What is multimedia?

Multimedia is used for a variety of purposes, including PR, marketing, creating buzz, education, etc.  It is not the same as mixed media (which you might hear of in art galleries, where an artist uses more than one form of medium to produce a project) -- multimedia must have a combination of words (spoken, written, or sung) and some kind of graphic (still, photographic, moving).  The devices which are used to record multimedia projects are also called 'multimedia'.

Types of multimedia vary from picturebooks (technically multimedia in that there are words and graphics), to concerts with some kind of video feed or light show, to video games, to business power point presentations, etc.  Today, multimedia projects can be found anywhere, even in a mathematician's research lab where a model of a mathematical principal might appear on a computer screen.  The purpose of multimedia is to better engage the senses and therefore increase understanding (entertainment or enthusiasm) for those viewing the multimedia material.