the national and computer press certainly don't help.
Journalists have all too often skipped over the task of
definition by referring to multimedia with a throw-away
term which more often than not, explains little, if
anything.  Articles which begin by stating that multimedia
is a mixture of "...text and moving pictures..." certainly
don't help.

Taken literally, the term multimedia may be seen as "many
media".  It is, in actual fact, much more than this.  To
start with, interactivity should be mentioned in every
definition.  This is the whole basis of multimedia; that
it is different from listening to the radio or watching
television.  The user controls what he or she wants to
gain from using the system.

In a nutshell,  multimedia allows the user to access one
or more "media types" (for example text, speech, image).
However, access and selection of which material is
explored remains under the user's control.

The aim of all this technology is for the user to obtain a
greater level of awareness and understanding than is
possible using more traditional alternative information
sources.  Whether it will prove to be a success depends on