Websites - the modern equivalent of the record?

As I consider the place of the web design project within the frame of this course, I can't help wondering whether writing and designing web pages is truly a new media act? If the word "new" is contextual and audience dependent when used in conjunction with the word "media," then web design isn't especially new. The members of the class have grown up with the Internet. Reading a web page is as normal to you as reading a book and is probably something you do with more frequency and ease than hard cover text reading. With that in mind, I revisited the various definitions of new media that we discussed in week two and began thinking more about the role of interactivity and multimedia in web pages. Are these the elements that make a website a new media text? According to my first Powerpoint presentation:


"Current new media texts draw attention to their materiality by mixing media (sound, image, video) and/or making the reader/viewer consider the materiality of the form as they read/experience. This seems directly linked to interactivity--the reader/viewer makes choices to navigate through the text and thus plays a role in constructing content."

So does the reader's role in determining his/her reading experience through self-navigation make a website a new media text? Please weigh in on these questions and let us know what will firmly place your website in the new media category.