The words we use say a lot about how we imagine the world. And the terms here are no exception. In professional use, only the term that has a real basis, an embodiment in real life, takes root. Actions, artifacts, phenomena that we do not know about, that we have not encountered in one way or another, do not have names for us.
That is why “media” seems to us understandable and familiar (we use it for a long time and at the ordinary level we understand what this concept includes), and the word “media” seems to us borrowed and sometimes meaningless.
However, in order to understand how the industry in which we operate is developing, it is important to understand the terms.
Funds. Bulk. Information.
Let’s look for synonyms for the word “means”. The dictionary will offer us “tools”, “ways”, “mechanisms”, “methods”, “methods”. What does “mass” mean? Is it more than three? or more than 999? 27 people is a mass audience? and 327? In dialogues at trainings and seminars, journalists and I came to an agreement that the “mass audience” is the one that is difficult to calculate definitely. When the understanding of exactly how many people are consumers of your information is blurred. From the many definitions of the term “information”, one can single out something in common – this is “data” or “information”.
Reformulating the phrase “mass media” in this way, we get:
mechanisms for delivering information to an indefinite circle of people, ways to convey data to the masses, ways to inform many people, tools for transmitting data from sources to a wide audience.
The journalist, who lives predominantly in the concept of the media, is responsible for conveying information from sources to readers.
Media
Now let’s try to feel what media is. In our life there are words formed from the same Latin root.
A mediator is an intermediary between the guitarist’s fingers and the strings. As a result, the sound becomes more voluminous, louder and deeper, and the musician’s fingertips remain soft. A medium is an intermediary between people and spirits. A median is a line segment that connects an angle of a triangle with the midpoint of the opposite side. In some regions of Russia, the university holiday is also called, which marks the middle of the course of study.
The field in which journalist-mediators work is the field of public dialogue. Media is an assistant, an intermediary in establishing communication between people, various social and professional groups. A journalist living in the concept of media feels like an intermediary, helping to connect different groups that are interested in each other.
The difference between the media and the media is the difference between staging a ballet on stage and a round dance that anyone can join. The difference between a classroom where students look at each other’s heads and a classroom where students see each other’s eyes. And maybe even do something together.
Under this common name is understood the totality of the mass media. As a result, mass media can be called a technical and organizational complex, the main purpose of which is the dissemination of information centrally in a certain territory in various formats – from text to visual.
Classical representatives of the mass media are the print press, cinema, and television broadcasting. In modern conditions, the functionality of the media is expanding, and they are no longer intended only for informing the population, but also for entertainment, and also, to a certain extent, for shaping or correcting public sentiment. Feedback mechanisms are becoming more and more effective, so the opposite process is also possible, when people can use the media to convey their own opinions and views to society.
The sphere of mass media: what is it in legal terms
One of the directions in information law is called mass media and specializes precisely in the legal foundations of the activities of the media, in ensuring their interaction with the state and society. This branch of law can also be considered as a scientific direction, a separate scientific discipline. The general provision of the legal basis of the mass media is such that it should determine the functioning of information law and ensure interaction with other legislative branches.
The legal sub-sector of the media is in interaction with a number of other areas of legislation through institutional features. For example, links with taxation and budget legislation are integral elements of normal functioning. The same can be said about some institutions-complexes that can be classified as intersectoral. This includes copyright (intellectual property protection), advertising and some other areas.
