WEBVTT kind: captions lang: en 00:00:00.800 --> 00:00:07.480 In order to grasp the role of the media, we need first to understand the role of media in the process of communication. 00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:15.000 The term media comes from a Latin word medium, which basically means something in between, something that mediates. 00:00:15.200 --> 00:00:22.000 In the process of communication therefore, media is something that connects or transmits messages 00:00:22.100 --> 00:00:25.100 or participants in communication. 00:00:25.500 --> 00:00:31.300 A classical model of communication, as described by a Russian-born linguist Roman Jakobson, 00:00:31.400 --> 00:00:41.950 has 2 basic constituents: the first one is the addresser, one sending the message, and the second one is the addressee, or the receiver of the message. 00:00:42.000 --> 00:00:45.800 And in between is the message itself. 00:00:46.100 --> 00:00:49.400 Let us ilustrate this whith a very simple example. 00:00:49.500 --> 00:00:57.650 Imagine, say a general giving a message to a messanger, and then imagine this messanger delivering the message to say a king. 00:00:57.800 --> 00:01:02.300 In this example, the general is the addresser, the king is the addressee, 00:01:02.380 --> 00:01:06.950 and the messenger himself is the message, the medium. 00:01:07.300 --> 00:01:13.200 So, in a way, the messanger is a device through which this message is delivered. 00:01:13.800 --> 00:01:19.500 By the way, the notion of a medium in a spiritual seance, follows the same principle. 00:01:22.300 --> 00:01:29.200 Medium here is a device or a person through which a message from a ghost or from another world is delivered, 00:01:29.300 --> 00:01:33.200 basically a vehicle through which someone else or something else speaks. 00:01:38.100 --> 00:01:42.100 The same goes with a more sophisticated process involving, say, the post office. 00:01:42.300 --> 00:01:49.200 When I send the message, the letter and the postal services are mediums securing that the message is delivered. 00:01:49.350 --> 00:01:56.000 And historically speaking, this process of transmission was fairly straightforward for much of human history. 00:01:56.800 --> 00:02:00.900 You write one message, use one medium and deliver it to one addressee. 00:02:01.200 --> 00:02:07.850 But what happens if you want to deliver more messages, or you want to deliver one message but to many persons? 00:02:08.200 --> 00:02:13.550 In the old days, you needed to have many scribes who would transcribe and copy these messages. 00:02:14.100 --> 00:02:21.350 In the late 15th century, a new machine was invented that revolutionized this process - the printing press. 00:02:21.850 --> 00:02:31.550 The press enabled a message, or in this case, a written text, to be copied and printed out a number of times and in as many copies as you like. 00:02:32.000 --> 00:02:37.100 That way it became possible to send a message to a huge number of people at the same time. 00:02:37.350 --> 00:02:39.700 And this was the beginning of the mass media. 00:02:41.000 --> 00:02:46.700 Approximately four centuries ago, this gave birth to newspapers, which were the first mass media. 00:02:47.000 --> 00:02:51.850 In the twentieth century, more mass media were invented than ever before in the world 00:02:51.950 --> 00:02:59.250 first it was radio, then television, then came the internet, with its many forms. 00:07:59.350 --> 00:03:04.800 The internet in particular revolutionized the process of communication and media transmission for the second time 00:03:05.000 --> 00:03:11.800 it enabled potentially all people to create, send and receive messages in an instant and throughout the world. 00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:14.150 This is, actually, what we mean by the media 00:03:14.250 --> 00:03:21.700 with the uprising of the internet the definition of the "media" changed to include what we call the new media; 00:03:21.750 --> 00:03:27.000 so, today, the media are means of communication that influence people widely.