Abstract

What are media in contemporary society? It is difficult to give a firm definition of media because their nature is constantly changing. Starting from the answer given in 2013 by the recently departed Carlo Marletti, this trialogue proposes a vision of the media as a combination of three components: technology of communication, social apparatus and audiences. It becomes crucial to emphasize the interdependence of these components and their weight in different historical phases and socio-cultural contexts. The process of digitalization of media systems makes the distinction between these domains and between media types more blurred, suggesting the evolution towards a complex digital ecosystem. Media operate at multiple levels where platforms, technologies, public and private sectors and audiences constantly intersect, producing new socio-cultural patterns and hybridisation between genres and format of communication. It is almost impossible to imagine future directions and establish fixed sequences of causality, as their overlaps tend to redefine themselves continuously. The debate is open and constantly evolving.