improved media allocation techniques for use in accordance with information - seeking systems are provided . for example , in one aspect of the invention , a technique for allocating media to present data content for a response to a query comprises the following steps / operations . data content suitable for generating a response to the query is determined . one or more media for presenting at least a portion of the response are dynamically allocated . media allocation is modeled as an optimization operation which attempts to balance context - based allocation constraints . the optimization operation may also attempt to achieve the desired presentation of intended data content .