Importance of the Media

The media refer to the tools through which individuals are able to transmit information. In order for this process to be carried out, it is necessary for there to be a sender of the message, the medium itself, and a receiver; that is to say, for the communication to become effective it is essential that the role of the speaker of the communication and an interlocutor of that idea exist. In any case, we are always talking about a social phenomenon that is based on one of the most characteristic elements of the human being: his capacity for language and communication.

Media Classification

Since time immemorial, human beings have sought to communicate with their peers. Thus, the forms and strategies of communication that passed, in the 20th century, from written to digital and virtual, have become more complex. A distinction should be made between interpersonal means of communication, such as the telephone, the mass media, thanks to which an entire society can receive information. In the first media, there is an exchange of messages or return of ideas, in which the interlocutor becomes the presenter responding to the first; while the latter have the ability to transmit information to a community that cannot immediately provide feedback on that information.

The mass or popular media must comply with specific operating guidelines, that is, maintain use appropriate and respectful language, offer oneself to the truthful transmission of the facts, provide complex sources of analysis. While interpersonal communication is much more informal, the mass media have even given to the formation of agencies and institutions that seek to establish compliance rules and protocols to continue. On the other hand, the mass media have to pay significant attention to the responsibility in the transmission of data or information because today they have a significant influence on social thought.

The history of the media

Historically, we could speak of three general stages of how the media have evolved: the emergence and development of the conventional media since the 19th century, with the birth of the written press, the heyday of the mass communication throughout the 20th century, and, finally, the virtual media revolution that we are experiencing in the present.

Specifically, we could start by saying that at the rate of growth of the Industrial Revolution, the means of mass communication (Mass Media), made their appearance and developed allowing progress in the cultural diffusion and information of society in general. The written press, radio and television later, became the main means of communication through which It has allowed us to know the different political, social, cultural and economic events, both nationally and internationally.

Thanks to technological evolution, and specifically, that applied to new communication technologies, as we have experienced in recent years since the appearance of the Internet, new virtual means of mass communication have been developed, which allow the transfer of information to be carried out globally and immediate. During historical periods, the concept of the media was profoundly modified according to the needs and interests of the populations, marking greater openness and greater freedom of expression, presence of more voices, reaching an increasing number of users or receivers. While the written press that emerged in the 19th century allowed access to an important part of the population of informative data, the social networks today they have massively spread this reality and permanently democratize access to information.

Conclusion

But the importance of the media does not only reside in the fact that they are a more than useful tool for one of the most primary needs of the human being, social interaction, but also have played an essential role in the formation of the Public opinion (the Fourth Estate), even becoming fundamental for the creation or collapse of some governments. Here we can say and return to the idea of ​​responsibility of the media in the formation of that public opinion, the importance of not concealing precise and accurate data, in the veracity of the publications and, especially, in the generation of popular reactions on determined facts. In this sense, as a graphic example, we can recall the influence of the media deployed by Hitler as a tactic to manipulate German society to support his ideology, and even to justify the horrors committed in his name