Various Views on Digital Interactivity

As Kress and Van Leeuwen (2001) state, there is no communication without interaction. Broadly, levels of “interactivity” can be recognized as depending on quality of feedback and control and exchange of discourse according to the mode or modes (“multimodal discourse”) involved. Important constraints that operate to modify interactivity of any kind can be identified as the amount of “common ground” (Clark, 1996), constraints of space and time, relative embodiment, and choice of or control over the means, manner, and/or medium of feedback. Ha and James (1998) emphasize the element of response as characterized by playfulness, choice, connectedness, information collection, and reciprocal communication.