Implications of Cybermedia>

Implications of Cybermedia

There are plenty of things worth complaining about the mass media. Some of these things may only be enhanced by the hypertext environment. For example, if you buy Neil Postman's critique of television and other 'cool' mediums (using McLuhan's terminology), hypertext will result in the further degeneration of the mass media into a sort of tabloid scheme.


On the other hand, putting regurgitated print media on-line is also a bad idea.

According to Mindy McAdams, who helped put The Washington Post on-line, a fully-integrated cybermedia is a very good thing. It will offer a 'vast collection of information,' it will make the Internet accessible on a more 'mass'-ive basis, it will be more interactive, it will allow for greater narrative depth and research. She says, "It is fitting to characterize cybermedia as a merger or hybrid of the library, the newspaper, and television, implemented on a small computer."

As hypertext replaces the print tradition, the formal structure and functionality of mass media communication will also change. In many ways, the chopped-up narratives of newspapers bear many similarities to the click and skim nature of hypertextual narratives and can even be viewed as complementary. Certainly, hypertext will enhance the mass media's role as information provider beyond our expectations.