It takes time to understand the true potential of a new medium. At the birth of cinema, films were made by pointing a camera at a theatre stage because no-one had thought about moving the lens, or editing the movie. The earliest telephone systems were used to read books aloud to distant friends. Embryonic web pages were clumsy facsimiles of print editions.
Great writers make sure that the message matches the known capabilities of the medium.
If you’re writing for the web, for example, adhering to simple rules makes your copy more effective (see Web, writing for). But the question of whether you have matched the message to the medium can be asked of any communication.
In presentations, (see Speeches and presentations) the media you work with are your voice and slides. A good, well-delivered story that is backed up by some powerful, relevant images makes the best use of these media. Cluttered slides and multimedia trickery do not.
And until screens can truly match its portability, convenience and high resolution, paper is still the place for long stories and complex diagrams.