social and allowing for more opinions about ideas. This is allowing for people to become more open minded about ideas while still being able to have strong opinions about topics.