Media Abbreviations

What are the media?

The means of communication are the technologies and instruments that allow the exchange of information, ideas and events between different groups of people and organizations.

These instruments serve to share news and content, are a source of entertainment and education and are also used for advertising.

Some examples of media are newspapers, letters, television, the internet, e-mail, radio, cell phones and social networks.

The media can be aimed at a large audience, as is the case with television and radio. In this case, they are called mass media.

They can also be individual means of communication, that is, they have a more restricted audience, as is the case with the telephone.

Evolution of the media

Communicating and transmitting information has always been a human need, but the way communication happens has changed a lot over the history of civilization.

In the last decades, the technological evolution made possible that the communication was each time faster and more efficient. Today it is possible to be in contact with people on the other side of the planet from a smartphone.

But it was not always so. In prehistory, men made paintings on stones to record information and report events. With the development of language and especially writing, communication has undergone a great advance.

The emergence of writing, by the way, is what marks the end of Prehistory and the beginning of the Ancient Age, which took place between 4,000 BC and 3,500 BC

Over the following centuries, written accounts and letters were important means of communication. Letter delivery services were created, similar to what we know as mail.

The letters were taken to distant locations, but the time interval between issuing and receiving the message could take months, as was the case with letters transported by ships.

It was only at the end of the 18th century, with the creation of the telegraph, that messages could be passed quickly and over long distances.

Since then, the media have gone through great evolutions. Television and radio revolutionized mass communication from the 19th century onwards.

Years later, with the advent of the internet, communication reaches levels of evolution previously unimaginable. The popularization of the internet allowed the creation of tools that keep the whole world in constant communication.

Old media

Some old means of communication were replaced by more technological instruments, but many of them continue to be used today.

Post office

Sending letters is one of the oldest means of communication, it is believed that the Egyptians were the first to use this means for transmitting information.

Today, postal services use advanced logistics to send letters and parcels, but in antiquity, letters were sent by messengers and even by birds, such as pigeons and swallows.

Telegraph

The telegraph was created in 1790 by Claude Chappe, this device used electromagnetic impulses to send messages over long distances.

Telegraph communication was done in codes and morse code was the most used technique for this type of communication.

Created in 1835, morse code was a system that used dots and dashes to represent letters and numbers. The dashes and dots were identified from short and long sounds.

Newspaper

The first newspaper records are from 50 BC in the Roman Empire. Called Acta Diurna, this means of communication was used to pass on information about the government to society.

The newspaper is a means of mass communication used to this day. In addition to the physical version, today’s newspapers are also usually available in the online version.

Radio

The radio appeared in 1860, its technology allowed the transmission of news and entertainment programs through electromagnetic waves.

Radio remains a widely used means of communication today, but in addition to transmission by electromagnetic waves, radios are also available in online versions and in applications for mobile devices.

Telephone

Invented around 1870, the telephone allowed the transmission of sounds by means of electrical signals. About 100 years after the creation of the telephone, in 1974, Martin Cooper created the first mobile phone device for the Motorola brand.

When they first appeared, cell phones were large, expensive, and not available to the general public. In the mid-1980s, cell phones began to be sold for personal use, but they were very expensive.

It was from the 1990s that the cell phone became popular as a means of communication. In addition to being smaller, these devices started to be manufactured with lithium battery, which allowed greater autonomy.

Today cell phones have been replaced by smartphones, which in addition to calling and messaging functions, allow access to the internet.

Television

Television appears in the early 1920s and in 1928 the first TV broadcast takes place. At that time, this means of communication was not very accessible, but it became popular in the late 1940s.

Despite the countless possibilities offered by the internet, television remains as a very popular mass communication medium around the world.

Current media

Communication has changed in recent decades, especially after the popularization of the internet.

Computer

The first computer is from the 1940s and is called ENIAC ( Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer ). This computer allowed the processing of an unimaginable amount of data at the time.

In the years following the creation of ENIAC, computers were improved, but until the mid-70s they were developed for use in companies and organizations.

It wasn’t until 1976, with the launch of the Apple – I, that computers became an article for personal use.

The computer becomes an important means of communication with the emergence of the internet and browsers.

Today the computer allows access to websites, blogs, social networks, streaming movies and music. You can also make video calls and share your ideas, photos, videos, etc. with people all over the world.

Internet

The first prototype of what would be the internet was created in the 1960s. It was a Cold War context and the United States wanted to guarantee efficient communication in case of an attack by the Soviet Union.

But it was only after 1990 that the internet began to become popular, with the creation of the World Wide Web browsers (www) and the World Wide Web.

Since then, communication has been transformed, it has become much faster and more efficient, reducing borders and enabling instant contact with people all over the world.

The way of consuming content and entertainment has also changed. With the creation of blogs, social networks and video platforms, people are no longer just receivers of information and have become content generators and disseminators.

Smartphones

Smartphones are an evolution of cell phones. They allow access to the internet and have become one of the most important communication tools around the world.

Through smartphones it is possible to access any content on the internet, send instant messages, make video calls, share content, access social networks and, of course, make calls.

Types of media

Media are often classified as individual or mass, and they can also be classified according to language.

Individual: means of communication used for interpersonal relationships, such as the telephone, e-mail, mail and instant messaging applications.
Mass: also called media, are the means of communication aimed at broad communication, with a large number of receivers. This is the case of television, newspapers and magazines.

As for language, the means of communication can be:

Written: Media that use text as their main language, e.g. newspapers, magazines and websites.
Sound: which use sound as a language, as is the case with radio, telephone and podcasts.
Audiovisual: use sound and image simultaneously, for example, television and cinema.
Multimedia: means that use different languages simultaneously, as is the case of the internet.

List of Acronyms Related to Media