Visual to text is like the three sisters in Native Agriculture
Although Bolter and Kress both suggest that we are witnessing the decline of the written word, this blog argues that we are simply seeing a change in the medium and mode of the written word.
For starters, the written word has always had the power to “gather around the image and supervise the reading” (Bolter chapter 4), but there is growing belief that that image now speaks for itself. And while this cannot be argued, it CAN be argued that the text and the image support one another in a way that wasn’t previously possible. To borrow from the Native North American Three sisters agricultural practice of growing beans, corn and squash together, I argue that text and image simply enhance one another in a way that would be impossible on their own.
Thus, the need for Media literacy arises from the recognition of the multimodality of today’s instructional environment. Media literacy education allows students to unpack the density of meaning created by words, images and sounds, along with having to recognize creative design like camera angles, lighting and intention.
Intention however is now much harder to perceive, as students need to understand the intentions of so many players. The author of the original story, script writers, actors, directors, cameramen, lighting crew are all New Media “authors” who influence how the media work is seen and heard. So, in this respect, the question of the author is a really significant one.
As in last week’s readings on hypertext influencing authorship and fragmenting the reading process while still making it more robust, New Media too fragments the role of the author. It shares the role of authorship between many individuals who are all working on the same idea. Thus, it’s not a question of fragmentation of the audience- as Kress argues- but rather fragmentation of the author. I argue that this is appropriate given the growing constructivist and participatory culture movement.
To return to my introduction, I suggested that the written word is in fact NOT under threat, but is rather receiving a face lift. It is true that some genres such as the traditional epic as we know it are no longer being written or produced, but a new form of epic has made its appearance in the form of shows like Game of Thrones. The traditional forms of verse have been replaced by narrative, and the poetic tradition still lives on in the production of the series. Although most audiences might not be able to identify this as belonging to the epic genre, it is a moot point- as this one example along with all other genres still lives on in a different form of New Media today.
Resources
Bolter, Chapter 4
Kress, “Gains and losses: New forms of texts, knowledge, and learning“