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Forms of Interactivity: the disappearance of
the audience
What is the difference between active and interactive?
The supposed distinction between active and interactive serves as a definition
of new media: that is, the media form has some embedded notion of interactivity
that transforms it from the relationship that traditional media forms
have possessed.
On superficial levels, the level of activity and engagement of someone
reading a novel may be as high or higher than the claimed interactivity
of the computer game player. Although this claim of greater engagement
and activity can be made on behalf of the non-interactive novel, interactivity
implies some sort of transformative relationship between the user of the
media and the media form itself. Encoded into new media is the capacity
to transform the actual flow and presentation of the material itself.
This transformative relationship is critical in understanding the difference
between active and interactive, and also provides the perceived superiority
of the interactive media environment over the active media environment
…
