The affordances brought on by the development of the personal computer, smartphone, and recent rise of tablets have mediated the way in which we experience the world; more specifically, the affordances have reconfigured how we share story and literature and also how we hear and/or read story and literature. Technological advances in communication tools continue to blur the boundary between literature and orality to a point beyond just “oraliture” (written and verbal arts), as discussed in the MacNeil reading.
The blurring boundary is due to the availability, affordability, and growing literacy of the technological devices mentioned above. These devices in combination with cyberspace have allowed different forms of media to flourish. A story, for instance, can be told through photographs, texts, and/or sounds; sometimes people combine two or more of these things to create something as simple as a meme or a gif, or something as abstract as an infographic or a vine. A large number of people (prosumers) throughout the world now have access to devices with the ability to create and produce content that is past “oraliture”. Furthermore, cyberspace is currently in an era referred to as “Web 2.0” which encourages “open communication… [and the] open sharing of information” (Beal). Platforms like WordPress, Tumblr, and YouTube allow prosumers to deliver content to the masses. Essentially, information and story can be shared by anyone anywhere today. The death of (professional) journalism and the birth of citizen journalism (CJ) is a great example of how story is being affected by technological advancements. The differences between professional and amateur are becoming less and less clear as the gap between the two closes. Nearly anyone can “report” anything as long as they have the tools and literacy to do so. Sites based on the work of CJs (wikileaks, liveleaks, allvoices) are endless and the content within them as well.
I prefer reading online, whether it’s the news or stories, because of the tools I have at my disposal that help me decipher text; for example, I use a google chrome extension called google dictionary to define words I don’t know just by double-clicking. The same extension can redirect me to a google search page and from there I can get clarification and/or additional information. It’s also a lot easier to read literature electronically because of hypertext; reading a Shakespeare sonnet over Wikipedia (I know it’s shunned in academia but it’s a great jumping off point) with hypertext helps me learn quicker than reading it over an anthology. Although the latter contains foot-and-endnotes, whatever is written on the page(s) stop there. I can get more information in a shorter amount of time through a device with access to cyberspace than I can through something restricted to a sheet of paper. I find hypertext to be quite beneficial but I can see why others might find it a hindrance: it’s easy to get lost in the layers of information. You begin research with three tabs and suddenly your computer’s crashing (am I right chrome users?) But it’s not hard to retrace your steps to get back to start. One can get lost in the abundance of information just as much as they can learn how not to get lost in it.
The availability of information that can be provided by just about anyone makes technological advancements and cyberspace great things. Publishers, gatekeepers, and “the agenda-setting media institutions” are essentially being rid of as technology and its platforms continue to progress (Burns). A benefit is that almost anyone from anywhere can have their stories seen and/or heard, but the flipside is, with the rise of countless CJs, which stories are to be trusted and are worth one’s time?
Works Cited
Beal, Vangie. “Web 2.0.” Webopedia. QuinStreet Enterprise, n.d. Web. 22 May 2015.
Burns, Alex. “Select Issues with New Media Theories of Citizen Journalism.” MC Journal 11.1 (2008): n.p. Web. 22 May 2015.
Gunelius, Susan. “The Shift from CONsumers to PROsumers.” Forbes. Forbes, 3 Jul. 2010. Web. 22 May 2015.
H, Neil. “The Troublesome Concept of “Technological Affordances.” Communication Mediated: A Blog about Media and Other Things. WordPress, 12 Jun. 2013. Web. 22 May 2015.
MacNeil, Courtney. “Orality.” The Chicago School of Media Theory. Uchicagoedublogs. 2007. Web. 19 Feb. 2013.