Disciplining multimedia - Multimedia, IEEE

conjures up many emotions and responses—it often refers to anything that uses visual and acoustic data. As a result, some may brush multimedia off as just a marketing slogan. However, many universities have recently introduced degree courses in multimedia. This article attempts to define the scope and basis for a multimedia discipline. R ecently, a flurry of educational institutions has rushed to develop undergraduate degree courses in multimedia. While faculties of arts or humanities have often hosted these courses, in a number of other cases such as at Griffith University, these have been offered within an information technology/science framework. In my experience, this led to a considerable amount of internal discussion among the course designers regarding academic directions and what curricula to teach. While not completely unrelated to the traditional rivalry between the arts and sciences, this discussion arose because of multimedia’s diverse and nebulous nature. The core question is whether multimedia can ever mature into becoming a discipline or if it’s condemned to indefinite multidisciplinarity? Although myself and others agree in general with Reisman’s observations,1 we believe that multimedia has a future as a discipline and not just as an extension of existing disciplines into the digital realm. Hence, this article aims to look at the basis for multimedia to become a proper discipline. I explore these issues from a decidedly technological stance with the view of arriving at an understanding of what academic directions must be followed if multimedia is ever to emerge as a cohesive discipline. To this end I’ll attempt to define multimedia (yet again!). I’ll also analyze the likely requirements for proficiency in designing, implementing, and maintaining multimedia systems and discuss what a multimedia discipline should entail. In this article, I’m less concerned with the evolution of multimedia technology and practices than I am with the more fundamental question of multimedia as a discipline, which will in the long term directly affect these other aspects. I don’t discuss strategies or curricula for integrating multimedia elements into existing disciplines. Hence, since the goal of this article is to discuss and encourage reflection about disciplining multimedia, some may find it controversial.