Page 157 - Communication Cultural and Media Studies The Key Concepts

MEDIASPHERE

MEDIASPHERE

The mediasphere is a term coined by Hartley (1996; see also Hartley
and McKee, 2000) following Yuri Lotman’s (1990) designation of the
semiosphere. The semiosphere is the whole cultural universe of a
given culture, including all its speech, communication and textual
systems such as literature and myth. The mediasphere is a smaller
‘sphere’ within the semiosphere, and includes all the output of the
mass media, both fictional and factual. The mediasphere, in turn,
encloses the public sphere, and the ‘public sphericules’ that seem to
have proliferated within it. The idea is that the public sphere is not
separate from but enclosed within a wider sphere of cultural meaning,
which is itself mediated as it is communicated back and forth from the
cultural to the public domain.

MEDIUM/MEDIA

A medium (plural, media) is simply any material through which
something else may be transmitted. Artists use ‘medium’ (a clear
transparent liquid that ‘transmits’ pigments) in painting. A psychic
medium is one who purports to transmit messages between the world
of the living and that of the dead (see Sconce, 2000). Media of
communication are therefore any means by which messages may be
transmitted. Given the promiscuousness of human semiosis, just about
anything can transmit a message, from a length of string with cans at
either end to a wall.
By common usage, this broad meaning of the term has narrowed to
focus on the ‘mass’ media (rather than on telecommunications). ‘The
media’ were the content industries devoted to reaching very large
popular audiences and readerships in print (newspapers, magazines,
popular publishing), screen (cinema, TV) and aural (recorded music,
radio) media. During the twentieth century, these ‘mass’ media were
characterised by their one-to-many centralised address, standardised
content, high capital costs and technological innovation, and their
tendency towards repertoire and genre. Despite their desire for ratings
and reach, the ‘mass’ media had a take-it-or-leave-it attitude to
audiences (i.e. audiences chose from among a repertoire of finished
products; they didn’t participate directly in content creation).
The media are still giant industries and still display tendencies
towards monopoly and vertical integration, exemplified by organisa-

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