The multimedia genre(s) David Nathan 2005

The multimedia genre History  research in hypertext, education etc  computer games invaders invaders  Apple’s Hypercard  multimedia products identified  developments in personal computing  multimedia authoring software  media convergences

Multimedia - definitions  Chapmans: “multiple media” - we switch between modalities, or append new modalities to standard genres  “Human-computer interaction involving text, graphics, voice and video. Often also includes concepts from hypertext. This term has come to be almost synonymous with CD-ROM in the personal computer world because the large amounts of data involved are currently best supplied on CD-ROM.”  “the distinction of multimedia is the convergence of previously diverse systems.”

Multimedia - definitions Computer presentation of a resource that integrates several modalities:  using software control  in contribution of the message  through interaction

Multimedia - a typology  video presentation/display eg in business or education  computer adventure game  an educational CD-ROM  web site with graphics, sound, animation etc Note how these examples differ:  control of sequence: author -- user  production values: high -- low  usage context: public -- private  distribution: narrow -- wide  usage of repurposed content: less -- more  McLuhan media type: cool -- hot

Multimedia - delivery  projects need planning, management, design, software, programming, assets and resources, equipment  authoring platform  markup or authoring IDE  time-line (Flash, Director), linear/page (www), or hierarchical (Authorware)  type of player and control over playback  networked vs packaged  distribution