How the Message Can Be Influenced

¶ … Medium and the Message It is true that the medium and the message are two factors that cannot easily be separated. Whereas once people were limited to basically either print or some form of in-person format, the advancements of modern technologies have made mediums almost limitless. Although virtual reality is still not readily available on a mass market level, these technologies are increasingly becoming cost effective and will likely become ubiquitous in the near future. Other revolutionary mediums have been available for quite some time now.

For example, consider Google glass that has commanded a loyal niche follow from many users and has really pushed the boundaries of the ways that we can not only consume information, but also combine information sources while multi-tasking and engaged in virtually any other task that an individual might encounter. To illustrate how the medium and the message are often conflated, without must people actually realizing the contrasts, the recent Republican debate was chosen as an example.

The example illustrates the effect that the medium can have on the message regardless of whatever political camp you might identify with and this brief analysis will attempt to focus only on the ways that the message is presented through different mediums, and not take a stand on any political candidate or issue. The Fox News national debate was recently held on March 3rd, 2016 and there was a trove of information about this event through a variety of different mediums that was created before, during, and after the event.

Not only is the medium important, but the point in time the information was presented relative to the event can also serve as another aspect that can influence its content and the perceptions of the messages that are gained from consuming the media. For example, information that was presented about the event but before the event was held seems to focus on the background information, predications, or information about the event.

One of the interesting aspects of today's level of technology is that individuals can now consume media from a range of different sources all at the same time. For example, a viewer of the Republican debate can not only watch the event on TV or via some live stream on a television, computer, tablet, or phone, but they can also follow different mediums at the exact time.

Some common web of mediums being consumed at once might include Twitter, live blogs, Facebook, and maybe some fact checking through Googling some websites about some of the claims that were made. Not only can individuals combine mediums, but some of the networks now do this automatically, such as when Fox News presents the activity happening on Twitter or screens questions that were posted by viewers over social media. After the event the mediums seem slight more conventional in terms of multi-tasking or piggy-back mediums.

For example, you can read articles about the event that put the overall event in context of its popularity. This particular debate was the extremely popular relative to other events in 2016 as well as in history with over sixteen million people watching. Other articles.