The various shared resource materials have presented a detailed insight into the birth, development, and changes in multimedia and how it continues to refine and influence today's communication landscape and human interaction activities.
Multimedia is defined as media content that is made by combining two or more forms of media such as text, audio, images, animations, and videos, which are delivered electronically and can be consumed and enjoyed using electronic information processing devices. Audiences may view multimedia presentations on-site, using projection devices and media players. Moreover, we also have multimedia games and simulations that can happen in the physical environment or online network.
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Multimedia is broadly divided into two categories. Linear multimedia content, such as cinema, often progresses without needing any navigational control from viewers while non-linear content, such as video games, uses interactivity from users.
Since its introduction, multimedia content has continued to be widely used in various areas and industries. Creative industries heavily use multimedia for a variety of purposes. Multimedia is widely used as a tool in commercial marketing and advertising strategies while entertainment media relies on multimedia content in keeping relevant to audiences and discovering and introducing new and exciting techniques and ways of bringing media content to viewers.
Multimedia contents are now also becoming an innovative and effective tool in education. Because of multimedia, computer-based training courses are now becoming a trend, academic references are now accessible online, and learning is now easy because interactive content that aims to educate can be now easily found such as edutainment and video tutorials.
Multimedia is also now a big part of journalism. Broadsheets and news outlets are now utilizing multimedia for fast and wider reach. And with mobile phones with many features at hand, journalists, and even the so-called mobile journalist, can now cover and report the news. This, along with its applications to other fields such as engineering, mathematical and scientific research, and medicine, shows the role and importance of multimedia in the society that we know today.
Concepts and terms related to multimedia include hypertext, a text that links the users to the pool of interconnected information. Hypermedia, on the other hand, works in the same principle but employs multiple forms of media such as graphics, images, sounds, and videos and can be presented together. The best example of hypermedia is the World Wide Web. Both hypertext and hypermedia allow users to interactively navigate the multimedia product.
Multimedia materials also allow interactivity, or the two-way interaction with either in-between multimedia contents, multimedia devices, or multimedia users, as opposed to non-responsive, one-way communication media such as TV and videos. Input pertains to any activities or actions that come from the users. Interactivity outputs include displayed images and texts, printouts, motion video sequences, and sounds. Interactivity is necessary for a multimedia product to be usable because control is given to the user to navigate and find the way around.
This interactivity feature of multimedia is heavily featured in the World Wide Web. Evolution in the World Wide Web has also changed the interactivity dynamics and characteristics of this platform. The worldwide web that we have access to right now has undergone major changes and development across the years. New features and functionalities are being introduced and the existing ones are either removed or refined every time the web evolves.
Web 1.0 allows computers to form networks with each other. The main highlights of the web during this phase are search engines such as Yahoo, which are still static and read-only back then. Interaction among internet users was introduced during the Web 2.0 era when “read-write” websites such as blogs and social media were developed. Web 2.0 facilitated content creation, sharing, and collaboration among users. The most prominent websites introduced during this phase are Facebook and Wikipedia and websites that allow inquiry-seeking and answering and discussion forums.
Web 3.0 is known as the semantic web and where the mobile web emerged. Information is enriched and standardized systems, languages, publications, and tools are developed. Various data items are combined together to create context and give meaning to the information set. Various 3D virtual and interspatial applications also emerged. The experience becomes more audience-center and offers a wide range of functionalities and features. On the other hand, there has been discussion on what Web 4.0 could be with some experts comparing it to the human brain because of the much smarter, user-centered, and rich information it may offer to audiences.
One of the offshoots of the emergence and recent development of the web is the proliferation of social networking sites and their users. Social media facilitates the creation and sharing of information, and ideas from one person to many and is done through virtual communities and networks. Social media is filled with content generated by users such as text messages, digital photos, and videos. Social media is designed and maintained by social media organizations and these websites or applications allow users to be creative and specific in making their profiles and identities as much as they want to appear on the platform. Moreover, social networks are forms within the online space where individuals, with their user profile, can connect with other individuals or groups.
Unlike paper-based media and traditional electronic media which operate in a mono-logic transmission model or one source to many receivers, social media operates in the dialogic transmission system or many sources to many receivers. Social media has 13 types, these are blogs, business networks, collaborative projects, enterprise social networks, forums, microblogs, photo sharing, products/service reviews, social bookmarking, social gaming, social networks, video sharing, and virtual networks. And with the advent of smartphones and tablet computers, accessing social media now becomes easier.
Since its introduction to internet users, the number of social media users around the world continues to escalate every year. As of 2019, there are about 3 billion social media users. Most popular networks include Facebook, Youtube, messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, WeChat, and the photo-video sharing platform Instagram.
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