Role and influence of content
Content is the message that media carries: an article, a photo, a song, a video, a game. An information society is one where making, sharing and using information is a big part of daily life and work.
Content has a big influence. It informs (news, lessons), entertains (films, music), persuades (adverts) and connects people (messages, social media). It can spread to millions in seconds, so it can help a lot, but a wrong or unkind post can also spread fast.
- Check the source: who made it and why?
- Check if it is true: do other trusted sources say the same?
- Think before you share: could it hurt someone?
Types and characteristics of media
The four basic kinds of media:
- Text: exact and small in size. Good for facts, rules and long thoughts. Easy to search.
- Picture: shows shape, colour and place at a glance. Language-free, but can be read in different ways.
- Sound: carries tone and emotion. Works while your eyes are busy, but you cannot skim it.
- Video: combines picture, sound and time. Very strong for showing how things happen, but big in file size and slow to make.
We can mix them: this is multimedia. Choose the medium by the audience and the purpose. Also compare one-way media (TV, newspaper) with two-way media (chat, social media) where the audience can reply. Digital content is easy to copy without loss, which makes sharing easy but protection necessary.
Protecting content
Content takes time and skill to make. Copyright is the maker's legal right over their work: others may not copy, sell or change it without permission. It starts automatically when the work is created. It lasts for a fixed number of years after the maker's death.
- Licence: a permission. A Creative Commons licence lets the maker say, for example, "you may share if you give credit".
- Credit: always name the maker and the source.
- Fair use / fair dealing: small parts may be used for study, news or review in some cases.
- Technical protection: passwords, watermarks and copy-protection.
- Plagiarism: presenting someone else's work as your own. It is dishonest.
Also protect your own content and your personal information before you publish it.
Key formulas and definitions
- Content = message + medium (text, picture, sound or video)
- Reach after n rounds, if each person passes it to k others: k + k² + … + kⁿ
- Copyright = maker's right to copy, share and change the work
- Safe sharing = check source + give credit + follow the licence
Worked examples
1. You want to explain how to tie a school tie. Which medium suits best and why?
Video. It shows the steps and the hand movements in order. Text alone would be long and a picture shows just one moment.
2. A post is shared by 5 people. Each of them shares it with 5 new people. How many people have seen it after these two rounds (not counting the first 5 twice)?
Round 1: 5 people. Round 2: 5 × 5 = 25 people. Total = 5 + 25 = 30 people.
3. A photo has the Creative Commons "share with credit" licence. Can you put it in your school magazine?
Yes, if you give credit to the photographer. You may not say it is your own photo.
4. A friend copies a classmate's poem and gives it to the teacher as his own. Name the wrong and one fix.
This is plagiarism. The fix is to write his own poem, or to quote the classmate's poem and give her name as the source.
Common mistakes
- Thinking anything found on the internet is free to copy. Most of it is under copyright.
- Believing a message is true because many people shared it. Spread is not proof.
- Giving credit but ignoring the licence rules (for example "no changes" or "not for sale").
- Choosing a medium because it looks nice, not because it suits the audience and purpose.