Contemporary Media Practices Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4500 words

Contemporary Media Practices - Essay Example On the other hand, media intervenes into the interactions of institutions through telecommunications media, which allow individuals to connect remotely. Furthermore, the media intervenes into the interactions of people in the wider society by disseminating and recording information regarding crucial events that are important to the community. Evidently, the media intervenes into social interaction in different ways, depending on the concrete features of the medium involved; these include the physical and practical aspects, as well as the social and visual merits of the medium in question. The media has made it possible for people to interact across vast distances without having to travel physically to meet up with one another or having to be at the same venue concurrently; there is a great difference between mediated interaction (through media) and non-mediated interaction (face-to-face). This marked difference clearly illustrates the manner in which media transforms social interactions; for instance, all the parties involved in face-to-face communications are exposed to both the verbal and non-verbal cues. However, this is not the case with mass media such as newspapers, radio and television whose recipients are often indefinite; on the other side of the spectrum, a telephone conversation between two individuals is a mediated interaction between known individuals. Nevertheless, mediated conversation is not necessarily more or less the non-mediated interaction in face-to-face interaction; in fact, only difference is that the situation that mediated interaction occurs in inevitably transforms the way the individuals interact. Unlike in non-mediated face-to-face communication, media has such an incredible capacity to extend interaction both in time and in space; media permits individuals to be in permanent connection all over the world, regardless of their physical isolation. Granted that mediated interaction does not require