Media refers to various different types of communication on many platforms. For example, television, radio and the newspaper are types of media. This is the basics of media to most people, but in reality there is a lot more to media than you may think. The media ecology is an underlying necessity for the media to work; Media ecology theory is the study of media, technology, and communication and how they affect human environments. This consists of

• money
• technology
• the government
• distribution
• creators
• institutions
• social media
• audience

All of these components rely on each other to keep the system going. Without one part of this chain, there would be no constant media production.

In groups in our media class, we used lego to create our own land to get our head round the idea of ‘ecology’. These consisted of aspects of the environment relying on each other to keep the land alive. Such as humans relying on trees to supply oxygen, animals relying on trees and grass to sustain their habitats, humans relying on fish to eat to keep them alive etc. Here is an image of a small section of my groups’ lego land.

Also, in pairs we created a poster of the media ecology. Our designated part of the chain was Creators. We had to write small sentences about why we thought creators were the most important part of the media ecology. We linked this to all the other components and realised everything feeds off each other.

The media ecology will impact the production of my music magazine. Here is how I will include all the parts of the ecology in the production of my magazine:

Money- This will enable me to create many copies of the magazine for all over the world, i’ll have unlimited resources which means I can do whatever it takes to make my magazine good, money will play a big part in the distribution of my product.

Technology- Technology will play a big part in the production of my magazine as this is where I will edit the image and the cover and print it off.

Institutions- Without this nobody could view or read my magazine

Creators – The creators will come up with the ideas and make the content. It is everybody else’s job to edit what the creators give them.

Audience- Without the audience there would be nobody to view or read or be a fan of my magazine. I would make little to no money as I wouldn’t be selling any copies.

Social Media- This is where the advertisement and promotion of my product will take place to spread the word to younger audiences.

Governments – The other parts of the ecology will follow and obey the rules that the government lay.

Distribution- This is an important part of the ecology especially within making my magazine as this is the key to getting my product all over the world and being sold to many types of audiences in lots of different stores.

We came to the conclusion that there’s not one most important role, everything needs each other to survive. Here is a picture of our poster.