Leading on from the task in the previous week in which we attempted to create a map of our lives and identities we have now began to focus in on the media aspect specifically and the interactions between various elements of it and people. Fortunately my work for the previous week had been done from a media influence standpoint.

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In a small group we discussed how to go about mapping the structure of the media. I suggested that the media could be broken down into three relatively distinct areas of Content, Delivery and Feedback.

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I also identified a distinction between forms of feedback to the content provider, that it could be either passive, for example viewing figures or page hits, or active such as a complaint.

Using the website MindMeister.com we were able to better organise and present this interpretation. The site allows collaborative work on the same mind map in real time over the Internet. Once I got home I increased the complexity of the diagram to include greater depth. With such a vast and interconnected field as the media some things like the various combinations of elements could not be explained in detail. An example being the degrees of which something can be both informative and entertaining.

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The diagram shows a looping system in which content is created, delivered, consumed and the feedback is then transfered back to the content creator. With this feedback content creators may adjust their output.

This way of looking seems to me to be a usefull basic model for understanding the complexity of the media and has prompted me to think though it further.