1. After the recent gas price hike, the number of Las Cruceans who have taken to biking to work and other places have gone up considerably, says the manager of a city bike store. His account is interesting, and he's a good speaker too. It should be a cute piece with his quotes and ambient sounds from his store, plus bites from a few customers. Other sounds may be added.
2. We have a ceramic artist in town who learned her art from a reclusive pottery exponent in White Oaks. Their works are really beautiful and each piece is unique. Unfortunately, hand-crafted artwork is way too expensive for the ordinary buyer who has a cheap alternative in made-in-China, albeit run-of-the-mill, stuff. The city-based artist may be interviewed on her experience in ceramics and the reason why her exclusive art has not become a vocation. The downtown museum may be the apt interview venue. Other sounds may be added.
3. An avid Lakers fan, who's also a die-hard Obama supporter, watches the two together on his humongous television screen whenever they are on air at the same time. He simply cannot sacrifice one for the other. And he records them both for repeated viewing at a later time. When he talks about the two things close to his heart, he's hilariously serious. Of course he doesn't realize that. Sound clips from his recorded programs may be part of the background score. Other sounds may be added.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Monday, September 29, 2008
20 stories and more
What I like most about these narratives is, they are laced with the charm of fiction in their telling, even without being fictitious. The audio stories sound just as good as any short story would read, by performing basically the same functions such as etching characters (Penguin, Mary Poppins or Batman) and evoking scenes in the mind's eye. The background score, selected to match with the settings, moods and tones of the stories (comic or serious), sometimes doubles up as special effects (for instance, the sharp cling of the manual type writer in David Sedaris' narrative about a man talking on his cell phone while sitting on an airport toilet). In story number 17, narrator Richard Carey provides the special effects himself by vocalizing the sounds of a swamp: frogs, crickets et al.
Sometimes, the ambient sound is made of natural or actual everyday noises of a milieu — lashing waves and screeching gulls at Nantucket or cadets in a barrack or machinery in a factory — and sometimes, it is the sound of silence that impels you to converge your attention to the spoken word. Sometimes again, music is used as an interlude (like the comic Shakespearean interlude) to fill deliberate gaps between the spoken lines, to provide relief as well as to give the listener the chance to absorb and assimilate what (s)he has just heard. Such rhetorical tactics may not always register in the conscious mind, but they do work on the subconscious, quietly translocating you to the realm of the story. The interactive conversations among the interviewers and their interviewees, with their lively back-and-forth movement, pitch the narratives at an easily accessible and relatable frequency.
What contributes largely to the enjoyment is the fact that the listener — to an extent guided by the interjected comments of Ira Glass — identifies with some of the thoughts, feelings and experiences of the protagonists of the real-life stories. When Glass breaks the flow of a narrative with his remark, it is not to show his authority/control over the proceedings but to make it lucid for the listener. With his quick, crisp style of delivery, he brings you to the point right away (given the time constraints of the air slot) while at the same time picking his words to render the narrative in a humane, "it-happens-to-the-best-of-us" light so that we may share a laugh without being judgemental.
In A Little Bit of Knowledge, electrician Bob Berenz's brush with Einstein and Newton is not just hilarious but also a study of the whys and hows of the human psyche. It is by adding this depth to his narrative that the narrator, a journalist, manages to sustain the listener's interest for 16 and a half minutes in a man who has been summarily dissed by a Los Alamos scientist.
Berenz is one of several people featured in this hour-long episode which, like classical Greek theatre, is divided into Prologue and Acts I through IV, with the last Act acting as the denouement as it were. Though the Acts here deal with independent stories, they all work towards the same theme, making it a unified whole with the establishment of the idea that a little knowledge can be an entertaining thing at best, and embarrassing at worst. Every narrator has her/his own style of delivery, which brings variety to the listening experience. Remarkable among them is Dan Savage, who relates his six-year-old son's take on having two dads, homosexuality and marriage. The pauses and emphases on significant/strategic words or phrases again, have a rhetorical purpose.
While introducing the concept underlying the imaginary magazine, Modern Jackass, Glass uses the metaphor of a little-knowing person using a tiny bit of pigment to colour an entire canvass. This aural input triggers the mind visually the same way a bunch of written words would have. A dash of cynicism, a dollop of humor, and discreet use of light-footed music comprising sounds from different part of the world make it a well-rounded presentation. In fact, the use of background music is comparable to the Greek chorus sometimes, offering the audience the cue to react and also subtly reassuring them about the timeliness/appropriateness of the reaction. This is in sharp contrast to the crude use of pre-recorded laughter in some comedy shows we often see on television.
Sometimes, the ambient sound is made of natural or actual everyday noises of a milieu — lashing waves and screeching gulls at Nantucket or cadets in a barrack or machinery in a factory — and sometimes, it is the sound of silence that impels you to converge your attention to the spoken word. Sometimes again, music is used as an interlude (like the comic Shakespearean interlude) to fill deliberate gaps between the spoken lines, to provide relief as well as to give the listener the chance to absorb and assimilate what (s)he has just heard. Such rhetorical tactics may not always register in the conscious mind, but they do work on the subconscious, quietly translocating you to the realm of the story. The interactive conversations among the interviewers and their interviewees, with their lively back-and-forth movement, pitch the narratives at an easily accessible and relatable frequency.
What contributes largely to the enjoyment is the fact that the listener — to an extent guided by the interjected comments of Ira Glass — identifies with some of the thoughts, feelings and experiences of the protagonists of the real-life stories. When Glass breaks the flow of a narrative with his remark, it is not to show his authority/control over the proceedings but to make it lucid for the listener. With his quick, crisp style of delivery, he brings you to the point right away (given the time constraints of the air slot) while at the same time picking his words to render the narrative in a humane, "it-happens-to-the-best-of-us" light so that we may share a laugh without being judgemental.
In A Little Bit of Knowledge, electrician Bob Berenz's brush with Einstein and Newton is not just hilarious but also a study of the whys and hows of the human psyche. It is by adding this depth to his narrative that the narrator, a journalist, manages to sustain the listener's interest for 16 and a half minutes in a man who has been summarily dissed by a Los Alamos scientist.
Berenz is one of several people featured in this hour-long episode which, like classical Greek theatre, is divided into Prologue and Acts I through IV, with the last Act acting as the denouement as it were. Though the Acts here deal with independent stories, they all work towards the same theme, making it a unified whole with the establishment of the idea that a little knowledge can be an entertaining thing at best, and embarrassing at worst. Every narrator has her/his own style of delivery, which brings variety to the listening experience. Remarkable among them is Dan Savage, who relates his six-year-old son's take on having two dads, homosexuality and marriage. The pauses and emphases on significant/strategic words or phrases again, have a rhetorical purpose.
While introducing the concept underlying the imaginary magazine, Modern Jackass, Glass uses the metaphor of a little-knowing person using a tiny bit of pigment to colour an entire canvass. This aural input triggers the mind visually the same way a bunch of written words would have. A dash of cynicism, a dollop of humor, and discreet use of light-footed music comprising sounds from different part of the world make it a well-rounded presentation. In fact, the use of background music is comparable to the Greek chorus sometimes, offering the audience the cue to react and also subtly reassuring them about the timeliness/appropriateness of the reaction. This is in sharp contrast to the crude use of pre-recorded laughter in some comedy shows we often see on television.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Audio clips
I listened to three of them: Voices in the Sea, The Whalesong Project and Singing Lake. All three were amazing, with just one difference. While the first offered the audio along with a video clip as well, making it a well-rounded experience — as if taking me out to the ocean and giving me a real feel of life in the deep — the other two relied on just the audio clips accompanied by static pictures. No doubt the experience was different, but when you are forced to just listen, and not have your attention diverted to visuals, it turns out to be a different story altogether. Much of the picturization happens in the mind, fired by the natural, undoctored sounds, in these cases by a lakeside in France and in the Pacific, off the coast of Hawaii.
It was Lac de Pierre Percée on January 16, 2006. The aural experience begins with frost falling on the vegetation accompanied by birds in the distance. Brief percussive sounds tell you that ice has begun its work under the first sunrays. Then it starts to crackle and the sounds become intense. Finally, ice breaks everywhere, and the lake seems to be singing. The wonderful acoustic phenomenon was captured by Marc Namblard, sound artist and naturalist living in the northeast of France.
On the other hand, the whale vocalizations in Voices in the Sea come with spectograms and short interviews with scientists, making it an educative experience. The Whalewsong tells you that the US Navy has agreed to restict loud sonar to minimize trauma to the Humpback whale. While muti-modal presentations can capture life the way it is, using fewer modes has its beauty and advantages too. It helps converge your attention to a single or few areas, and guides you deeper into the experience while opening up new worlds within it.
It was Lac de Pierre Percée on January 16, 2006. The aural experience begins with frost falling on the vegetation accompanied by birds in the distance. Brief percussive sounds tell you that ice has begun its work under the first sunrays. Then it starts to crackle and the sounds become intense. Finally, ice breaks everywhere, and the lake seems to be singing. The wonderful acoustic phenomenon was captured by Marc Namblard, sound artist and naturalist living in the northeast of France.
On the other hand, the whale vocalizations in Voices in the Sea come with spectograms and short interviews with scientists, making it an educative experience. The Whalewsong tells you that the US Navy has agreed to restict loud sonar to minimize trauma to the Humpback whale. While muti-modal presentations can capture life the way it is, using fewer modes has its beauty and advantages too. It helps converge your attention to a single or few areas, and guides you deeper into the experience while opening up new worlds within it.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Blogs and politics/civic discourse
When the September 11 attack was described as a "historical fraud" by a section of bloggers and netizens, it showed how a section of self-styled political and "investigative" bloggers were using the cyber space to spread their alternative or anti-establishment views. These bloggers say they "turned themselves into the 9/11 Truth Movement"; their views would most probably have been rejected by editors of print and TV media and never been spread around, if not for the mode of blogging.
The blogosphere is considered the only independent medium by people who believe that traditional journalists are "sold out" for corruption or state and military agencies. These people want to establish the concept of global free press. This concept, like any other, comes with both pros and cons. While on the one hand it gives people a glimpse into incidents that are overlooked by the mainstream media, like the protests at the recent Republican convention in St Paul and the arrrest of Amy Goodman, on the other, efforts like the "9/11 Truth Movement" may not be acceptable to many.
Thus, on the flip side, tons of rumors and blatant lies get circulated via blogs. Journalistic standards do not officially apply to those who call themselves independent cyber journalists and it is easy for them to push their agenda online. Therefore, while blogging offers the opportunity to hold a global conversation without impediments like censure or editing — and in that sense, it is a wonderful mode of civic discourse — those participating Weblogging should use their judgement when absorbing blog material. Statements floated through blogs need to be checked for factual accuracy and ideas that are potentially harmful/dangerous to society need to be discarded.
The blogosphere is considered the only independent medium by people who believe that traditional journalists are "sold out" for corruption or state and military agencies. These people want to establish the concept of global free press. This concept, like any other, comes with both pros and cons. While on the one hand it gives people a glimpse into incidents that are overlooked by the mainstream media, like the protests at the recent Republican convention in St Paul and the arrrest of Amy Goodman, on the other, efforts like the "9/11 Truth Movement" may not be acceptable to many.
Thus, on the flip side, tons of rumors and blatant lies get circulated via blogs. Journalistic standards do not officially apply to those who call themselves independent cyber journalists and it is easy for them to push their agenda online. Therefore, while blogging offers the opportunity to hold a global conversation without impediments like censure or editing — and in that sense, it is a wonderful mode of civic discourse — those participating Weblogging should use their judgement when absorbing blog material. Statements floated through blogs need to be checked for factual accuracy and ideas that are potentially harmful/dangerous to society need to be discarded.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Blogging and the community
For starters, I'm thrilled to death that with this new mode of communication called blogging, I do not have to deal with lost letters, lost calls, or even lost e-mails. True, with "infinite" storage space offered by Yahoo, Gmail and Hotmail these days, messages seldom bounce back; but then, an over-active spam filter may still decide to screen out your laboriously typed mail. So far, none of my blog postings have been lost, and I also get the chance to correct typos which does not involve wasting paper or having to write the entire note again!
On a more serious note, I list below the major aspects/influences of blogging that I have noticed in our ways of communicating and creating/participating in the community.
1. Global connectedness: Blogs enable us to reach out to people we do not know, sometimes in places as alien as Timbuktu. Not only does this phenomenon help create an online community of people that may never have known about each other otherwise (and may never actually see each other ever), but it also opens our minds and hearts to opinions that are induced, shaped and coloured by exotic, unique and potentially educative cultures, civilizations or milieus. Some of us may have had reservations initially about communicating or exchanging ideas with strangers, but since we started attending this multi-media class, and after reading some of the listed blogs, even an introvert and private person like yours truly has gotten hooked to blogging!
2. Speed: It is a key factor in facilitating global conversation. What took months and years earlier, can be achieved in a matter of minutes or hours now through the Internet.
3. Uncensored discourse: Personal or independent Webcasting offers a great platform for global discourse on various issues. While a newspaper blog site may edit out your "politically incorrect" or otherwise disagreeable posting, a personal Weblog can reach out to everyone. It can serve as the voice of conscience, garnering support for, or opinion against, issues of local, national and international concern. The zillion web postings on global warming, Iraq and Tibet are cases in point.
4. Alternative journalism: As an extension of the above-mentioned idea, bloggers can practice alternative journalism by reporting raw feed on Weblog or expressing unedited and out-of-the-trench points of view with the help of live video and Web cam. When individuals become publishers in the free cyber world, they can write without the restrictions and constraints of institutionalized media or the establishment.
5. Serving the community: Weblogs are a great place for those looking at posting personal profiles for public viewing. Thus, it could become a dating service, as Paul Andrews points out, which may be considered yet another form of community service!
6. Serving academic purposes: Our interactions with instructors and fellow students through blogspot.com postings prove that blogging can be a highly convenient, New Age teaching tool. It is an engaging way to teach a class while simultaneously demonstrating the use of a new mode of communication. This is where theory and practice converge.
On a more serious note, I list below the major aspects/influences of blogging that I have noticed in our ways of communicating and creating/participating in the community.
1. Global connectedness: Blogs enable us to reach out to people we do not know, sometimes in places as alien as Timbuktu. Not only does this phenomenon help create an online community of people that may never have known about each other otherwise (and may never actually see each other ever), but it also opens our minds and hearts to opinions that are induced, shaped and coloured by exotic, unique and potentially educative cultures, civilizations or milieus. Some of us may have had reservations initially about communicating or exchanging ideas with strangers, but since we started attending this multi-media class, and after reading some of the listed blogs, even an introvert and private person like yours truly has gotten hooked to blogging!
2. Speed: It is a key factor in facilitating global conversation. What took months and years earlier, can be achieved in a matter of minutes or hours now through the Internet.
3. Uncensored discourse: Personal or independent Webcasting offers a great platform for global discourse on various issues. While a newspaper blog site may edit out your "politically incorrect" or otherwise disagreeable posting, a personal Weblog can reach out to everyone. It can serve as the voice of conscience, garnering support for, or opinion against, issues of local, national and international concern. The zillion web postings on global warming, Iraq and Tibet are cases in point.
4. Alternative journalism: As an extension of the above-mentioned idea, bloggers can practice alternative journalism by reporting raw feed on Weblog or expressing unedited and out-of-the-trench points of view with the help of live video and Web cam. When individuals become publishers in the free cyber world, they can write without the restrictions and constraints of institutionalized media or the establishment.
5. Serving the community: Weblogs are a great place for those looking at posting personal profiles for public viewing. Thus, it could become a dating service, as Paul Andrews points out, which may be considered yet another form of community service!
6. Serving academic purposes: Our interactions with instructors and fellow students through blogspot.com postings prove that blogging can be a highly convenient, New Age teaching tool. It is an engaging way to teach a class while simultaneously demonstrating the use of a new mode of communication. This is where theory and practice converge.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
PS to blogging rhetoric
Just wanted to add, if you violate the (unwritten) blogging traffic rules, you may end up being evicted from Blogosphere by the blog cops!
Blogging rhetoric
The very act of reaching out, or communicating with another individual, whether across the table in a room or across the globe through the Interact, involves a high degree of reponsibility. That is, we are responsible for the content, style and import and partly, for the possible interpretations, of the message/text which we send out. Since blogging these days has attained the level of a nanopublishing revolution, and the process of "filtering" enables you to offer access to potentially infinite sources of information or "knowledge", it is important not only to retain our credibility as blog writers, but also use the medium of language responsibly (I'm not sure if it's possible to blog in any language other than English as of this moment). That is where the issue of rhetoric in blogging comes in.
We post blogs for various purposes: share a personal experience, tell a story or float a political agenda. It could be for creative writing, technical writing, historical documentation, children's reading, or just to express a thought or reflect on something (a movie, a news event or a work of art). It could also be for the purpose of selling a consumer item, and that is where we step into the fast evolving domain of Weblog advertizing. Using photographs to illustrate/back up one's blog is part of rhetoric too.
Since, what's posted on the Weblog is open and accesible to millions around the world, including children sometimes, it is imperative to choose our words and visuals reponsibly. This involves blogging ethics. When posting an original work, a blogger is expected to choose her/his writing style to best suit the purpose, but in the event of drawing from other people's works, (s)he is expected to be honest and transparent about it. While pithy words, smart headlines, puns (as long as they don't have dirty connotations), contemporary jargon and tools of rhetoric such as metaphors, antithesis and other figures of speech are welcome, terms and phrases that may be offensive to groups or communities or unsuitable for children are not. That is, a blogger needs to maintain a modicum of decency. In our comments on other people's writing or on national and international issues, we are not expected to be nasty and when we use everyday parlance, we should know where to draw the line.
Weblogs are "link-driven" as opposed to the "ink-driven" pages of a conventional book but still, we have the software available to make words stand out by using the boldface or italicizing them. All this is just a matter of a mouse-click and contributes to visual rhetric.
We post blogs for various purposes: share a personal experience, tell a story or float a political agenda. It could be for creative writing, technical writing, historical documentation, children's reading, or just to express a thought or reflect on something (a movie, a news event or a work of art). It could also be for the purpose of selling a consumer item, and that is where we step into the fast evolving domain of Weblog advertizing. Using photographs to illustrate/back up one's blog is part of rhetoric too.
Since, what's posted on the Weblog is open and accesible to millions around the world, including children sometimes, it is imperative to choose our words and visuals reponsibly. This involves blogging ethics. When posting an original work, a blogger is expected to choose her/his writing style to best suit the purpose, but in the event of drawing from other people's works, (s)he is expected to be honest and transparent about it. While pithy words, smart headlines, puns (as long as they don't have dirty connotations), contemporary jargon and tools of rhetoric such as metaphors, antithesis and other figures of speech are welcome, terms and phrases that may be offensive to groups or communities or unsuitable for children are not. That is, a blogger needs to maintain a modicum of decency. In our comments on other people's writing or on national and international issues, we are not expected to be nasty and when we use everyday parlance, we should know where to draw the line.
Weblogs are "link-driven" as opposed to the "ink-driven" pages of a conventional book but still, we have the software available to make words stand out by using the boldface or italicizing them. All this is just a matter of a mouse-click and contributes to visual rhetric.
Monday, September 8, 2008
For Jen (scary 2)
Jen,
I do absolutely feel the new media come with the "scary" aspect, along with some many other new things. But I suppose it's a good scare, since it forces people to think harder on their feet, or their finger tips, as the case may be, and prepares them better for extempore discourse. It helps whet the brain, I would say. Also, I believe it's a matter of "getting used to." We have been used to the laid back style of old media such as print. Even in a television interview, which is usually pre-recorded, we have the the time to ponder over our response after getting a hold of the questions beforehand. That's how most image-conscious celebrities work. But in today's "instantaneous" scenario, people are actually taking classes or grooming themselves to think fast, on the spot, like beauty pageant paticipants in that decisive final round. I think it's a very good thing, as it also helps bring out spontaneous, undoctored, and honest thoughts.
Moushumi
I do absolutely feel the new media come with the "scary" aspect, along with some many other new things. But I suppose it's a good scare, since it forces people to think harder on their feet, or their finger tips, as the case may be, and prepares them better for extempore discourse. It helps whet the brain, I would say. Also, I believe it's a matter of "getting used to." We have been used to the laid back style of old media such as print. Even in a television interview, which is usually pre-recorded, we have the the time to ponder over our response after getting a hold of the questions beforehand. That's how most image-conscious celebrities work. But in today's "instantaneous" scenario, people are actually taking classes or grooming themselves to think fast, on the spot, like beauty pageant paticipants in that decisive final round. I think it's a very good thing, as it also helps bring out spontaneous, undoctored, and honest thoughts.
Moushumi
New media
Definition:
In a limited sense, "new media" means the information and communication technologies that emerged in the late 20th century — digital and computerized — that are capable of reaching out to all parts of the globe at once by setting up an instantneous audio-visual network. However, in a more comprehensive sense, "new media" today would utilize all available modes of communication, new as well old (print, radio and television), as required (depending on the subject matter), to achieve the best effect and maximum reach.
In a limited sense, "new media" means the information and communication technologies that emerged in the late 20th century — digital and computerized — that are capable of reaching out to all parts of the globe at once by setting up an instantneous audio-visual network. However, in a more comprehensive sense, "new media" today would utilize all available modes of communication, new as well old (print, radio and television), as required (depending on the subject matter), to achieve the best effect and maximum reach.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
For Jen
Jen,
I thought about the word "scary" that you used to describe how one might feel while shaping a discourse with other people. Obviously, this is an extempore activity during which one does not have total control over what is being delivered. It reminds me of the time when a McCain spokesman was asked by a CNN reporter if Sarah Palin had any overseas experience in diplomacy. The guy kept repeating that Obama did not have any, obviously avoiding a direct answer. The reporter kept repeating her question, and the spokesperson kept skirting the bush. Eventually, the exaspeated reporter said: "OK, I give it to you baby!" This was a classic "scary" situation for the spokesman which he would have given anything to avoid. He had simply not come to the interview prepared with an answer to this particular query! But, on the other side of the table, and the TV screen, the reporter and this viewer had a big laugh, at the cost of the unprepared spokesperson. I wonder if he still has his job! There is both the positive and the negative side to this situation, depending which side you are on. As a viewer of the live telecast, I thoroughly enjoyed watching the truth (about Palin) spill out through the spokesman's unpreparedness. Maybe that's the reason why Palin is not allowed to give any one-on-one or live interviews to the press (she may only deliver prepared speeches).
Moushumi
I thought about the word "scary" that you used to describe how one might feel while shaping a discourse with other people. Obviously, this is an extempore activity during which one does not have total control over what is being delivered. It reminds me of the time when a McCain spokesman was asked by a CNN reporter if Sarah Palin had any overseas experience in diplomacy. The guy kept repeating that Obama did not have any, obviously avoiding a direct answer. The reporter kept repeating her question, and the spokesperson kept skirting the bush. Eventually, the exaspeated reporter said: "OK, I give it to you baby!" This was a classic "scary" situation for the spokesman which he would have given anything to avoid. He had simply not come to the interview prepared with an answer to this particular query! But, on the other side of the table, and the TV screen, the reporter and this viewer had a big laugh, at the cost of the unprepared spokesperson. I wonder if he still has his job! There is both the positive and the negative side to this situation, depending which side you are on. As a viewer of the live telecast, I thoroughly enjoyed watching the truth (about Palin) spill out through the spokesman's unpreparedness. Maybe that's the reason why Palin is not allowed to give any one-on-one or live interviews to the press (she may only deliver prepared speeches).
Moushumi
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Modes and media
I would like to add to Gunter Kress' comment on fixed and variable entry points and reading paths in a book page and a web page or CD-ROM, that while in a book/novel, it is true that things don't make sense if you don't follow the prescribed/conventional left-to-right path, in a newspaper page or web site, you are free to determine the order of reading, or not reading for that matter.
As a journalist, what I have been practising for a decade and a half — even without studying the theory behind it — is the best possible use of modes of communication available to the print medium. My experience in writing news and feature reports, designing and laying out pages on Quark and using Adobe Photoshop to deal with photographs and graphics encompass the subject of multi-modal communication.
The other day, a classmate asked if Hillary Clinton's speech at the Democratic convention was just a speech or a production. The question reminded me of the many times I had to file a report or design a page to mount a "production" of a news event. It was the print version of the same effort by an audio-visual medium. If the news channel repeatedly focussed on Michelle Obama's expressions and reactions to achieve a certain purpose, then I had to incorporate pictures of certain people at a given event for a similar effect.
While the newscaster uses speech material and image material to shape news during a live telecast, a print reporter or editor picks and chooses the written word to convey the meaning (s)he intends (which may not always be the same as "uncolored" facts). The only difference is, a newspaper cannot not serve news piping hot, the moment it happens. Serving it the next morning takes away some of the heat of the moment. That's a limitation of the print medium.
Talking of limitations of modes of communication, the audio-visual medium, while serving news live, does not alway have control over the content. This could be both for good or bad, as it offers you the chance to see uncensored news. A print report, on the other hand, allows time for reflection on the delivery of news. Also, the audio-visual medium can engage the viewer on an interactive platform by taking calls or holding a dialogue on the web page. But a newspaper/magazine can only offer space for letters to the editor in subsequent editions.
As a journalist, what I have been practising for a decade and a half — even without studying the theory behind it — is the best possible use of modes of communication available to the print medium. My experience in writing news and feature reports, designing and laying out pages on Quark and using Adobe Photoshop to deal with photographs and graphics encompass the subject of multi-modal communication.
The other day, a classmate asked if Hillary Clinton's speech at the Democratic convention was just a speech or a production. The question reminded me of the many times I had to file a report or design a page to mount a "production" of a news event. It was the print version of the same effort by an audio-visual medium. If the news channel repeatedly focussed on Michelle Obama's expressions and reactions to achieve a certain purpose, then I had to incorporate pictures of certain people at a given event for a similar effect.
While the newscaster uses speech material and image material to shape news during a live telecast, a print reporter or editor picks and chooses the written word to convey the meaning (s)he intends (which may not always be the same as "uncolored" facts). The only difference is, a newspaper cannot not serve news piping hot, the moment it happens. Serving it the next morning takes away some of the heat of the moment. That's a limitation of the print medium.
Talking of limitations of modes of communication, the audio-visual medium, while serving news live, does not alway have control over the content. This could be both for good or bad, as it offers you the chance to see uncensored news. A print report, on the other hand, allows time for reflection on the delivery of news. Also, the audio-visual medium can engage the viewer on an interactive platform by taking calls or holding a dialogue on the web page. But a newspaper/magazine can only offer space for letters to the editor in subsequent editions.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
