Writing for Visual Media, 2nd Edition

Writing and Interactive Design

13

Defining Interactive

First of all, we need to define more closely what we mean by the term “interactive”. Although interactive media were enabled by the convergence of computer, video, and audio technology in the same digital environment at the end of the twentieth century, there are previous examples of interactive structures in our culture. Although the term “interactive” is new, the phenomenon is not. We can even see this before the Gutenberg era of print media, which is only now being displaced by information technology. Although we associate books with print technology, a book is a piece of technology that preceded the printing press. Medieval monks wrote books with numbered leaves of paper or vellum bound ...