|
creative
piece | term paper | project
Electronic Term Paper
Multi-Modality & The Electronic
Writing Space
>>>
abstract |
introduction | potentials |
author | reader
| conclusion |
bibliography | endnotes |
grade
Need for the New Author
As with any type of text, the writer
must ask himself what the purpose of the piece is, who the audience is,
and exactly how does the imagery enhance the text. “With new media
technology, we are moving from an anonymous public to active communities.”5
The author must learn to accept that the reader wants to play a more
active role in the writing of the text, and thus allow the reader to do so
through the use of the alternative modalities available.
In view that hypertext empowers the reader with the ability to interpret
the text as and how he wants to, especially since hypertext creates an
environment for the reader to map his own reading path, it is then the
responsibility of the author to identify a number of interpretative paths
which may always be supplemented and subverted by the reader. The
relationship between author and reader is thereby reconfigured.
With the multi-modality of the electronic writing
space, the author can now present his knowledge or creativity to his
readers, if he so wishes, in a variety of media. An interview article may
be both accessible on video and as a written feature. When images, written
texts and sounds are brought together, new ways of combining iconic and
symbolic signs need to be found. Thus, multi-modality does not simply mean
adding the visual and aural modes to the textual mode, but the production
of whole new, multi-semiotic combinations of representation. This means
that the author has to carefully consider the way that he selects and
combines the different modalities.
Bush has identified that the human mind does not work
in terms of pure indexation of information. Instead,
“[i]t operates by association. With
one item in its grasp, it snaps instantly to the next that is suggested by
the association of thoughts, in accordance with some intricate web of
trails carried by the cells of the brain.”6
Hence, it is only beneficial for the
author for him to identify, with the visual and aural modalities, the
possible associations that can help the reader to better associate with
the concept or story which he is telling.
The author should also use “the new media genre to
arrange information in a rationale, intelligent form and provide
functionality to users,”7
as noted by Liew. For this to be possible, the author hence must be able
to know how to use these semiotic tools to his advantage. This means that
the author has to face the challenge of self-renewal if he wants to
survive in this new playing field.
>>>
[ home
| about me | interests
| assignments | favourites
]
|
