ABSTRACT
Multimedia is generally thought of as being the seamless and interactive integration of words, sounds and images. It is different from multiple media, in which the constituent parts normally remain separate, though they may be played or accessed simultaneously. In some comparatively crude forms, multimedia has been in common use for a number of years now and rights acquisitions and clearance departments in many industries clear rights across a number of media as a matter of course. Educational packs come in cardboard boxes which rattle when shaken. They can contain textbooks, videos and audio cassettes, postcards and software and amount to a technologically crude form of multimedia. Television programmes, feature films and other audiovisual productions combine the visual, written and audio media without comment. What is it, then, that turns multimedia into ‘multimedia’? Just what is ‘multimedia’?
