Media ecology is the way in which different aspects of the media are linked and interdependent, which is what makes the media so unique.
There are 8 different components in media ecology:
- Creators – Editors, designers, artists
- Technology – Software, hardware
- Audience – Listeners, readers, consumers, prosumers
- Social Media – Instagram, Facebook, Forums
- Distribution – Cinemas, radio, television, newspapers
- Money – Profit, revenue, advertisement, expense
- Government/Law – Press recognition, self regulation
- Institutions – BBC, Sky, Google, Talk Talk
Each of these categories are interdependent and would fall apart even if one category was missing.
For example, the institutions rely on money to keep their company up and running by paying employees to do their job. If certain employees weren’t payed because of a money issue, the company wouldn’t have distribution, and wouldn’t be advertised to the public to gain a customer base. without a customer base, the business wouldn’t make money and it would just fall apart.
My music magazine fits into the Creators category and when making it, I will need the main focus to be my main media interests. It will also fit into the distribution category as it is me, the creator, making content to be distributed into the Mediascape. This distribution will get me the audience i need to make a revenue, making me money, allowing me to up the quality of my content, making by content easier to record/type and edit so that it will be of a higher quality.