Medium is the Message

The way a message is shown and/ or shared with the general public - the medium in which the message is shared is a message in itself.

There are so many different types of mediums that we have the opportunity to use: from old media to new medias like books and newspapers, oral stories, essays, poems, television programs, movies, music, social medias, blogs, video games - all of these different mediums have a way of reaching the public in a different way, they're also meant to reach different audiences.

When studying stories in class, I have noticed that there are so many options to learn about the story. I can find where the story first comes from and I can look for physical copies through those books. I can find an electronic version and read it straight from my computer, nook or phone. I can also look for videos of audio readings, whether it's from a tape or from YouTube. I can also find movies about the story or based off of the events and characters in the story. There are so many options to find this one story.

The thing about all of these different mediums is that there's a new message being sent because of the change in the original. The physical version, the original medium (normally), says "You need to work to find this book and take time to read this book to get this story." While audios found online say "as long as you stumble upon me, you can clean, drive, and do other activities while getting this story." Videos say "Hey we're gonna cut the time you spend reading or listening to this story in half and engage new senses to show you the story."

But these different mediums can also change the story. When we read the story from its original medium we get the personal feeling of how the story was meant to be shared but once you start to listen to the story or watch videos, the story changes because the person creating and sharing the new medium may perceive and display the story in a new way than it was originally intended to.

New mediums are meant to make it more available for the general public, the audience, to get the story. But they do change the original message and the original story.