What is a multimedia author?

A multimedia author is one whose writing contributes to a single archive of thoughts and ideas. Multimedia authors cannot claim their work as their own because the texts that they create are influenced by other sources, and in turn contribute to the creation of new works by other multimedia authors.

According to Foucault, discourse is not “a thing, a product, or a possession, but an action.” The value of multimedia writing does not lie in the author who claims possession of the words, but in the activity of writing itself. A multimedia writer takes action to record his or her thoughts through words, pictures, or videos. These actions can then inspire further action in other writers who may build off of text that has already been recorded. It is not important to note who the thoughts belong to, but instead how they contribute to the realm of multimedia writing.

Barthes claims that, “the writer can only imitate a gesture forever anterior, never original.” Though an author may develop a new idea about a previously discussed topic, his words can never be entirely original. It is impossible for an author to write without the use of knowledge acquired from authors who wrote before him.

Therefore, it is not necessary for multimedia writers to strive to create original ideas that they can call their own. Instead, multimedia authors are writers who knowingly borrow and elaborate on the ideas of others in order to create a collection of text that is continuously growing and changing.