Interactive media

Interactive media refers to a form of communication that relies on user input to generate content, such as electronic text, graphics, audio, video, and games. The content is delivered across a range of digital platforms, from computers and mobile smartphones to on-demand television and film outlets. These types of media are more likely to allow users to interact with the content providers and share information with other users. They facilitate a two-way stream of information rather than the linear, one-way flow of communication used by traditional media, such as newspapers. The most common examples of modern interactive media are websites, social media sites, user-generated content, interactive television, and video games.

Background

For most of human history, the distribution of information was confined to the medium of print. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, telegraph, radio, film, and television technology opened new avenues to the flow of communications. While these new mediums gave users more choices, the content they provided was still determined by a network or a publisher. The idea of interactive communication was considered in the early days of radio and television; however, the technology did not exist at the time to make it feasible. Attempts were made in the 1950s and 1960s to merge telephone and television technology to create an interactive medium, but design and cost issues made this idea unpopular with the public.

In the late 1970s, Warner Communications launched the first interactive television service in the United States when it introduced the QUBE system in Columbus, Ohio. QUBE offered users thirty cable channels, broken down into ten broadcast channels, ten pay-per-view channels, and ten interactive channels. Subscribers could participate in game shows, order movies or sporting events, and even vote in opinion polls. Despite QUBE's popularity, not enough people took advantage of the interactive services to warrant the cost, and the system was discontinued in 1984. QUBE did leave behind a sizable legacy. Its programming inspired several specialized cable channels, including MTV and Nickelodeon, and laid the groundwork for future on-demand and interactive television services.

The main catalyst for the rise in interactive media was the revolutionary growth of the computer and Internet industry. The first computers used for business applications were vacuum-tubed behemoths developed in the 1940s. Technological advancements eventually led to smaller, more powerful computers. By the 1990s, personal computers had become a common fixture in most households. The technology that gave birth to the Internet began as a project designed to facilitate military communications during the Cold War. By the 1970s and early 1980s, the Internet had begun to expand into the public sector, giving rise to primitive versions of e-mail and instant messaging. Users in the early days of the Internet were able to interact with others in a forum known as a Bulletin Board System (BBS), which allowed the exchange of written messages via phone-line connection. One of the first Internet providers, CompuServe, began connecting users in the 1970s, providing them with access to online information and giving them the ability to share files with others.

Impact

In 1989, a British researcher at the European Organization for Nuclear Research—known by its French acronym CERN—proposed a system to link together computer servers over the Internet, creating the World Wide Web. The first public website—a collection of CERN documents on how the web worked—went online in 1991. Early websites were very static, with links to other webpages that contained information. From that starting point, however, web technology bounded forward. Within years, interactive sites and web browsers were developed, allowing users to access scores of sites and content. Almost instantaneously, people could find information about their favorite books, movies, or television shows, and they could buy products or pay bills online. By the early twenty-first century, people could even download music, films, or video games to their computers. Longstanding media outlets such as newspapers, magazines, and television networks were some of the first to take advantage of the technology and quickly established their own presence on the web. Users accessing these sites could select what content to view or, if the source allowed, leave their own comments on a subject.

The Internet also fueled the growth of user-generated content, making websites available as platforms for personal blogs, videos, and photographs. One of the most popular of these, YouTube, began in 2005 as a site where users could upload videos to the Internet. By 2016, YouTube had grown into a multi-billion dollar business with more than one billion users that rivaled cable and broadcast television outlets for popularity. In response, traditional media platforms have increased their interactive content, with most major networks offering content online and through on-demand services.

Social media sites and apps are perhaps the most influential interactive media presence of the early twenty-first century. Social media is a user-created, interactive network designed to share photographs, videos, opinions, ideas, messages, and other content. Such sites allow users to control their level of privacy and to connect with other users of their choosing. These connections may be made with people who share similar interests or a common social background, such as classmates or coworkers.

One of the first social media networks was the short-lived SixDegrees.com, which was founded in 1997. While SixDegrees introduced the idea of user-created profiles and personal networks, it failed after only a few years. Other social media sites such as Friendster and MySpace found some success in the first decade of the twenty-first century, but they were soon replaced by the companies that would go on to dominate the Internet. Facebook was founded in 2004, and by 2008 had surpassed 100 million users. By 2016, that number had grown to almost 1.8 billion—about 79 percent of all Internet users. The site's popularity is attributed to its use of interactive elements, such as allowing users to share videos and photographs and comment on other users' profile pages. Twitter, a social media site that allows users to post 140-character messages, or "tweets," was founded in 2006. A decade later, Twitter had reached 317 million monthly active users. Other popular social media sites included Instagram, a photo-sharing site founded in 2010 that had more than 500 million monthly users; and Snapchat, an application for mobile devices that allows users to share messages and photographs that delete themselves after a specific time. Founded in 2011, Snapchat had more than 150 million daily active users by 2016.

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