Our language may be mutating in an even more profound way through the emergence of multimedia, the combining of text, photos, video and audio. That's the perspective of Brian Stonehill, director of the media studies program at Pomona College in southern California. Today we think of our language as the written and spoken word. These were powerful media in their own right, and they undermined the primacy of the printed word. But the visual media primarily communicate experiences as opposed to text, which better communicates ideas.
Multimedia puts text and the visual media on equal footing.
Each brings powerful capabilities to the table. Each can defer to the other in areas of weakness. This fusion of media becomes a more robust language that can more comprehensively communicate the full range of ideas and experiences. It's a more visual language that young people are already learning from CD-ROMs, music videos and the like. Kids who grew up viewing the hyperkinetic images of MTV have developed a very sophisticated visual sensibility.