Media Fundamentals

Let’s start by looking briefly at the fundamentals of media. Media are traditionally separated into three major categories: "Broadcast media" are television and radio. “Print media” includes yellow pages directories, direct mail, practice brochures, newspapers and magazines. “Outdoor media” includes “transit” (advertising on busses and bus benches), signs, and billboards. During the past ten years a new medium, the Internet, has created a fourth media category. The media category “Internet” is aptly named after its sole medium.

Media’s function is to deliver content.

People, Media, and Advertising
Let’s take a look at how people, media, and advertising interact.

When you understand why people view a particular type of content (in preference to other types of content) you will have a key, often overlooked, ingredient to profitable television advertising.

When people select a particular medium (television, radio, newspaper, Internet) to view, they are really selecting the type of content they want to view. Viewers, though they may say, “let's watch some T.V.,” are not choosing to view the television as much as they are selecting to view a particular type of content. Viewers, after all, are not viewing media; they are viewing content. The media are merely delivering the content.

Media delivers three principle types of content:

1. Information (i.e., news, cooking demonstrations, stock market quotes, weather forecasts, schedules, science and discovery)
2. Entertainment (i.e., soap operas, movies, sports, drama, sitcoms)
3. Advertising

Some types of media deliver only one type of content. For example, yellow pages directories, billboards, and catalogs deliver only advertising content. Other types of media deliver two types of content—newspapers and magazines most frequently deliver information and advertising. Broadcast media is a good example of media that delivers all three types of content—information (news and talk radio), entertainment (sitcoms and music), and advertising.

The following chart illustrates which media generally deliver which type of content.

Traditional Delivery Vehicles, by Content

Content Desired	Media (or Programming) Selection
Information	Newspapers, Magazines, Evening News, Talk Radio
Entertainment	Television, Radio
Advertising	Newspapers, Magazines, Yellow Pages, Catalogs, Outdoor

Expressed by media selection, the chart looks like this.

Traditional Delivery Vehicles, by Media

Media/Programming	Content Desired
Newspapers	Information, Advertising
Magazines	Information, Advertising
Evening News	Information
Talk Radio	Information
Television	Entertainment
Radio	Entertainment
Yellow Pages	Advertising
Catalogs	Advertising
Outdoor	Advertising

 

These charts make it easy to see the broad strokes of which media deliver which types of content. However, there are some important content delivery exceptions within the various media. Ultimately, programming determines content.

Most of the time people watch television, they watch it for its entertainment content. (More than 90 percent of television programming is entertainment.) However, sometimes some people watch television for information content so they watch informational programming. News, political reports, cooking shows, and science and discovery programs are informational programming. Occasionally, but not often, people select programming for advertising content—home shopping programs and the Super Bowl®.

Radio, newspapers, and magazines are formatted for program-specific content delivery too. Though radio predominately delivers entertainment (via music), radio also delivers informational programming (news, traffic reports, NPR, and talk radio). Newspapers primarily deliver information and advertising, but they also often deliver a few tidbits of entertainment in the form of crossword puzzles and comics. Thus, programming, not media, ultimately determines content.