Online Media Types |
By Mindy McAdams |
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| > Online
Journalism > Writing for the Web > Interactivity > Scholarship |
> How to make use of these online media types | |
| TYPE | SUBTYPE | CHARACTERISTICS | COMMENTS |
| Text | Static | Similar to printed text: Does not move or change; cannot be changed by users | May be inside a scrolling box |
| Moving | Typical in ads; "flying text"; may disappear or change; may show and hide; may expand and contract | Not the same as a scrolling box that contains text; moving text actually travels and changes | |
| Link | Clickable; usually differentiated from unlinked text by color or decoration, e.g. underlining | May be embedded in static or moving text; may be navigation (reused throughout site for wayfinding) or independent (not for wayfinding) | |
| Photos | Independent; "singles" | Not part of a photo group; may accompany text, have a caption, or be accompanied by audio |
More than one independent photo may appear on one page |
| Slide show | Set of photos that are displayed in a sequence; usually with no preview of upcoming photos | Passive (user only watches) or active (user can control speed or order); with or without audio (music, narration, ambient / natural; may be looping or not); photos may move or zoom (see example) | |
| Gallery | Set of photos displayed in some way that allows users to select which photos to view; usually with thumbnail images |
Linear (after user's initial selection, the gallery takes on a slide show format) or nonlinear (user can always select the next photo from a set) | |
| Graphics | Static; fixed | Does not move, is not clickable, is not a "realistic" photo; may convey information, or not; includes logos and headings in cases where the text is an image (text is not selectable but is part of the graphic) | Difference between a photo and a graphic may be hard to discern in some cases (e.g. a "photo illustration"); some graphics are illustrations with little or no information value; "infographics" deliberately convey information, e.g. a diagram of a car engine |
| Moving; motion | Animation; may convey information or not (e.g. a blinking light bulb); may include clickable sequences within the animation | Passive (user only watches) or active (user can control or make choices regarding the action); may be integrated with or include photos and/or video; with or without sound (see example) | |
| Link | Clickable; may be static or moving; may have a rollover (mouseover) visual effect, or not; may include text as part of the image (such text is not selectable) | Navigation (reused throughout site for wayfinding) or icon (reused throughout site but not for wayfinding; always means the same thing, e.g. "download") or independent (not navigation or icon; may be reused) | |
| Audio | Instant | Usually provides feedback to users, e.g. a beep sound when a button is clicked |
Usually of very short duration |
| Looping | Soundtrack repeats endlessly, e.g. a music loop | Controllable (user can stop or start sound and/or change volume; sometimes can even change the track) or not controllable | |
| Non-looping | Sound plays once and does not repeat automatically | Can be ambient/natural sound, music, voiceover, etc.; controllable (user can stop or start sound and/or change volume; sometimes can even change the track) or not controllable | |
| Video | Motion recorded with a camera (note that an online video player can play non-video media; motion online often is not video) | May include photos or still shots; may include audio; compare with Graphics/Moving and Photos/Slide show | |
| User interaction | Form input | Text fields, radio buttons, check boxes, selectable lists allow user to enter or choose information | Typical uses are polls, quizzes, surveys; also used for shopping; response to user may be delayed (check back later for the results) or immediate; when submitted, form data may be saved in a database, e-mailed, used to generate a response, or all of these |
| E-mail input | Provides both an e-mail address and a means for sending e-mail | May be a mailto: link (opens an e-mail application) or a form for sending e-mail to a specific e-mail address | |
| Discussion | Asynchronous, many-to-many discourse among two or more participants | May take place via e-mail or through a Web interface (e-mail discussions are often archived on the Web); may be moderated or unmoderated | |
| Chat | Synchronous discourse among two or more participants | May be archived after completion; may be one-to-one, one-to-many, or many-to-many; may be moderated or unmoderated |
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| Publication | Users contribute content to a site they do not own or control; content typically is not edited by anyone other than the contributor | Includes group Weblogs and community sites (e.g. IndyMedia.org) compare with User interaction/Discussion |
| Contents of this page copyright © 2003-2006 by Melinda J. McAdams. All Rights Reserved. Printed copies of this page may be used for educational purposes only if this copyright notice and the URL of this page are included. Anyone may link to this page, but no one may enclose this page in a frameset. It is a violation of U.S. and international copyright law to include this text on another Web page or to use it in print without a complete attribution acknowledging the source and the author. | |||
| Publication date:
11 March 2003 Last update: 19 November 2006 |
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