The Printed Page vs the Online Experience

A printed page is a marvellous piece of technology. It makes use of written language, can store huge amounts of information, can include images and diagrams and allows the transference of ideas across space and time. The first printing press caused a paradigm shift in the way information was presented, distributed and absorbed by the audience. Now the online environment is doing the same. The ubiquitousness of computers in our society mean that reading of a computer screen is becoming more common, while reading from a printed page is becoming less common.

There are three major ways in which the printed page varies from the online document.

First is affordance – what the technology you are using will allow you to do (Walsh, 2006, p34). The printed page will allow words and pictures, and in many cases varied colours, but for the online document the choices become almost infinite - text, image, audio, video, millions of colours. The increased affordance of the online document means communication – and understanding - will take place on many different levels.

Second is the way a page is read, and the way information is absorbed by the recipient. Reading from a printed page is a linear process, from the top left to the bottom right of the page (in western cultures). With an online document, the reader is free to choose their own path, and may not follow any pattern that the author had considered (Nielsen, Writing for the Web). Rather than follow a logical progression that is set out by the author, the reader will make their own meaning and progress along their own path.

Third and finally, is the idea of distribution. A printed page is a mass media device, however, the costs of production and distribution mean that the audience is limited by the capacity of the producer. With an online document distribution can be instantaneous - a published blog is immediately available for anyone in the world with access to read. Online distribution is limited, not by the producers capacity to distribute, but by the consumers capacity to access.

These three ideas - affordance, reading and distribution – create a vast difference in the way printed and online documents are produced, and the considerations in mind when they are being designed.

References:
Walsh, M 2006, “The ‘textual shift’: examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts”, The Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, vol 29, no 1, pp 21-37
Jakob Nielsen’s website, 2010, useit.com, viewed 2 June 2010, <http://www.useit.com/>

Me, Blogs and Us

Once upon a time being published was associated with leather-bound books and authority. But the digital age has changed all that. These days, with the internet, almost anyone can publish almost anything, a truth or a lie, a masterpiece or a flop, they‘re all out there for the world to see. There are hundreds of ways to publish, but one the most popular is the blog in its many variations and forms.

When I was growing up there was no such thing as a blog. Self publishing was a complicated and costly process. Production costs and distribution costs were phenomenal, and the opportunity to self publish rested on your ability to pay. These days, individuals can publish their ideas, opinions, rants and research with the click of a button. Gone are the prohibitive production costs, and distribution is now instantaneous. Suddenly the game has changed; everyone’s opinion can be heard. All that remains to be seen is if there is anyone listening, or are we all to busy writing our own blog to read anyone else’s?

This blog is an attempt to look at publishing in a digital age, to look at the how, the who, the what, the when and most importantly the why of publishing in a digital age. It looks at the issues of publishing, the choices, dilemmas, modes and reasons that are behind the pieces that are published, both in a modern online and a traditional context.