Appendix > Defintion of Terms > Media Design
Media designers distinguish themselves though an understanding of the affordances and constraints of certain media types as well as the ability to work across them. As a media designer who is interested people and their daily lives, this ability to draw on wide range or people-knowing techniques puts me in conversation with both social scientist and professional storytellers. On the other hand, this ability to work between the disciplines allows me to choose the most appropriate form to express the relationship between my subjects and me.
It should be noted that working between across disciplines is not unique to media design or media designers. As Peter Merholz mentions in his article Why Design Thinking Won’t Save You, in a “savagely complex” world requires a diversity of viewpoints and perspectives to bear on whatever challenges we have in front of us.” However, what media design does offer is a perspective within design that considers not only how different media types work but how they work together.