Blog#2: "Commingled Bits"="Multimedia?"

Negroponte defines “multimedia” as a “commingled bit.” Now at first glance the phrase “commingled bit” seemed confusing to me. After sitting down and thinking about this, I finally got or think I got why Nergoponte defines “multimedia” as a “commingled bit.” The reason for it is because various forms of media become “mixed together” to create multimedia. For example, the multimedia that we come into contact with on a daily basis such as the news, computers, and music, are comprised of these “bits” of information that are needed to get across to the user.

Multimedia uses the components of video and audio technology to convey a message; whether that message is on a formal or informal level, multimedia is the medium that gets the message across to the user. This, in my opinion, the simplest way to explain what Mcluhan’s article The Medium Is the Message is all about. In McLuhan’s work he states, “this is merely to say that the personal, and social consequences of any medium—that is, of any extension of ourselves—result from the scale that is introduced into our affairs by each extension of ourselves, or by any new technology” (1). This is exactly the same thing that Negroponte is saying about multimedia, only it is stated in a bit more confusing context. Basically what I get out of Negroponte’s piece with the aiding of McLuhan’s work is this: multimedia is a result of our ability to combine various technologies and use it to further our understanding of the things around us either from the past, present, and the near future. Negroponte said what I am trying to say best when he stated, “it’s both about new content and about looking at old content in different ways” (63). In other worlds the introduction of new technology gives us something new to talk about, but it also gets us talking about or questioning rather the things around us.

The best example of multimedia in our society today I think is the news. News is an old form of media. The message behind news is the same as it has always been, to inform its audience. However, with the introduction of new technologies the way the news is delivered to the audience has tremendously changed. News in today’s world is comprised of several bits of information that are conveyed through audio and video technology. I mean not only can you look at the news on television, but you can look and read about it online, you can read it in the daily newspaper, and now you can even access the broadcast or read about the news from your cell phone. Now if this is not a good example of what multimedia is, I do not know what is. Just by looking at the multimedia one would know right off hand that the word “multi” means many, and media is all the things that refer to print, audio, and visual. The news industry has taken the “bits” of information of what Negroponte defines as multimedia and gets their message to inform across to the user in a variety of new ways.

Works Cited

McLuhan, Marshall. The Medium Is the Message. New Jersey: The MIT Press, 1964.1

Negroponte, Nicholas. Being Digital. New York: Vintage Books, 1995. 63.