The tag [media] is used for both music / video as well as mediums?

Question

It seems that the media tag is ambiguously used. Sometimes it applies to music/video, and sometimes it applies to physical media like CDs.

What should we do with it?

Answer 1

As always trying to see the humor in all this.

Media , this tag should not be used for media players, it should be used for the medium used and the media that a player might play. Because 90% of questions about Media players are about playing media, off of a medium, it would still apply :-) . The net is a medium, and most people tagging it media, want to use the medium to transport media , it would still apply.

If the terms seems ambiguously applied, it would be a fault of the English language, and how it has been bent to fit different ways. To fix that would be to define the medium (singular), and the media (plural). I really doubt that people picking tags are going to select medium, over media.

While I would agree that Storage-Medium , Media Files, Document Media , might separate the tags into less ambiguous terms, that isn't going to have anyone choosing them.

Media is not the news and tv, news and tv use media , and is a medium , an in-betweener. In the same way Mediums are in-between the live and the dead. tv/radio got termed "The Media" , which doesn't make them media when there is only one. Properly stated A Media is still a Medium, although they don't necessarily talk to the dead. :-)

Media is the publications, and communications, and informations, pictures , sounds , proper singular term is actually medium again. The storage area , be that paper or plastic or dvd or hard drive is actually also a medium, unless there are 2, then it is media. Original Latin meaning Middle. I would extrapolate to the term being the "middle man", the medium by which things are transferred , making the WEB a medium, and the stuff going down it media.

For radio and tv, and web , media are the items that the information is stored on. They purchased media for which to record. so The Media buys media, now often using the medium of the web, which sends media to The Media, so they can make their choices. Then this media is shipped via a medium, to The Media , who will use it to store media. But they are buying media, because they are not buying a single medium. :-)

Or as the dictionary says:

the etymologically plural form media is often used as a singular to refer to a particular means of communication, as in This is the most exciting new media since television. This usage is widely regarded as incorrect; medium is preferred. A stronger case can be made in defense of the use of media as a collective term, as in The media has not shown much interest in covering the issue. As with the analogous words data and agenda, the originally plural form has begun to acquire a sense that departs from that of the singular: used as a collective term, media denotes an industry or community. Thus the example sentence given here would not be appropriately paraphrased as No medium has shown much interest in covering the issue, which suggests that the disinclination abides in the means of communication itself rather than in its practitioners. If media follows the pattern of data and agenda, this singular use may become entirely acceptable someday. But despite its utility, many people still regard it as a grammatical error.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language

My vote? change the world, re-write the English language, or leave it alone because it will be back. Myself, I dont plan on caring about it being grammatically incorrect, it is like saying a Mac isnt a PC (personal computer) it doesn't mater as long as we know what your talking about.