What is a computer medium?

Answer 1

The Computer MediumThe computer medium differs from other media in three fundamental ways: it is digital, it can imitate other media, and it is interactive. While the computer is also distinguished from traditional media by other traits, such as its novelty, these three are the most influential factors differentiating the computer medium from other media of the narrative arts.

Although the computer is the first truly digital medium, artists and writers who use the computer may not be startled by this, since certain other media have features that make them seem digital. Any information stored on a computer is, ultimately, a string of zeros and ones. In most cases, text is also digital, in that any book, play, story, essay or other written work is a string of symbols: letters, numbers, spaces, and punctuation marks. Just as a computer program is, at the lowest level, a number with zeros and ones as digits, a text is a number with typesetting symbols as digits, so it is digital. Because of this, texts that do not include illustrations or nonstandard characters are easily transferable to computer.