WHAT IS RICH MEDIA?
Rich media is the term used to describe a broad range of interactive digital media that exhibit dynamic motion, taking advantage of enhanced sensory features such as video, audio and animation. The term is used to describe widely varying technologies and implementations and an exact definition is elusive.
The term rich media was originally coined by Suzanne Brisendine of Intel to describe a broad range of digital interactive media.
Advertising
Ian Schafer of the interactive agency Deep Focus described rich media advertising as, "digital advertising that deviates from 'standard' display advertising in that it is interactive, engaging, or informational or it breaks free of basic, accepted IAB-determined online standards, often taking advantage of broadband connectivity."
When online advertising is described as "rich media" it generally is understood to mean any creative unit which includes user interaction, or which uses Macromedia Flash. Examples of non-rich media advertising include standard images (gif, jpeg, etc.), text links, and search engine advertising. This definition is clearly imprecise.
Interactive advertising has been around since the earliest days of the commercial Internet. One of the first banner ads run included a game of pong within the limited space available. The real growth of rich media, however, came from small companies which specialized in specific visual effects. Unicast, for example, developed a rich media ad type which cached small portions of the creative over multiple pages in order to show a large sized creative without slowing down the user's connection speed. EyeBlaster developed the so-called "Floating ad" wherein the advertiser's message appears above the content of the publisher's page. PointRoll developed an "expanding ad" which changed size on user interaction.
Rich media has become a dominant force in online display advertising. According to the most recent data available, over 40% of display advertising (by impressions) is rich media, and this is expected to rise over time.
Technology
Rich media can be downloadable or may be embedded in a webpage. If downloadable, it can be viewed or used offline with media players such as Real Networks' RealPlayer, Microsoft's Windows Media Player, or Apple Computer's QuickTime, among others. AJAX is sometimes considered a rich media technology.
A rich media advertisement or application may often include a hybrid of technologies, including Flash, a separate media player, javascript in order to create a seamless whole.
The defining characteristic of rich media is that it exhibits dynamic motion. This motion may occur over time or in direct response to user interaction. Two examples of dynamic motion that occur over time are a streaming video newscast and a stock "ticker" that continually updates itself. An example of dynamic motion in response to user interaction is a prerecorded webcast coupled with a synchronized slide show that allows user control. Another is an animated, interactive presentation file embedded in a web page.
Accessibility
Not surprisingly, rich media presents numerous accessibility challenges. However, rich media can be made accessible if all the elements are developed with accessibility in mind and the end product is used or viewed on accessible media players. Accessible rich media typically includes captioning, audio description, and navigation using a keyboard.
Accessible media players are those that can be operated by all users, including those using screen readers. They must also provide authors with the means to add captions, audio descriptions, extended audio descriptions, and subtitles. The current level of accessibility for media players creates interesting situations. Some media players allow video descriptions to be created and played but have an inaccessible interface that users of screen readers cannot operate. This results in the primary audience for audio descriptions not being able to select the PLAY button.
Another issue is that captions may look different when created on one player and then played back on another. For instance, captions developed using QuickTime may look fine when viewed in QuickTime but then appear larger or smaller when later viewed in RealPlayer.
Several media players have also made considerable progress in improving accessibility of their products. To learn more about accessible rich media, visit the National Center for Accessible Media Rich Media Accessibility web page. This web page includes a showcase of accessible rich media; tutorials on captioning audio, descriptive video, making maps and other forms of rich media accessible; strategies for dealing with player and cross-platform issues; links to tools for rich media authoring and viewing; links to latest news; and much more.
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