Obviously pictures can be connected to the text in a book merely by printing them on an adjacent page. But the possibility for hypertext goes beyond still pictures. Already, on the Internet, sound, animations and even video can be tied in with text. These effects capture a user's attention and in many cases convey information faster than the written word can be read. The same aspects of hypertext that are its advantages are its disadvantages.
Multimedia can be a powerful method of communication.
The combination of strong melody and powerful images can reach users at an emotional level, immediately. If images and sound are not carefully selected to convey the same message as the text or dialogue, instead of augmenting each other, they distract the user and confuse the thought process. This is the possible problem multimedia poses for hypertext. What hypertext has over television is the ability of a user to interact with the media. The ability of the user to become as Slatin calls it a co-author.