ABSTRACT
A coherent theory of media would be an accomplishment indeed. The nature and structure of media impacts so many features of social life-language, cognition, information, politics, culture, intimacy, identity-that a model or framework that tied these things together would occupy a prominent place in communication theory. Interestingly, this would be true even if the theory were incomplete and flawed, because communication is too multifaceted and complex to be reduced to a few simple propositions. There are a great many models and theories of communication (e.g., see McQuail), some of them quite limited or minimally useful, but their carcasses remain, too unmanageable to be hauled away, and too substantial to be ignored.
