Media Studies: a diachronic and cross-curricular approach

Studies on Media have generated analysis and remarks involving many different disciplines. We have just entered the age of Mass Communication. Each media (papers, radio, movie. TV and web too) wants to interpret reality and offer it to its audience. Each message coming from media is sifted and proposed according to the structural and technical characteristics of the media itself (as M.McLuhan said "the medium is the message"). In time there have been interpretations in favour or against as well, as experts detractors or defenders of media; U Eco called them "apocalyptic" and "integrated". In Medicine there are many different pathologies referable to excessive or incorrect utilization of mass-media: obesity due to high-calorie intake caused by sedentary use of TV, anorexia caused by forced imitation of models created by media, anxiety and sleeping disorders in teenagers caused by watching TV news. Research are being carried out on mental effort due to incorrect use of screen, similar to the research on VDU operators. Categories gathered from Cop:five Ergonomics are suggested to hypothesize models of correct use of media and maybe the capacity of getting free from the influence of media so that aware audience can have a conscious perspective and not the perception of reality based entirely on the use of any media. Clin Ter 2011; 162(5):461-472