Content is the

information Information is an abstract concept that refers to that which has the power to inform. At the most fundamental level information pertains to the interpretation of that which may be sensed. Any natural process that is not completely random ...

contained within communication media. This includes

internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

, cinema, television, radio, audio

CDs The compact disc (CD) is a digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. In August 1982, the first compact disc was manufactured. It was then released in Octo ...

, books, magazines, physical art, and live event content. It’s directed at an

end-user In product development, an end user (sometimes end-user) is a person who ultimately uses or is intended to ultimately use a product. The end user stands in contrast to users who support or maintain the product, such as sysops, system administrat ...

audience An audience is a group of people who participate in a show or encounter a work of art, literature (in which they are called "readers"), theatre, music (in which they are called "listeners"), video games (in which they are called "players"), or ...

in the sectors of publishing, art, and communication. Live events include speeches,

conferences A conference is a meeting of two or more experts to discuss and exchange opinions or new information about a particular topic. Conferences can be used as a form of group decision-making, although discussion, not always decisions, are the main ...

, and stage performances. Content within media focuses on the attention and how receptive the audience is to the content. Circulation brings the content to everyone and helps spread it to reach large audiences. It is a process in which anyone who encounters any type of content will go through a cycle where they encounter the content, interpret it, and will continue to share it with other people. The advent of the

Information Age The Information Age (also known as the Computer Age, Digital Age, Silicon Age, or New Media Age) is a historical period that began in the mid-20th century. It is characterized by a rapid shift from traditional industries, as established during ...

has led to the advancement of content as a mass-produced commodity for distribution through avenues such as the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

(and more specifically

social media Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...

) and the professionalisation of

content creation Content creation is the contribution of information to any Content (media), media and most especially to digital content, digital media for an end-user/audience in specific contexts. Content is "something that is to be expressed through some Medi ...

. Any content developed or disseminated by an individual or on one's behalf, including but not limited to content distributed via books, magazines, brochures, newsletters, newspapers, social media, billboards, websites, mobile applications, television, and radio, is referenced to as media content.

Content value

Content is "something ..expressed through some medium, as speech, writing or any of various arts." A main aspect of content is the medium (from Latin ''medium'', "means, surface") which consists in the infrastructure, surface, and system in which a message is disseminated. However, the medium provides little to no value to the end-user without the information and experiences that make up the content. Communication theory philosopher

Marshall McLuhan Herbert Marshall McLuhan (July 21, 1911 – December 31, 1980) was a Canadian philosopher whose work is among the cornerstones of the study of media theory. He studied at the University of Manitoba and the University of Cambridge. He began his ...

coined the phrase "

The medium is the message "The medium is the message" is a phrase coined by the Canadian communication theorist Marshall McLuhan and the name of the first chapter in his '' Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man'', published in 1964.Originally published in 1964 by Me ...

." The phrase highlights how the means used to communicate a message (the ''medium'') have a bearing on the way the message itself will be interpreted, and provide important contextual information. Content notably distinguishes itself by its

memetic Memetics is a study of information and culture. While memetics originated as an analogy with Darwinian evolution, digital communication, media, and sociology scholars have also adopted the term "memetics" to describe an established empirical study ...

property, wherein users replicate and adapt content for retransmission. The author, producer or publisher of a source of information and experiences may directly be responsible for the entire value they establish as content. Users develop their own, "new" content in media featuring

user innovation __NOTOC__ User innovation refers to innovation by intermediate users (e.g. user firms) or consumer users (individual end-users or user communities), rather than by suppliers (producers or manufacturers). This is a concept closely aligned to co-des ...

. Much of

content is derived this way, by effectively re-cycling content in a slightly different format. The increased rate at which information is exchanged over the Internet compared to traditional analog media, as well as the ability to broadcast one's own media, leads to the development of

meme A meme ( ) is an idea, behavior, or style that spreads by means of imitation from person to person within a culture and often carries symbolic meaning representing a particular phenomenon or theme. A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural i ...

content online. Social media platforms give users the space for storage and provide tools to create content. It includes platforms that give users a space for storage and provide plenty of tools to promote, organize and advertise their thoughts.

Technological advancements

Traditionally, content is edited and tailored to the public through news editors, authors, and content creators. However, not all information content requires creative authoring or editing. Content is not a product of reputable sources only; the advent of self-broadcasting thanks to information technology has led to a proliferation of primary sources and the dissemination of

misinformation Misinformation is incorrect or misleading information. It differs from disinformation, which is ''deliberately'' deceptive. Rumors are information not attributed to any particular source, and so are unreliable and often unverified, but can turn ou ...

in the form of shareable content designed to maximise engagement and exposure. Media production and delivery technology may potentially enhance the value by formatting, filtering, and combining different types of content for new audiences. Less emphasis on value from content stored for possible use in its original form and more emphasis on rapid re-purposing, reuse, and redeployment has led many publishers and media producers to view their primary function less as originators and more as transformers of content. Thus, one finds out that institutions that used to focus on publishing printed materials are now publishing both databases and software to combine content from various sources for a wider variety of audiences. The process through which content is processed by Internet infrastructure before being "delivered" to users is the

content delivery network A content delivery network, or content distribution network (CDN), is a geographically distributed network of proxy servers and their data centers. The goal is to provide high availability and performance by distributing the service spatially re ...

, and notably involves selection and curation using specific algorithms designed to create an addictive and engaging stream of content. This has led to the development of

problematic social media use Relationships between digital media use and mental health have been considerably researched, debated, and discussed among experts in several disciplines. Research suggests that mental health issues arising from social media use affect women more ...

and of various closed circuits in the production and consumption of

user-generated content User-generated content (UGC), alternatively known as user-created content (UCC), is any form of content, such as images, videos, text, testimonials, and audio, that has been posted by users on online platforms such as social media, discussion f ...

, leading to self-reinforcement of political and other biases and the evolution of echo chambers.

Content regulation

The transmission of content and intellectual property have attracted attention and regulation from authorities worldwide, due to the memetic nature and possible social impact of content sharing. The regulation of content may take the form of selective

censorship Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governments ...

of works and content most often featuring

obscenity An obscenity is any utterance or act that strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time. It is derived from the Latin ''obscēnus'', ''obscaenus'', "boding ill; disgusting; indecent", of uncertain etymology. Such loaded language can be use ...

violence Violence is the use of physical force so as to injure, abuse, damage, or destroy. Other definitions are also used, such as the World Health Organization's definition of violence as "the intentional use of physical force or Power (social and p ...

, or

dissent Dissent is an opinion, philosophy or sentiment of non-agreement or opposition to a prevailing idea or policy enforced under the authority of a government, political party or other entity or individual. A dissenting person may be referred to as ...

, with wide variation through time and geographical situation concerning the bounds of legal content transmission. Content regulation also concerns the rules regarding transmission of the content itself. Regulations on content vary, and may come into conflict with each other more often in the context of global information exchange via the Internet. Restrictions that vary between jurisdictions exist that focus on ceasing the broadcasting of specific forms of content. This may include content that has a specific moral standard or "non-mainstream" viewpoints. About 48 countries have taken legislative or administrative steps to regulate technology companies and the content that goes along with them. The regulations work to temperate the societal issues that occur online, such as

harassment Harassment covers a wide range of behaviors of offensive nature. It is commonly understood as behavior that demeans, humiliates or embarrasses a person, and it is characteristically identified by its unlikelihood in terms of social and moral ...

and

extremism Extremism is "the quality or state of being extreme" or "the advocacy of extreme measures or views". The term is primarily used in a political or religious sense to refer to an ideology that is considered (by the speaker or by some implied share ...

, to protect people from fraudulent activity and exploitative business practices (such as

scams A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust. Confidence tricks exploit victims using their credulity, naïveté, compassion, vanity, confidence, irresponsibility, and greed. Researchers have de ...

) and protect human rights. A decrease in freedom of expression and anonymity on the Internet has been denounced in recent years, as governments and corporations have expanded efforts to track, monitor, flag, and sell information regarding Internet activity of users through systems such as

HTTP cookies HTTP cookies (also called web cookies, Internet cookies, browser cookies, or simply cookies) are small blocks of data created by a web server while a user is browsing a website and placed on the user's computer or other device by the user's we ...

and social media analytics. Some of the laws regarding content admissibility are designed to suppress content that is relative to the government and harmful content towards users. The use of

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech re ...

(AI) technology and algorithms is in use to flag and remove inappropriate content, with possible abuses and

algorithmic bias Algorithmic bias describes systematic and repeatable errors in a computer system that create " unfair" outcomes, such as "privileging" one category over another in ways different from the intended function of the algorithm. Bias can emerge from ...

. Over the years, content regulation has been put in place to protect and promote human rights and digital rights, such as the European Union's

General Data Protection Regulation The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a European Union regulation on data protection and privacy in the EU and the European Economic Area (EEA). The GDPR is an important component of EU privacy law and of human rights law, in partic ...

which sets limits on the information collected by Internet giants and corporations for sale and use in analytics.

United States

In 1934, the Communications Act worked to create the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...

(FCC) in the United States. The FCC is a federal agency that works to regulate interstate and foreign communications. They are given the power to make legal decisions and judgments about regulation content under the

Communications Satellite Act of 1962 The Communications Satellite Act of 1962 was put into effect in order to deal with the issue of commercialization of space communications. This act was very controversial, and was left very open-ended. The act was signed August 31, 1962 by Presi ...

, including the regulation of cable television operation, telegraph, telephone, two-way radio and radio operators, satellite communication and the internet. The FCC helps to maintain many areas regarding regulation which includes fair competition, media responsibility, public safety, and homeland security. Content on the Internet is also monitored in the United States by federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies such as the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...

using the provisions of the

Patriot Act The USA PATRIOT Act (commonly known as the Patriot Act) was a landmark Act of the United States Congress, signed into law by President George W. Bush. The formal name of the statute is the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropr ...

among other acts of legislation, to profile interactions between users and content, and to restrict the production and dissemination of dissenting content such as

whistleblowing A whistleblower (also written as whistle-blower or whistle blower) is a person, often an employee, who reveals information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe or fraudulent. Whi ...

information. Content on the Internet is also monitored in the United States by federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies such as the CIA using the provisions of the Patriot Act among other acts of legislation, to profile interactions between users and content, and to restrict the production and dissemination of dissenting content such as whistleblowing information.

European Union

The Digital Services Function (DSA) governs the responsibilities of digital services that act as mediators between customers and goods, services, and content. This comprises, for example, internet marketplaces. To reduce hate crime and speech, the 2008 Framework Decision deemed that it is illegal to encourage and spread any form of hared based on a person’s race, nationality, ethnicity, and religion. In addition, a Voluntary Code of Conduct was passed in 2016 to counter hate speech online. European countries could also request a removal of content in other countries so long as they deemed it as a form of “terrorist” content To control personal data of European citizens, the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was passed on May 25th, 2018 On April 23, 2022, the European Parliament and Council established a political agreement on the new rules.

Indonesia

Ministerial Regulation #5 (MR5) grants the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology the authority to compel any individual, business entity or community that operates “electronic systems” (ESOs) to restrict or remove any content deemed to be in violation of Indonesia’s laws within 24 hours. The breadth and open-ended nature of the regulation, implemented by the ministry in November 2020, can lead to censorship.

Myanmar

The government drafted a law in February 2021 that would empower authorities to "order internet shutdowns, disrupt or block online services, ban service providers, intercept user accounts, access personal data of users and force the removal of any content on demand." The "cybersecurity law" was drafted after a military coup ousted Aung San Suu Kyi.

References

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