Thursday, June 28, 2012

Communications and Cyberspace: Chapters 15, 16, 17

Chapter 15 poses the question, will New Media completely replace books and other print media? With the rapid emergence of hybrid technology, who knows how much of our world will be replaced by digital technology. The author suggests that one day, there will be a single apparatus that will be used for everything. We are living in an age where technology plays a huge role in an overwhelming part of our lives. Technology is so quickly evolving that soon enough the high-tech devices of today will be something part of the past.
In Chapter 16, author Camille Paglia walks us through her career and experience writing for the Internet. While many believed that the Internet would decrease the popularity of writing, we find that it is actually a very essential asset on the Web (. One of the important points she mentions is that Internet writing deviates towards more visual stimulation than verbal. With the enhanced graphics and colors incorporated into Internet writing, Paglia associates it with TV. The effects and availability parallel to the animated motion of the TV and our ability to record and re-watch segments.
Chapter 17 discusses pedagogy and hypertext. Stephanie Gibson commences the chapter by defining hypertext as, "any program that allows readers to navigate nonlinearly throughout a body of text". She juxtaposes the effectiveness of hypertext with traditional classroom textbooks. While hypertext is more interactive, she says that textbooks present information in way that just assumes that the reader will understand the content. Unlike the "static" and "anchored" nature of textbook print, hypertext allows the reader to navigate according to his or her own habits and preferences. The author believes that in the future, hypertexts will soon take the place of traditional textbooks. With the rate at which technology is developing it is hard not to believe this hypothesis. However, I believe that textbooks will be around for quite some time.


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