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110 Consuming Media

units with decoding machines, double media – in contrast to those single media that
may be used without the help of any particular technical apparatus. Double media
insert a separation of hardware and software into the mediating process of commu-
nication. This divides the consumption process into two main parts, each with its
own organizational form, spatial localization and temporal rhythm in the interplay
between purchase and use. This is the two-step flow of media consumption.
Double media thus complicate the analysis of their consumption, since they
involve a combination of two distinct but overlapping acts of consumption. A record
without a record player is as silent as the reverse. A television set is useless without
antenna or cable. The VCR makes things even more complicated since it won’t func-
tion without tapes but also has to be connected to the television set, which is an
example of intermediality, a phenomenon that will be discussed in the next chapter.
In the case of CDs, people usually acquire the machine in a different way to the
record, in other kinds of shops, as a larger investment and with different considera-
tions. Though they have to be used together in order to function as intended, each
can still communicate meanings separately. The CD cover can be looked at and
admired, as can the brand-new CD player on its shelf at home. Some of their
(‘secondary’) use values can be fully appreciated separately, but in order for them to
work as that kind of medium or media circuit for which they are primarily made,
they must be used together. The two consumption chains thus have to converge at a
single time and space in order to make possible the use specific for communication
media, namely reception.
Hardware and software need not be bought in the same way, place or time. The
software of different media has varying use periods. Without a VCR/DVD machine,
a televised programme needs to be seen at the moment of broadcast, paid via cable
rents (for commercial television) or a combination of taxes and fees (for public
service). In this case the normal viewer owns the same television set for several years
and lets a flow of program units pass through that machine during its total lifetime.
For CDs the situation might be highly different, in that a CD itself may be a rela-
tively durable possession. A music lover might cherish her record collection dearly
and save records for ages, while perhaps updating her player regularly in order to
improve technical listening quality and visual design according to her changing taste.
In that case, the consumer will experience the same software goods via a series of
different machines. The hardware/software concepts are thus not always synonymous
with long-term/short-term use, though they do sometimes coincide. 2
Many media circuits have borderline cases and can therefore appear in both single
and double form. Photographic prints work like single media without hardware for
watching them, whereas slides normally require a projector or other viewing device
to be consumed as intended. Computer media could be called triple media since they
use at least three main components: machine hardware, programs and documents
(‘texts’), and both these latter software components can in their turn be stored in
many different disk forms. This is one of many reasons to talk of multimedia –
besides the perhaps more obvious ones that they combine different sensory modes