What are the differences in varied media for communicating information? Which one is the most effective? It is books, film, and theatre, which you can only get information without sending feedback, or radio, television and comics, which also can interact with authors to a certain extent.
Let’s compare them based on the following points:
1. The amount of information and spreading rate.
2. The feedback efficiency
3. Entertainment
1. The amount of information and spreading rate.
Book is the traditional way to obtain knowledge. People read books to study for a very long time. Compared with the other five ways, if we get the same amount of information, reading a book is relatively faster and more details expression. That is why it takes longer to watch a TV series based on a novel than to read this novel.
2. The feedback efficiency
However, books only can provide knowledge without feedback from readers immediately, as well as film and theatre. People can go to a cinema or bookstore easily but they need to access to author’s blog or email them to share ideas. Comics, television or radio works better, in some channels or programmes, we can share our opinion with presenters. High-quality communication means a closed loop of information exchange, not just for one side.
3. Then the last point is entertainment.
The purpose of communication is to satisfy participants. What does it mean? I think the media needs magic to drive us to know more about information. That is the reason why nowadays more people prefer to watch TV shows. but chasing for entertainment too much will lead to narrowing the vision.
To sum up, I think we should define “effective” first and see what it depends on. If you want to understand the information precisely and quickly, reading a book is the way. If you want to share your thoughts with the creator, television, radio, and comics are better.