Selecting media and Techniques

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England, Elaine and Finney, Andy (2002). Managing Multimedia: Project Management for Web and Convergent Media. Book 1: People and Processes. Pearson Education Limited. England.
Useful Quotes
Chapter 7. Selecting the media and techniques: the treatment.

• Constraints, Online or Offline platform: “For online projects you need to understand what specification of machine the users are likely to have and perhaps more importantly which browsers they have or want to work with” P152
• The impact of each media component depends on a combination of the quality of the content, the medium itself, and the techniques employed by the media specialists. For example, a great deal of research has been done with printed text. Specialists techniques would include decisions on layout, use of space, length of sentence, readability, style and tone among others. P156
• The tolerance for the amount of text that a user will read from a screen is much lower than with printed matter. P156
• As video becomes easier to use and control in digital form, its use in general multimedia applications is increasing. Developers find it as liberating as digital audio, but its use needs to be considered wisely within the constraints that still operate. P157
• Online use depends heavily on the bandwidth available (either for downloading or for streaming), as well as on the characteristics of the intended audience. P157
• With offline projects, not all systems allow full-screen video, and the size permitted affects the type of content that should be communicated. P157
• With online projects you have to consider whether the size of the video materials, the speed of transfer, and the quality really achieve what is wanted. P158
• Remember that users are familiar with good-quality visuals because of television. Their expectations are high, and they will be critical of poor quality, as will your clients. P158
• A talking head, shown in a close-up, is likely to be satisfactory in a small window, but the same could not be said of a group of actors in a dramatic seen or several people in a discussion. Anything that relies on wide shots of detailed scenes will suffer in such circumstances for the user. P158
• Video is already a combined medium because it generally uses sound to accompany the pictures in some form. It is the current medium that gets closest to reality, since our lives are full of moving images and sounds. P159
• Watching an listening are the natural way we process our understanding of the world, and we are comfortable with this realistic medium. P159
• The use of flashbacks or parallel action, for example, allows a non-linear progression through information so that the viewer gradually builds up a complete picture. Action replays allow a concentrated focus on particular events. These non-linear techniques provide a basis for helping people to relate to other non-linear techniques that come under their control as computer interactivity is added to sound and motion. P159
• Video can be used for a whole spectrum of purposes –explanation, humour, demonstration, exposition, fiction. In general it is used for appealing rapidly to the senses and transferring impressionistic information very quickly. Viewers cannot absorb and retain all the information that passes so they filter it according to their preferences and prior understanding. This happens internally as the video passes across viewers’ consciousness, but computer control will allow a greater manual selection of preference within a topic. Viewers will be able to pre select pieces to view. This is a proactive filter of information, although they will continue to filter the detail of the information even as it is delivered. P159
• This control that the computer element allows when added to sound and motion means that information can be marked unobtrusively into smaller unites of meaning than usual, so that each piece can be searched and selected. This might mean in practice that the equivalent of a 20 minute video programme could be classified into themes or selections, and viewers might select to see two or three minutes of the material most relevant to them rather than watch the whole programme. P160
• The combination of sound and vision can appeal to people’s logic, imagination and feelings. But sound and static visuals can do the same, so what is the difference? The difference lies in how much viewers bring to the interpretation of the content and how much they have to do to construct meaning. The combination of sound and moving images is easier to process because viewers’ senses are fed with stimuli that are realistic and are absorbed effortlessly and almost unconsciously. Static images and sound require viewers to contribute more to their interpretation. P160
• Viewing and listening are not passive processes, ant this is often forgotten. The combination of vision and sound is more powerful for most people because they stimulate reaction more easily. They appeal to a larger range of possible reactions. Stimulation and motivation are closely linked, so it is easier to motivate the viewer to respond to an appropriate mix of sound and vision. P160
• Most people are used to controlling videos in a limited interactive manner on their VCRs. The controls allow a combination of forward, back, scan, play, stop and perhaps slow motion. Viewers cannot jump around the video following links or backtrack to the point they started from. They are used to a semi-interactive environment within the one medium, and this limited control over a linear piece of video has become standard in interactive systems as well. P161
• Video players and computer-based interactive materials offer the means to control the video and so provide viewers with the opportunity to revise the information if necessary. Computer control can offer more than just replay opportunities. It can be used to pinpoint the concepts the user finds difficult and re-route to remedial material where the concepts are offered in a new way with different explanations. P163

Suggested Reading

• Gagné R.M., Briggs L.J. and Wagner W.W. (1992) Selecting and using media. In principles of instructional Design (Gagné R.M. ed) 4th ed.
• Jonassen, D.H. ed (1982) The Technology of Text, 2nd ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ. Educational Technology Publications.
• Watson R. (1990) Film and Television in Education. London: Falmer Press.

Alberto Ramirez Martinell