ABSTRACT
This Chapter surveys where people take their cues when designing multimedia messages. In some respects, mobile multimedia messaging goes beyond the Kodak culture. By far, the most typical genre used in constructing multimedia messages is the postcard. Another media source from which people borrowed methods for designing multimedia messages is based on stories of various types. Other than these fairly simple story genres, some media genres are used to create considerably more complex messages, which may require planning, acting, staging, and a string of several messages to convey the message. Do people choose forms for multimedia messaging from the world of photography, from mobile telephony and text messaging, from media, or from just ordinary, "age-old" forms of action? The Chapter shows that traces of all these traditions can be found in multimedia messages, and that they often take place in messages at the same time.
