'Medium' as Communication Process Primitive

• In Event: Competitive Papers in Media Ecology I

Abstract

The “term” medium has a long history in the field of communication. We invoke it in the introductory chapters of texts and have organized substantial theoretical traditions, including mass media theory, medium theory, and media ecology, around the term. It remains, however, that we treat the term loosely, often defining it in a circular or overly restrictive mannter. This paper attempts to ground the term “medium” in an ecological model of the communication process and a set of formal propositions that might be regarded as providing an axiomatic underpinning to the fundamental constructs in our field.

Author

• Davis A. Foulger, State University of New York, Oswego