What Is Multimedia?

Multimedia is the use of a computer to present and combine text, graphics, audio, and video with links and tools that let the user navigate, interact, create, and communicate.

this definition contains four components essential to multimedia. First, there must be a computer to coordinate what you see and hear and interact with you. Second, there must be links that connect the information. Third, there must be navigational tools that let you traverse the web of connected information. Finally, because multimedia is not a spectator sport, there must be ways for you to gather, process, and communicate your own information and ideas.

If one of these components is missing, you do not have multimedia. For example, if you have no computer to provide interactivity, you have mixed media, not multimedia. If there are no links to provide a sense of structure and dimension, you have a bookshelf, not multimedia.

If there are no navigational tools to let you decide the course of action, you have a movie, not multimedia. If you cannot create and contribute your own ideas, you have a television, not multimedia.

Why Is Multimedia Important?

Multimedia is fast emerging as a basic skill that will be as important to life in the twenty-first century as reading is now. In fact, multimedia is changing the nature of reading itself. Instead of limiting you to the linear presentation of text as printed in books, multimedia makes reading dynamic by giving words an important new dimension. In addition to conveying meaning, words in multimedia serve as triggers that readers can use to expand the text in order to learn more about a topic.

This is accomplished not only by providing more text but by bringing it to life with sound, pictures, music, and video. The more you learn about multimedia, the more books pale by comparison.

For example, suppose you read a lengthy document and want to refer back to the page on which a certain idea was mentioned. You check the index, but the topic you want is not listed. Try as you might while paging through the book, you just cannot find what you read earlier.

A multimedia document solves this problem by letting you search the full text for keywords to find any topic or combination of topics. In fact, a multimedia document can refer not only to information within itself, but also to all the other documents to which it has been linked, and to the documents to which they have been linked.

Multimedia uses links to let you navigate the universe of connected information at the speed of light. Comparing this global network of multimedia to our highway system that lets motorists travel almost anywhere, the U.S. government has named the network the Information Superhighway

Multimedia is highly effective. As research and publishing company Computer Technology Research (CTR) Corporation reports, people retain only 20% of what they see and 30% of what they hear. But they remember 50% of what they see and hear, and as much as 80% of what they see, hear and do simultaneously. That is why multimedia provides such a powerful tool for teaching and learning. Multimedia will help spread the Information Age to millions of people who have not yet used a computer.

A Roper survey sponsored by IBM found that more than half of the respondents did not want a computer that required a manual to use it (Washington Post 12/27/93, Business: 13). Multimedia provides the computer industry with the key to reaching this untouched market, which will cause computer use to skyrocket. .

How Fast Is Multimedia Growing ?

multimedia is one of the fastest-growing markets in the world today. As the installed base of CD-ROM drives approaches the 200-million mark, DVD (digital video disc) drives have become one of the hottest consumer items. DVD drives can play CDs and also provide access to thousands of broadcast-quality movies with surround sound and up to 26 times more data storage. that online subscriptions to the Internet passed the 50-million mark in significantly less time than more traditional forms of mass media reached their audiences.

By the end of the twentieth century, nearly two-thirds of U.S. households already had home computers. Although the growth occurs in all market segments, the analyst agency Dataquest reports that first-time buyers are now coming from households in the lower socioeconomic levels, which may indicate that the digital divide between the haves and the have-nots may gradually be narrowing (San Jose Mercury News 2/8/99, Multilit Web site). By the time you read this, nearly half of American households will be connected to the Internet

eMarketer forecasts that the total Internet population will increase to 350 million users by 2003. As Figure 1-4 illustrates, this is a 267% increase from the 95 million people using the Internet at the end of 1998. Fueling this growths are advances in technology (see Figure 1-6 on page 11) and price wars that have dramatically lowered the cost of multimedia computers. The growing number of consumers has created a larger market for multimedia titles, and new tools

Multimedia is redefining the communication system that forms a significant part of the infrastructure of our society. An unprecedented number of mergers among companies jockeying for positions in this fast-paced field are combining the telephone, television, and personal computer into a mass-market multimedia utility

Multimedia has always been a powerful communication tool, but with the advent of the internet and mobile devices, it has taken on a new form and become even more ubiquitous. We now have access to more content than ever before, and we can consume it in a variety of ways. This has led to fundamental changes in the way we interact with the world around us. .

How Is Multimedia Changing the World?

multimedia is one of the fastest-growing markets in the world today. As the installed base of CD-ROM drives approaches the 200-million mark, DVD (digital video disc) drives have become one of the hottest consumer items. DVD drives can play CDs and also provide access to thousands of broadcast-quality movies with surround sound and up to 26 times more data storage. that online subscriptions to the Internet passed the 50-million mark in significantly less time than more traditional forms of mass media reached their audiences.

By the end of the twentieth century, nearly two-thirds of U.S. households already had home computers. Although the growth occurs in all market segments, the analyst agency Dataquest reports that first-time buyers are now coming from households in the lower socioeconomic levels, which may indicate that the digital divide between the haves and the have-nots may gradually be narrowing (San Jose Mercury News 2/8/99, Multilit Web site). By the time you read this, nearly half of American households will be connected to the Internet

eMarketer forecasts that the total Internet population will increase to 350 million users by 2003. As Figure 1-4 illustrates, this is a 267% increase from the 95 million people using the Internet at the end of 1998. Fueling this growths are advances in technology (see Figure 1-6 on page 11) and price wars that have dramatically lowered the cost of multimedia computers. The growing number of consumers has created a larger market for multimedia titles, and new tools

Multimedia is redefining the communication system that forms a significant part of the infrastructure of our society. An unprecedented number of mergers among companies jockeying for positions in this fast-paced field are combining the telephone, television, and personal computer into a mass-market multimedia utility

Multimedia has always been a powerful communication tool, but with the advent of the internet and mobile devices, it has taken on a new form and become even more ubiquitous. We now have access to more content than ever before, and we can consume it in a variety of ways. This has led to fundamental changes in the way we interact with the world around us. .

Home Shopping

Multimedia is changing how the world shops. Instead of wearing yourself out trekking from store to store, trying to find the size and style you like and then waiting in line to pay for it, teleshopping services let you shop from home. According to a CommerceNet/ Nielsen survey, by 1999 the number of online shoppers had increased to 55 million people. Of these, 28 million made purchases online, 9 million bought something online at least once a month, and a million made weekly purchases online .

Business and Advertising

Multimedia is changing the face of business. Online shopping and banking are creating a cashless society by eliminating the need for printed money. American Express, for example, is enabling its cardholders to make deposits, invest in money market funds, purchase certificates of deposit, and pay bills through an online service called American Express Membership B@nking (Wall Street Journal 7/23/99.) The Gartner Group predicts that bill-paying over the Internet will become business as usual by 2002, when all banks will offer online bill payment (USA Today 8/4/99).

The online brokerage market is poised to lead the growth of the financial services sector with assets projected to grow from $415 billion in 1998 to $3 trillion by 2003 (NUA Internet Surveys 9/6/99, Multilit Web site).

Online brokerages provide a way for the average citizen to purchase stocks online, instead of having to buy them through a traditional stockbroker. Forrester research predicts that buying stocks online will be particularly popular in Europe, with online brokerage accounts predicted to rise from 1.3 million in 2000 to 14 million in 2004. Giga Information Group predicts that worldwide, corporations will save as much as $1.25 trillion by doing business over the Internet (Washington Post 8/4/99).

Advertising is paying for the costs of operating Web services, much like advertising covers the cost of television broadcasts so you can watch TV for free. For example, commercial ads pay for the popular search engine Yahoo at http://www.yahoo.com. In 1998, advertisers spent $1.9 billion advertising on the Internet, exceeding the estimated $1.6 billion spent on outdoor advertising that same year .

Teaching and Learning

Electronic publishing also impacts the education industry. Schools are beginning to invest former textbook budgets in multimedia technology, for example, by equipping students with laptop computers to access course materials online (Electronic-school.com 6/99, Multilit Web site). After studying hundreds of controlled experiments in which computers were used in college and high-school courses, elementary education, and adult high-school equivalency programs, Kulik (1985, 1986, 1991, and 1994) reports overall learning gains averaging more than a letter grade higher (effect size = .32), and significant reductions in the time required for students to learn (averaging 34% in college and 24% in adult education). Chapter 4 surveys some of these applications and analyzes how computers are changing the nature of education. .

Mass Media

The Internet is competing with television for people’s free time. A survey conducted by the Emerging Technologies Research Group shows Internet users spending an average of 6.6 hours a week on the Net, time previously spent watching TV, listening to the radio, or making long-distance phone calls. The average session was 68 minutes (Tampa Tribune 1/12/96: B&F1). A Nielsen study reported similar results, concluding that Internet users spend more time online than TV viewers spend with their VCRs (Dow Jones News 10/30/95). The percentage of women using the Internet has increased steadily, from 33% of users in 1996 to 46% in 1999 .

Who Needs to Know About Multimedia?

Anyone who plans to learn, teach, work, play, govern, serve, buy, or sell in the information society needs to know about multimedia. Just imagine the consequences of not knowing about it. For example, suppose you are a journalist who cannot create a hypermedia document and transmit it across a network; how long do you think you will be employable?

What about paramedics who cannot upload a picture of a wound and get expert advice on how to treat it? Or architects and designers who cannot use computers to simulate and troubleshoot products before they are built? Or merchandisers who do not know how to advertise products on the network?

Or teachers who cannot use multimedia to bring their classrooms to life? Or businesspeople who cannot access corporate data when it is needed to make the right decision? Or governments without the technology needed to detect and deter aggression? To state the case succinctly: Everyone who plans to function productively in twentyfirst-century society needs to know about multimedia. .