Proposing a Practical Media Taxonomy for Complex Media Production

Authors

  • Kevin Moloney Center for Emerging Media Design and Development Ball State University

Keywords:

communication, content, crossmedia, definition, media, media channel, media form, multimedia, storytelling, taxonomy, transmedia

Abstract

This article proposes a taxonomy of media designed to clarify the production and critique of complex media publication. I examine the conflation of ideas described by the word media and review prior taxonomic categorizations of this fuzzy concept. Media is broken into layered categories of content, media form, and media channel based on the semiotic and technological roles in mediated communication and then is described as a flow of decisions made in the creation and publication of communicative products. Finally, this taxonomy is applied to clarify the different functions of multimedia, crossmedia, and transmedia storytelling.

Author Biography

Kevin Moloney, Center for Emerging Media Design and Development Ball State University

Dr. Kevin Moloney is a veteran international photojournalist who has worked for many of the world's most influential publications, including nearly 1,000 stories for the New York Times. He is now an assistant professor of transmedia storytelling and journalism at the Center for Emerging Media Design and Development at Ball State University.

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Published

2019-08-12

Issue

Vol. 13 (2019)

Section

Articles

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