These new media, we are told, will bring us drama and diversions unlike anything we have known. They will change the way we think about entertainment and leisure. Though still in its infancy, the digital realm already is providing hints of what will please the crowds, and what won't. The unifying theme is interactivity, the unique strength of digital media.
Video is best on television, audio is best on the radio, and text and photos are best in print.
Ms. Stone's group has developed products such as Comic Chat, in which participants appear as characters talking to each other in a cartoon strip that is displayed on their computer screens, with dialogue bubbles above their heads. Chat has turned out to be one of the on-line medium's smash successes, and multimedia developers are busily integrating discussion forums into many of their products. The other forms of interactivity people seem to like on the Web, analysts say, are managing their investment portfolios, competing in multiplayer games and diving for data, usually about sports. Visitors to the site can instantly rank NBA guards by their shooting percentages, or see every one of Ken Griffey Jr.'s base hits plotted as a dot on a baseball diamond. The underlying message is that the audience wants to participate.