Is Multimediacy the new literacy?

In the article in the link below, Jarche questions the supremacy of text-based literacy as the main media of sophisticated thought and communication.

http://www.jarche.com/2010/03/literacies/

What is considered "competence" as a member of an intellectual community changes over history, and literacy in the traditional sense is changing recently with the emergence of web technologies.

Will more college instructors be assigning "visual multimedia essays" soon? I would definitely be open to the idea of my students creating an "argumentative movie" that introduces a thesis and then argues it with voice, visuals such as images or embedded videos of documentary footage or interviews, and text of quotes and subtitles to tie everything together.

My fluency with visual media such as iMovie or Windows Movie Maker is still not high, but many of our students are coming quite adept. I want to try making one on Voice Thread or other media.

I made movie-making an option for a group presentation task last term, but all groups resorted to Google Presentation slides with movie and photos rather than the more complex movie productions.

If you know of good multimedia "academic essay" type projects by high school or college students, please leave the url in your comment!