Gains and Losses by G. Kress part one
First thoughts :
There is a return to a renewed relationship with visual display only with new vigor and purpose. The visual is challenging the written form as it was just settling into a comfortable practice. Kress’s ‘modes of representation’ are getting far more attention. Is this partially due to the manner we have ‘reduced the written text’ with the use of multimodal texts to a lower learning level; down to a common denominator (the visual) in the hopes of improving the knowledge building opportunities for those individuals who have trouble (possible mental blocks against) learning to read? And also when it comes to word choice? By this I direct you to newer versions of written text with changes to certain wording to simpler, less complex words (example anxiety is replaced by worry). Have we unconsciously aided the reduction of vocabulary used by the younger generations?
When Kress writes the “medium of book with mode of writing and now medium of screen with mode of image” I can’t help but also think of the rapid growth of influence from the film industry with its large screen(s) and the fast infiltration of home televisions (replacing the radio) have had on our society. (Kress, 2005 p6)
On page 10 we read: “What the visitors come to find is not knowledge but information… it is the readers who fashion their own knowledge, from information supplied by the makers of the site.” So what separates knowledge and information? A very fine line; there is an interdependence on each other. Remediation?
Information (OED) -“something told; knowledge – items of knowledge; news – the act of informing or telling – that which is inherent in or can be conveyed by a particular arrangement or sequence of things”
Knowledge (OED) – “awareness or familiarity gained by experience – a person’s range of information – specific information ; facts or intelligence about something – a theoretical or practical understanding of a subject, language, etc. – the sum of what is known- learning , scholarship- true, justified belief; certain understanding, as opposed to opinion.”
Question: If we were to no longer use the term “page’ what would be an acceptable alternative?
Kress, G. (2005) Gains and losses: New forms of texts, knowledge, and learning. Computers and Composition. 22(1), 5-22
Words: 336