ABSTRACT
Before discussing language in the media, it is necessary to define what we mean by ‘the media’, because the definition is not as simple as it might initially seem. The more ‘obvious’ aspects of media include television, radio and the press, which would traditionally have been called the ‘mass media’, referring to the fact that the same media message was reaching a mass of people. The media is currently in a state of flux, however, and the relationship between producer, message and audience has to be revisited. The development of online and digital communications has changed the role of the audience member so that we are much more active; we construct and consume the media. This is not to say that audiences previously just accepted what ‘they’ in the media said.
