media

(mē'dē-ə)
n.
A plural of medium. See Usage Note at medium.


me·di·a² (mē'dē-ə)
n.

1. Linguistics. See medial (sense ).
2. The middle, often muscular layer of the wall of a blood vessel.

[Late Latin, from Latin, feminine of Latin medius, middle. See medium.]

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in its modern meaning 'newspapers and broadcasting regarded collectively', is properly treated as a plural noun:

When the media report events there must always be a line, an angle, a spin—B. Morrison, 1998.

It is increasingly used, especially by the media themselves, as a singular mass noun like agenda and data, but this use is not yet standard and should be avoided:

☒ The British media at its finest is the best in the world—Tony Blair on BBC Radio, 1998.

Above all, never write a media or the medias:

☒ Often urged on by a mass media that magnified the public danger, politicians tried to answer the...call for protective action—C. Townshend, 2002.

The word is often used in attributive position (before a noun):

Each morning the England players, 150 coachloads of sunburnt supporters and several fleets of media men have braved what the tourist brochure calls the 'Southern Coastal Motorway' down to Galle—Sunday Express, 2001.

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(1) Materials that hold data in any form or that allow data to pass through them, including paper, transparencies, multipart forms, hard, floppy and optical discs, magnetic tape, wire, cable and fiber. Media is the plural of "medium."

(2) Any form of information, including music and movies. May also refer to CDs, DVDs, videotapes and other prerecorded material. See multimedia.

(3) The trade press (magazines, newspapers, etc.). See electronic media.

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Channels of communication that serve many diverse functions, such as offering a variety of entertainment with either mass or specialized appeal, communicating news and information, or displaying advertising messages. The media carry the advertisers' messages and serve as the vital link between the seller of a product or service and the consumer.

Available types of media include print, electronic, out-of-home, and direct mail. Print usually refers to newspapers and magazines but also includes directories, school and church yearbooks and newsletters, and programs at sporting events and theater presentations. Electronic media are usually referred to as broadcast media, or radio and television, including cable. Out-of-home media are designed almost exclusively to serve only an advertising function, and include billboards, transit advertising, and posters in public places such as stadiums, airports, and train stations, as well as flying banners (banners towed by airplanes) and skywriting. Direct-mail media are advertisements that are mailed directly to prospects. As technology advances, new forms of media are being discovered every day, such as movie-house advertising and special automatic telephone devices with prerecorded advertising messages. Any single form of communication is known as a medium.

1. plural of medium.


2. channels of communication that serve many diverse functions, such as offering a variety of entertainment with either mass or specialized appeal, communicating news and information, or displaying advertising messages.

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Origin: 1921

Until the Roaring Twenties, a medium was a person, not a publication, and media--well, there wasn't such a thing. The medium would set bells ringing and tables hopping in a darkened room by conjuring connections with departed spirits. And media was just an obscure Latin plural of medium.

Then came modern advertising and a sense of media that had nothing to do with the sphere of the spiritual. Suddenly in the advertising world it was smart to speak of placing ads in different media, or in one particular media, the word being used as a singular as well as a plural. This new media has been traced as far back as a 1921 play by two smart members of New York City's Algonquin Round Table, George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly. In advertising, the new plural medias also was coined. Advertising professionals were reported in 1927 as stating, "It was finally decided to allot a definite media to each member," and touting "one of the best advertising medias in the middle west."

The original means of mass communication were print: magazines, journals, and newspapers. A collective name for them was already available: publications. Then radio and television were added to the mix, and publications would not stretch to fit. Needing a term to encompass them all, we borrowed media from the advertising people and have used it ever since, ready to accommodate newer media like the Internet. We have also used the term to refer to journalists as a group or the communications industry as a whole. How else could we put it nowadays than to say that the media have a profound influence on our lives?

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IN BRIEF: A form or system of communication. Also: A substance for the artificial cultivation of organisms.

The broadcast media would do well to give out truthful information.

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1. a plural of medium.
2. (in morphology) or tunica media the middle layer of the wall of a blood or lymph vessel.

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For a list of words related to media, see:

• Journalism - media: all means of communication providing information to public
• Advertising - media: forms of mass communication that carry advertising, esp. newspapers, magazines, television, and radio
• Television Programming and Institutions - media: means of public communication, such as television and radio, providing public with news, entertainment, and advertisements

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See words rhyming with "media."

  See crossword solutions for the clue Media.

Dansk (Danish)
1.
n. - medier

idioms:

• mass media    massemedier

2.
n. - mediar, stemt lukkelyd

Nederlands (Dutch)
media, klinkende stop, deel van vaatwand, medium

Français (French)
1.
n. - (Journ, Radio, TV) médias, (Art, Mus) moyen d'expression, (Biol) culture, bouillon de culture

idioms:

• mass media    mass-media

2.
n. - (Phon) plosive voisée, (Anat) artère moyenne (d'un vaisseau lymphatique), veine (dans la partie moyenne de l'aile d'un insecte)

Deutsch (German)
1.
n. - Medien, Massenmedien

idioms:

• mass media    Massenmedien

2.
n. - Medien, Medium

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - μέσα μαζικής ενημέρωσης

idioms:

• mass media    μέσα μαζικής ενημέρωσης

Italiano (Italian)
media

idioms:

• mass media    mass media

Português (Portuguese)
n. pl. - veículos de comunicação (m)
n. - mídia (f)

idioms:

• mass media    mídia de massa (f)

Русский (Russian)
звонкий согласный, средства массовой информации

idioms:

• mass media    средства массовой информации

Español (Spanish)
1.
n. - medios de comunicación, medios de difusión, medios de información

idioms:

• mass media    medios de comunicación de masas

2.
n. - capa media de una arteria o de un vaso linfático

Svenska (Swedish)
n. pl. - media
n. - medium

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
1. 媒体

idioms:

• mass media    大众传播媒体

2. 媒体

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
1.
n. - 媒體

idioms:

• mass media    大眾傳播媒體

2.
n. - 媒體

한국어 (Korean)
1.
n. - 중간의 복수, 이어주는 것

2.
n. - 중음

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 媒介, 手段, 中間, 培養基, 中膜, 中脈

idioms:

• media hype    誇大宣伝

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) وسائل الأعلام‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮כלי-התקשורת, מדיה‬
n. - ‮שכבה אמצעית בדופן עורק או כלי-דם אחר‬

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