Consultation in the media context refers to the relationship between a media service provider and media services consumer.
An information services centre must be established, this comprises a media organization which has a large (almost unlimited) amount of information at its disposal. However in the consultation relationship the information services centre forfeits an amount of control to the consumer. The consumer is able to determine which information they want to receive and when they want to receive it. This differs from the allocation model in which the information services center retains complete control over the information. The consultation model allows the consumer to interact with the information on a higher level as they can impose a filter on the information, deciding to reject or ignore any amount.
Examples
The most common example of the consultation model is the newspaper. The reader decides when they will read the paper, how quickly they will read it and which articles they will read. It is rare for a person to read every article in a newspaper, most people impose some kind of filter. Encyclopedias, magazines and news websites are other examples of media which utilize the consultation model.