MEDIUM

Medium definition:

• A medium is the platform used in order to get a message out. For example Instagram would be the medium for anything that is posted within the app. If we were referring to art, the medium would be the canvas, not what is painted on it.

How Medium relates to social media:

• In social media, the image would be the medium trying to portray a certain message. For example if a rapper is standing next to a Lamborghini, the medium would be the image they took and the message would be that they are rich because they are next to a Lamborghini. Which relates back to unrealistic expectations because Lamborghinis are expensive.

The medium is the message:

• The medium is the message is a saying that was popularized by Marshall McLuhan which refers to the way that media forms hold meanings apart from their messages. In other words the media form itself is more important and holds more meaning than whatever messages are held inside.

• If you apply the medium is the message to social media, you could look at it as the social media apps being the medium (ie: Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook) and the message could be that it doesn't matter what is going on inside those apps, it matters that every single millennial is glued to their phones constantly checking these social media forms. The message isn't the posts within the app, the message is that teens are obsessed with social media. This is more important of a message than anything that is posted within the media sources.

Examples of social media mediums may include...