26 May /16

Multimedia

Multimedia – Word of the day - EVS Translations
Multimedia – Word of the day – EVS Translations

When thinking of today’s word, for many people, it conjures images of computer-based applications like virtual reality or multi-player online gaming. From checking Facebook, watching videos on Youtube or Netflix, even talking to someone via Skype – multimedia applications are part of our daily routines. Though, with our current exposure to all things multimedia, we have come to consider it as being a completely modern concept, but it actually is not. Before getting into that, perhaps it is better to take a look at the word itself.

The term multimedia is a compound Latin term coming from the prefix multi (many), and the plural form of medium (media), which means, ‘a means by which something is expressed,’ such as music, text, pictures, etc. Essentially, the word simply means multiple forms of media used for a singular purpose.

Aside from what the word basically means, the understanding of it has shifted over the years. For example, using the first known usage of the word, an advertisement in the May 14, 1950 New York Times, which states that: “Primary emphasis will be on planning and execution of multi-media advertising and sales promotions to Latin America markets,” multimedia can be taken to mean what we would consider to be a “blanket advertising” campaign- advertising/promotions using the written word (i.e. publications, billboards, leaflets), radio, movies, etc. used in tandem to achieve a goal.

Usage of Multimedia

In order to see the first usage of the word as we have come to understand it- several mediums being fused together for one purpose- we have to look at the January 1971 issue of Black Scholar, which states that: “As originator of the practice of reading poetry to jazz, he not only stitched backwards and forward in his lineage and idiom, but wrought a new force in the now obscenely exaggerated concept of multi-media.”

Outside of the word itself as well as our modern application in everything from art to education to business, the combining of expressive media is nothing new. Relating directly to the advent of Italian opera in the 1600s, Medieval morality plays, and even Classical Greek theatre, the desire to attach music to performance or spoken word is likely as old as music itself.

Considering that a word that can describe artistic works from antiquity as well as modern computer games about civilization in antiquity, it seems that we really have come full circle.