Media Taxonomy
For my taxonomy, I have compiled a list of forms of media, basing my definition of media on the OED definition: "an intermediate agency, means, instrument, or channel." All of the media on my list are fairly traditional, and I have analyzed them in relation to each other in terms of four different distinctions: visual vs. verbal, low/non-art vs. high art, more immediate to receiver vs. less immediate, and finally more vs. less complex (in terms of material and actual content, not meaning). I have constructed 4 scales and placed each form of media where I thought appropriate. (I had originally hoped to find a correlation between visual aspects and high art; this is no longer my focus but I still think these scales show that there could be one.)
List of media types:
Painting
Theater (plays)
Movies
TV
Newspapers
Books
Internet
Telephone
Photography
Radio
Sculpture
Cartoons/comics
Oration (speeches)
Magazines
Overhead Projection
Diorama
Road signs
Drawing
Dance
Symphony
Popular Music (of the commercial radio sort)
Elisabeth Kilpatrick
Winter 2003
For my taxonomy, I have compiled a list of forms of media, basing my definition of media on the OED definition: "an intermediate agency, means, instrument, or channel." All of the media on my list are fairly traditional, and I have analyzed them in relation to each other in terms of four different distinctions: visual vs. verbal, low/non-art vs. high art, more immediate to receiver vs. less immediate, and finally more vs. less complex (in terms of material and actual content, not meaning). I have constructed 4 scales and placed each form of media where I thought appropriate. (I had originally hoped to find a correlation between visual aspects and high art; this is no longer my focus but I still think these scales show that there could be one.)
List of media types:
Painting
Theater (plays)
Movies
TV
Newspapers
Books
Internet
Telephone
Photography
Radio
Sculpture
Cartoons/comics
Oration (speeches)
Magazines
Overhead Projection
Diorama
Road signs
Drawing
Dance
Symphony
Popular Music (of the commercial radio sort)
Elisabeth Kilpatrick
Winter 2003