Any medium presents a figure whose ground is 
always hidden, or subliminal. In the case of TV, as 
of the telephone and radio, the subliminal ground  
could be called the discarnate or disembodied 
user. This is to say that when you are “on the 
telephone,” or “on the air,” you do not have a 
physical body. In these media, the sender is sent, 
and is instantaneously present everywhere. The 
disembodied user extends to all those who are 
recipients of electric information. It is these people 
who constitute the mass  audience, because mass 
is a factor of speed rather than quantity, 
although popular speech permits the term mass 
to be used with large publics.