According to Jay David Bolter, Enlightenment thinkers saw “printed
newspapers and periodicals as instruments of revolution”(Writing Space 208).
These writing spaces had the capacity to radicalize culture, and I would argue that
the move from print to electronic writing space has only served to strengthen that
force. To borrow from Bolter, the online newspaper has the ability to “remediate”
not only the print version of newspapers, but to remediate the hierarchical
conception of authority in journalism. This online writing space is drastically
different than print newspapers in that the reader can become both the writer and
editor via the use of the comments section. A reader can correct, further
support, and dispute the article, and has the ability to change at will her own
comments as other reader-writers inform her argument. These comments exemplify
the social aspect we so often seem to seek in electronic writing spaces.
Specifically, the comments serve as the “talk back” feature that Bolter
describes in chapter ten. This kind of talk back transforms newspapers into an
interactive writing space as well as a tool for cultural remediation.
Jessica, I like your view of Bolter's concept of remediation in relation to on-line newspapers and reader's comments.
ReplyDeleteI find myself reading an online article for the content and then going eagerly to the reader's comments for a different - and perhaps more valid? or politically driven? - way of reading and understanding the article. I also check the favorites.
Jessica ~
ReplyDeleteGreat definition~ you dig into Bolter thoroughly to jump start your own definition. You also tied your definition directly to the site you are going to review. I may send some classmates to this blog to see a good example.
And, this assignment is achieving its goal if anyone uses the phrase, "now I can't chicken out!" I developed this assignment for that very reason -- it has motivated me to learn wikis and Prezi, two spaces I was "chicken" to explore at first.
~ Cathy