It is always a mistake, I think, to imagine that the new media replace older forms of media. Instead, the older forms of media become reconfigured as we view them from the standpoint of newer technologies, such as the Web. Windrush manages to show how new media and older forms of media begin to live together, cross-pollinating and forming new syntheses whereby one enriches the other. In this case, the BBC have used the Windrush website to enlarge the context and audience of the television show. The online aspect works in some respects as a variation on printed books and pamphlets that often accompany television shows of this nature, yet in this sense the network technology improves the ability to permeate the audience/producer barrier, and in so doing promotes a much more active, dialogic relationship between the two. Net users can help build the site by adding artefacts or sharing experiences and emotions, while the international aspect of the Web allows people from other countries (which may or may not broadcast the BBC) to join in discussions and give personal experiences of their lives in their respective countries. In the message board area, there are many messages from outside the UK, and what comes across from the comments is how touched people are by the site, and the way it has recalled memories and experiences for them. And this often applies to those who have never even seen the television programmes!

What impresses about the Windrush site is the depth of its content and its attention to detail, which shows a level of thought and consideration for the audience which is often lacking in sites that use more 'bells and whistles' to attract attention. There is, of course, material taken directly from the television programmes, but there are also sections that review relevant literature from well-known black authors, specially commissioned poetry and book reviews, and a 'community' section which is in effect the 'engine-room' of the site, driving the main interaction with the Web audience: it contains a page for sending postcards, a contributory photo section, the message board, information on community centres and learning centres which arrange events in the UK, and links to every conceivable relevant organisation.

The BBC is in a unique position to use its substantial archives to enrich the content of a site such as this. This potential is perhaps best shown in the 'timeline' sections featuring radio and television programmes from different eras that are relevant to the audience and subject matter. 'Mouth' icons can be clicked to hear dialogue from some of the recordings, and it is easy to imagine (where bandwidth or developments in digital television allow) how archives like the BBC's could become more 'hypertextual' in nature, linking to specific subjects and 'given' contexts, created as much by 'the viewers' as by the production team. As such, in this site we may well be seeing a stepping-stone on the way to a redefinition of what the space between television and the Web is, and the possibility for an altered, more progressive relationship between producer and audience, audience and producer.