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Multimedia is defined as "the use of computers to present text,
graphics, video, animation, and sound in an integrated way...Nearly all
PCs are capable of displaying video, though the resolution available depends
on the power of the computer's video adapter..." (Webpoedia).
Multimedia presented on the web (or in any environment that permists dynamic
linking) is theoretically hypermedia, but the term multimedia,
which we are using, now commonly carries this connotation, too.
For this assignment you may analyze either a multimedia web site, or
a multimedia CD-ROM, but please make sure it includes all the elements
noted above, especially the integration. If you analyze a CD-ROM, please
submit it to us while we grade your response.
Learning Objectives
- to understand the concept of 'multimedia' and investigate its development
- to explore the aesthetic principles of multimedia creation and
imagine how they might be deployed in your own work
- to analyze the relationship between form and content, particularly
in relation to a site's communicating effectively with its target
audience
- to investigate the relationship between older forms of media and
those that suceed them
- to articulate how your learning experience in completing this assignment
relates to the NCC competencies.
The suggestions below outline the areas of investigation you should cover
and the questions you should be posing as you analyse your chosen multimedia
site. But they are not a simple prescription for success in this assignment.You
need to create your own thesis about multimedia 'texts,' argue it carefully
(with lots of evidence) and present it imaginatively. Be as adventurous
as you can with this assignment. Multimedia research needs every unique
contribution it can find!
I
Identify your site or CD-Rom with full detail. Explain why you chose
this particular site, emphasizing exactly what appealed to you about
it. When designers create multimedia & interactive sites, they imagine
their audience asking four questions on beginning to use their product:-
- What does it (the site, in this case) do?
- What is my role?
- Where am I?
- What are the boundaries?
(Janet H. Murray, The
Future of the Humanities: http://web.mit.edu/jhmurray/www/futHum/sld011.htm)
Answer these questions for your chosen site to help you analyze your reaction
as an 'audience' to the site/CD-ROM.
II
Investigate how the multiple streams of information (text, video, sound,
graphics, animation, etc.) are used to communicate to an audience. Does
text provide the basic information & explanation while video or
sound provides emotion or 'quoted' highlights? Is sound the main 'text'
and written words the decoration? Are the different elements integrated
fully? If you abstracted one media stream, would your site/CD-ROM lose
substance or would it simply lose decoration? Would you still be able
to follow the 'story' the site/CD-ROM is telling? How important is the
aesthetic quality of the individual elements and their integration?
III
We all learn and retain information differently. Some of us work visually;
others absorb and organise new data spatially, for example. using your
site/CD-ROM as an example, assess how multimedia texts might provide
a more effective means of communication for complex ideas than any individual
medium (radio, television, text) on its own. How does the medium appeal
(or not appeal) to you and why? Be specific.
IV
Interactivity, the degree to which the user can interact with material
and the degree to which the product responds, seems more original
to multimedia. To what extent does your site/CD-ROM incorporate interactivity
and what are its forms? Clicking on links? Ability to ask questions
or interact with the creators? How about access to chat-rooms, a discussion
forum, a mailing list? How about a way to express your needs and content
generated to meet them? Often sites advertize these 'attractions' but
investigation reveals moribund spaces. Is interactivity an illusion
or a meaningful element in your site?
V
Now think about your site's relationship to older media. Theorists of
media (like Marshall McLuhan and Jay Bolter, whom we have read) argue
that when new media initially appear, they are first used to transmit
older media more effectively.
For example, film companies use the web to distribute previews of new
movies. Or the BBC creates a new market for its World Service radio
transmissions by relaying them on the internet. Faculty post syllabi
on the web, instead of photocopying them and distributing them in class.
These 'legacy forms' appear in the new medium until we discover distinctive
forms original to the new medium.
To what extent does your multimedia site simply act as a channel for
simultaneously transmitting older media, such as video, sound or text?
What is original about your site in its design, purposes, projected
audience, etc.? What elements distinguish (or would distinguish) a site/CD-ROM
from one which simply transmitted old material in new ways?
VI
Relate your experiences in this investigation to NCC's competencies.
Be specific. (http://www.ncc.gmu.edu/competency.html)
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