Question of the Week 11/21

In “10 Tips for Writing the Living Web,” Mark Bernstein says, “Some parts of the web are finished, unchanging creations – as polished and as fixed as books or posters. But many parts change all the time.”
In this class, you’ve been studying and producing both kinds of writing. Which type of writing do you feel more comfortable with producing — the more fixed and unchanged types of Web pages such as some of the pages for your group Web project or portfolio, or the “living web” exemplified by your blog?

I feel more comfortable with producing changing, "living Web" that can be updated constantly. I think this is because since so many people can potentially view your content online, putting up permanent information is a little overwhelming. I feel better knowing that if I make a mistake or change my mind, say, in a blog, and make a new post to correct myself or update my thoughts.

Question of the Week 11/14

I think the creative content online will allow more people to be able to express their creativity than are able to express it in more traditional outlets such as television, video and magazines. However, I think even though people are able to express their creativity, the more traditonal outlets still have a larger audience and people will have more exposure in these outlets.

I think as time goes on the people who publish on the Web will be competetion for traditional outlets, and some Web writers are more popular than writers for traditional outlets, but this is not the majority case. In the future, as more and more people begin to express themselves online, they will be more professional and experts in their fields. But right now, since the Web is still relatively new and non-traditional, it does not yet seriously threaten outlets like television magazines, publishing houses and video.

Question of the Week 11/07

I think that other forms of media are changing to be more like the Web because since the Web is becomming so popular and people are becomming more and more used to Web writing, they don't have the attention spans to be able to sit down and read a longer article in a newspaper or magazine. People want everything they read to be scannable like Web writing, and so magazines have increasingly made sub-headlines to articles. Book chapters now have sub-headings breaking down and categorizing information.

However, as popular as the Web becomes, there are some things in other forms of media that haven't yet changed to be more like the Web. We may see a series of shorter newspaper articles, for example, but a headlining story will most likely be a full article written in newspaper form, not broken down into categories written so that it can be scanned through.

Newspaper articles may have simpler language to make it easier to read, but I think magazines still experiment with language and use different words, because they have more specified audiences who editors know what language they understand. Varied language in magazines is what keeps the articles interesting and keeps people drawn in.

Although some writing may change to be more like Web writing, other forms of media writing ultimately still have a distinct way they are written.