Abstract

The aim of this article is to verify the possibility of a new development – at the current stage – of a unified, homogeneous and agreeable definition of «media», adapted to the current communication ecosystem, characterised by the presence of communicative (or partly communicative) platforms. The discussion takes place by answering two questions. The first:«Is a unitary definition of media possible today? And which one?»). The answer is the proposal: «media are socio-technical systems that perform the function of mediation between subjects». What this definition suggests is that the media is a complex device, in which technology, cultures and social trends, legislative and economic systems continually interact; this makes it possible not to discriminate certain secondary traits (interactive or not, personal or mass, analogue or digital...). The second question: «To which objects is it useful to limit the notion of media?». The author shows, on the one hand, that certain new devices such as social media are to all intents and purposes media, and, on the other, that the current technological ecosystem places alongside legacy and digital media increasingly complex platforms and tools in which the communicative component is very strong. In the latter case, it is proposed to consider as media – within multi-function platforms – only some components. For example, Booking would be a service platform that uses a social media component to dialogue with its users (and make them dialogue with each other) without this turning the company into a medium. The definition helps to distinguish between platforms that are properly communicative (which are media) and platforms that also host communicative elements (which are not).