Active Media: a Framework for Digital Media Effectiveness Jamil Alio * , Mohammad Ibrahim ** , David Pickton *** , and Marie Bassford **** De Montfort University, Leicester UK * jalio@dmu.ac.uk, ** ibrahim@dmu.ac.uk, *** dpmar@dmu.ac.uk, **** mbassford@dmu.ac.uk Abstract This paper defines active media as a new paradigm that captures the richness of digital media in affecting every aspect of our lives. The term active media embraces interactive, coactive, and proactive digital media. Active media provide more dynamic and individualised experiences, and target recipients more accurately. Active media allow the integration of different human-centric systems into the era of system of systems. This new paradigm also overcomes the shortcomings of the existing paradigms for media consumption that still consider humans as information processors where media are considered as passive information objects processed by humans. However, media play more active roles in shaping our lives and in changing our behaviour and outlook, thus the process-oriented separation of passive objects and information processors is no longer valid when representing the interaction between media and humans. In this paper, e-marketing is used as an example of the application of active media. E- marketing environments are evolving into becoming more active and this could have a significant impact on the success of products and services. Applying the proposed framework on e-marketing communications will overcome the limitations of existing assessing methodologies by introducing a far wider and richer set of measures to describe, assess, and enhance the effectiveness of active media. The paper introduces an effectiveness framework based on a set of deliberate media effectiveness measures, and gives a sound rationale for choosing these measures. The introduced framework will help in accurately understanding, assessing, and enhancing the impact of active media on human-centred activities. 1. Introducing active media Digital media are the media produced and distributed by digital information processing machines. The term multimedia includes any combination of digital, analogue, spatial, and sensory inputs and outputs [1]. Interactivity adds an extra dimension to multimedia establishing a two-way information interchange connection and formulating what is known as rich media [2] or interactive media. The term “interactive media” highlights the interactive connotation, which is considered the key difference between the older style linear multimedia and the new. While some traditional (non-digital) media enable two- way interactive communications (e.g. language in a Q&A session or a seminar) the term “interactive media” is usually applied to digital media only. The synchronised or coordinated use of multiple interactive media elements, in addition to scalability properties over multiple media-enabling devices (e.g. screens, frames in a web page) is known as simultaneous media consumption [3, 4], or media multitasking and this concept has a great effect on human attention and perception. Combining a media multitasking behaviour with interactive media results in what could be referred to as coactive media. Proactive computing and systems represent the next generation of digital systems and applications, and promise to overcome the limitations of existing interactive technologies [5]. Computerised proactivity can be naturally extended to include digital media systems and applications in order to create proactive media. With the evolution of the domain of computer- mediated communications, several issues are noteworthy [6]: First is the functional interchange taking place between the different communication domains (e.g. the broadcast domain with the interpersonal domain such as YouTube), second is the issue of adaption/adoption of new technologies (e.g. learning curves), third is the observed phenomenon of media multitasking, and finally, the role played by the Internet-related technologies and infrastructure which cannot be ignored. As a natural result of these issues, computer-mediated communications have evolved to enable information interchange in highly active situations. This evolution has also been reflected onto digital media. The digital media used in such active situations can be phrased as active media. Active media – that are being introduced in this paper for the first time – embrace interactive, coactive, and proactive media. The use of active media will radically change the way digital media are consumed, for example, active media have synergistic effects through the