Page 20 - Courting the Media Contemporary Perspectives on Media and Law

Introduction – ―Mediating Mediation‖ 11

much as the inherent qualities of the subject. It is by no means the case that
video is a visual or transparent medium, but rather operates as a language form
with a particular mix of verbal, non verbal and visual dimensions.

MULTI-MEDIA AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

There is a second problem with any presumption of video being realistic
or passive by nature. The potential mix of complex language forms inherent in
video has become more explicit in the mixed media environments in which
video is now located and disseminated. Small screen and digital video now
commonly exist alongside lists, graphic boxes, banners and headings, written
text, database entries and photographs, as web design truly optimises the
potential for mixed or ―convergent‖ media messages. The overall design of
web sites and pages is increasingly diagrammatic and graphic, and does not
discriminate between or separate media forms such as old analogue systems
did. Movement between different media objects or forms, sometimes of the
same subject matter, is effortless, via a mouse or links to other pages. The
―hyperlink‖ environment of CD, computer media and web design, represents
an explicit manifestation of the abstract and mathematical processes that
underpin its programming. Video exists in and as a geometrical and spatial
expression, and is itself subject to numerate time coding and manipulation as
part of the typical viewing experience.
Discussion of multi-media legal systems also provides an opportunity to
introduce a third main issue of media-law topics, and that is information
technology. For two or more decades, most legal offices, police and courts
implemented various forms of database and programming to assist in case
management, billing, research and administration. These computer systems
have not commonly been known as ―media‖ systems, although with the advent
of digital media the opportunity to merge information and media systems
arises. Increasingly the term ―information technology‖ will become redundant,
when case management and client information will be sited close to tools for
client services and research.
Implementation of computer systems in legal domains has provided
another history of media-law relations, with commensurate challenges in
translating the language of programmers to those of court staff and
professionals. Despite high aspirations for efficiency, cost and delay reduction,
increase in professional incomes and social justice, the experience of justice
systems has been mixed, with some significant if under-publicised failures.