Media

Cosma / Communication / Media
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The medium is the message. — Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man

Introduction¹

MediaSmarts (YouTube Channel)
MediaSmarts (Official Website)

Dictionary

media : a medium of cultivation, conveyance, or expression — Merriam-Webster See also OneLook

medium : a means of effecting or conveying something: as a (1) : a substance regarded as the means of transmission of a force or effect (2) : a surrounding or enveloping substance plural usually media (1) : a channel or system of communication, information, or entertainment — compare mass medium (2) : a publication or broadcast that carries advertising (3) : a mode of artistic expression or communication — Merriam-Webster See also OneLook

A Dictionary of Media and Communication (Daniel Chandler & Rod Munday)

Thesaurus

Roget’s II (Thesaurus.com), Merriam-Webster Thesaurus, Visuwords

Encyclopedia

Media (singular medium) are the storage and transmission channels or tools used to store and deliver information or data. It is often referred to as synonymous with mass media or news media, but may refer to a single medium used to communicate any data for any purpose. — Wikipedia

Media (Encyclopædia Britannica)

Media studies is a discipline and field of study that deals with the content, history, and effects of various media; in particular, the mass media. Media Studies may draw on traditions from both the social sciences and the humanities, but mostly from its core disciplines of mass communication, communication, communication sciences, and communication studies. — Wikipedia

Media Studies (Voice of the Shuttle)

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Exploration

New media are forms of media that are native to computers, computational and rely on computers for redistribution. New media are often contrasted to “old media”, such as television, radio, and print media, although scholars in communication and media studies have criticized rigid distinctions based on oldness and novelty. — Wikipedia

New Media Museum

This 360° image is one of a series of Toy Worlds on Cosma pages.

Click on objects to find out about them.

You can also explore this Toy World on Kuula.

An experimental version of the New Media Museum is also available in the virtual world SecondLife. Click the images below to explore it.

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Adventures

Explore related posts on Cosma …

AirPano - While reviewing the posts during “the move,” there was one glaring omission that emerged. It turns out that there was never a post about a fantastic Russian crew going by the name “AirPano” that has been traveling the world using drones to capture and publish fantastic 360° panoramic videos, and they have been doing it … Continue reading AirPano
Cosma’s Knowledge Lobby! - Check out Cosma’s brand new Knowledge Lobby! You can also explore it on Kuula. Here’s a quick backstory about it. I’ve been “making knowledge a place” for a long time, so at this point Cosma features MANY 3D worlds that enable spatial navigation of the Cosma site and other content on the Web. Recently I’ve … Continue reading Cosma’s Knowledge Lobby!
Furby Hacking - It’s odd how some toy fads come and go as one hit wonders while others seem to stick around and take on a life of their own. Of course, there’s no question that one of the oddest toys with the longest track record is Hasbro’s Furby. Whether you’re a Furby lover or hater, you have … Continue reading Furby Hacking
Hike, Wander & Walk-in the Web! - Welcome to Web Worlds@Cosma! The pages of Cosma have links to many thousands of the best resources on the Web. Immersive 3D and 360° experiences are among the most valuable types of resources, and so there are links to thousands of them distributed across the hundreds of pages on the Web site. The Web Worlds@Cosma … Continue reading Hike, Wander & Walk-in the Web!
Perspectives on Earth - Last week NASA released this fascinating video entitled Our Living Planet based upon 20 years of data from satellites that observe all plant life at the surface of the land and ocean. NASA Goddard (YouTube Channel) Goddard Space Flight Center (Official Website) You can find out more about the video from this article. The Changing … Continue reading Perspectives on Earth
The Beach - One long term goal of Cosma is to include an entertaining, interactive and immersive 3D Interface. There are already “demos” of what that might look like, but none of the available technologies are ideal, so there is no full implementation of the vision (yet). The most recent demo is a fun little Toy World that … Continue reading The Beach

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Inspiration

TEDxMtHood (Official Website)
TEDxMtHood (YouTube Playlist)

Talks about Media (TED: Ideas Worth Spreading)

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Innovation

New media are forms of media that are computational and rely on computers and the Internet for redistribution. Some examples of new media are computer animations, computer games, human-computer interfaces, interactive computer installations, websites, and virtual worlds. — Wikipedia

Banamita Sarma (YouTube Channel)

The New Media Reader (Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Nick Montfort)

What’s New About New Media? (Lisa Gitelman and Goeffrey Pingree, New Media)
New Media (Wikipedia)

Technology

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Preservation

Media Preservation (Jason Curtis, Museum Of Obsolete Media)
Audiovisual Media Preservation Initiative (Smithsonian Libraries and Archives)
Keeping and Organizing Your Files for the Long Term (MIT Libraries)
Media Preservation (Wikipedia)

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Participation

Education

Media Education (Kulturring, YouTube Channel)
Media Education (Kulturring, Official Website)

What is Media Education? (Media Literacy Week)
Digital & Media Literacy Fundamentals (Media Smarts)

MediaSmarts (Official Website)
MediaSmarts (YouTube Channel)

MERLOT: Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching
OER Commons: Open Educational Resources

Course

Media Literacy (Crash Course, YouTube Playlist)

Introduction to Media Studies (MIT OpenCourseware)
Introduction to Media Studies (Course Archive, MIT)²

Media in Transition (Jeffrey S. Ravel, MIT OpenCourseware)

Fundamentals of Computational Media Design (MIT OpenCourseware)
Media Arts & Sciences (MIT OpenCourseware)

Community

Community Media (Wikipedia)

Occupation

Media Programming Directors (CareerOneStop, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration)
Media Technical Directors/Managers (CareerOneStop, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration)

Media Arts & Sciences (US Occupational Outlook Handbook)
Broadcast, Sound, and Video Technicians (US Occupational Outlook Handbook)

Bibliography

Media Studies (Oxford Bibliographies)

News

Media Studies (JSTOR)
Media (Science Daily)

Recent News from Science Daily …

Science says we’ve been nurturing “gifted”...
on December 21, 2025 at 3:05 pm
A major international review has upended long-held ideas about how top performers are made. By analyzing nearly 35,000 elite achievers across science, music, chess, and sports, researchers found that early stars rarely become adult superstars. Most world-class performers developed slowly and explored multiple fields before specializing. The message is clear: talent grows through variety, not narrow focus.
How personalized algorithms trick your brain into...
on November 25, 2025 at 3:38 pm
Personalized algorithms may quietly sabotage how people learn, nudging them into narrow tunnels of information even when they start with zero prior knowledge. In the study, participants using algorithm-curated clues explored less, absorbed a distorted version of the truth, and became oddly confident in their wrong conclusions. The research suggests that this kind of digital steering doesn’t just shape opinions—it can reshape the very foundation of what someone believes they understand.
This 14th century story fooled the world about...
on November 11, 2025 at 3:43 pm
Historians have traced myths about the Black Death’s rapid journey across Asia to one 14th-century poem by Ibn al-Wardi. His imaginative maqāma, never meant as fact, became the foundation for centuries of misinformation about how the plague spread. The new study exposes how fiction blurred with history and highlights how creative writing helped medieval societies process catastrophe.
Archaeologists may have finally solved Peru’s...
on November 10, 2025 at 2:46 pm
In Peru’s mysterious Pisco Valley, thousands of perfectly aligned holes known as Monte Sierpe have long puzzled scientists. New drone mapping and microbotanical analysis reveal that these holes may once have served as a bustling pre-Inca barter market—later transformed into an accounting system under the Inca Empire.
This team tried to cross 140 miles of treacherous...
on June 26, 2025 at 7:07 am
Experiments and simulations show Paleolithic paddlers could outwit the powerful Kuroshio Current by launching dugout canoes from northern Taiwan and steering southeast toward Okinawa. A modern crew proved it, carving a Stone-Age-style canoe, then paddling 225 km in 45 hours guided only by celestial cues—demonstrating our ancestors’ daring and mastery of the sea.

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Here are links to pages about closely related subjects.

Communication Systems

Cosma provides access to Knowledge Resources organized around the elements of communication systems.

Communication, Media, Knowledge, Human and Noise

Function	Communications	Computation	Storage	Creation	Simulation
Analog	Mail	Device	Paper	Type, Print	Automaton
Electronic	Network	Calculator	Tape	Record	Elektro
Digital	Internet	Computer
Hardware	Modem	Microprocessor	Memory	Peripheral	Robot, XR
Software	Service (Web)	Program (OS, SS)	Database	Application	AI, VW

Format Multimedia (Video, Animation) Image (Object) Scent, Flavor, Audio (Text) Haptic, “Other“

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Notes

1. The resources on this page are are organized by a classification scheme developed exclusively for Cosma.

2. This page was first compiled by M. E. Hopper was working on 21L015 Introduction to Media Studies (MIT).

The resources have been updated and expanded regularly since then.