Transparency

Transparency

Of or relating to the ability to see through a particular medium whether this be metaphorical or literal.

Transparency in the media would refer to the ability of the general consuming faction to "get it" on their own. A media that had little transparency could be considered hard to figure out, contains poor documentation, is closed source, or closed information that only a handful of people have access to.

Wikipedia Definition

Aspects of transparent media include open source documentation, open meetings, financial disclosure statements, the freedom of information legislation, budgetary review, audit, peer review, etc.

Some organisations and networks insist that not only the ordinary information of interest to the community is made freely available, but that all (or nearly all) meta-levels of organising and decision-making are themselves also published. This is known as radical transparency. These organizations include: Wikipedia, the GNU/Linux community, and Indymedia.

For instance, I believe that by this definition an article that had footnotes, references to sources, or documented opinions of professionals in whatever field the article was referring would be more transparent and forthcoming than an article composed strictly of opinion.

Examples

• "Wow, that piece of paper is almost transparent!"
• "This is a great looking piece of transparency film!"
• "I could totally see through that movies transparent message. There was clearly an anti-gun message in there."

Transparency with Transparency

When looking at the success of a certain media, transparency is a key factor. In order for a media/medium to be successful, people have to be using it frequently and allow for its growth in the culture. To accomplish this people have to know how to use it, what it's for, and why they should use it. Media forms that have an obvious advantage over others are more successful, and people don't think twice about using it.