So you posted the useless, pompous-sounding Facebook Privacy Policy Notice, and now you feel silly? Okay. Let me tell you a story.
How You Got to This Place
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, a man bought a printing press. But because he was busy running the printing press, or perhaps because he was more interested in the wonders of the rising mechanical age than the whimsy of making things up, he did not write books to print with his press.
He bought it because it was readily apparent that he could sell books, if he printed them. So he offered others money on a profit-sharing basis if they would send their writing to him.
He then talked to the general stores in many towns around him, and wrote letters to others, giving them lists of the books he had to offer their clientele. He became a publisher (packager) and distributor of other people’s content.
A long time ago, in the next galaxy over, the phonograph was invented. Something similar happened between those who realized they could make and sell recordings, but couldn’t sing worth a bent penny, and those who could sing like larks, but couldn’t tell a phonograph needle from a bent penny.
The idea of “media” is that it’s something that mediates between the creator and the consumer. These are the key components:
- The creative expression
- The physical package which carries the content, in single or multiple copies
- The system which delivers the package from creator to consumer
That’s the basic need-to-know for all media and the weird stuff that happens with them. Including the medium of the internet.
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