... Media is a commodity. Media is something that is sold to us. Media can be something that we are sold to, even. Media is an everyday thing. You can buy bandwidth in job lots. You can watch television, buy books, videos, records, CDs, but that's not it. That's not what's interesting.

Media is an extension of the senses.

Media is a mode of consciousness.

Media is extra-somatic memory. It's a crystallization of human thought that survives the death of the individual.

Media generates simulacra. The mechanical reproduction of images is media.

Media is a means of social interaction.

Media is a means of command and control.

Media is statistics, knowledge that is gathered and generated by the state. Media is economics, transactions, records, contracts, money and the records of money.

Media is the means of civil society and public opinion. Media is means of debate and decision and agitpropaganda.

None of these are a full working definition of the term "media," but they are a list of the qualities of this phenomenon that I find really relevant and compelling ...