The term ‘media organization’ means “a person or entity engaged in disseminating information to the general public through a newspaper, magazine, other publication, radio, television, cable television, or other media of mass communication.” (2 USCS § 1602). Media institutions can also be seen as being involved in the production, exchange and reproduction of meaning.
Therefore, the nonprofit Wallingford Public Access Association, Inc. is a media organization. As a media organization, we are influenced differently by affluence, consumption patterns and social class. Although our primary distribution medium is TV, we are not classified as ‘mass media’ for several reasons, predominantly because citizens control the content and distribution is physically limited to hyper-local territories by cable providers. Citizens, unlike journalists, are autonomous. Media professionals in a media organization are constrained by profitability. All producers are to an extent vulnerable to commercial pressures. The codes of practice are designed to prevent unacceptable standards of production or irresponsible behavior.