Despite my residual hesitance to totally hand over
my personal life to the use of new media tools, I strongly believe that
learning how to write for these new media tools is vitally important to
me. I feel this way because I hope to
pursue a career as a corporate copywriter, a job that will undoubtedly require
me to write in new media contexts. Without the proper skills and a thorough
understanding of the rules and mechanics of new media writing, I will not be
able to perform successfully as a copywriter.
On the whole, I believe that it is important for anyone
who chooses to participate in today’s new media environment to learn how to
contribute to it according to the accepted norms. Like virtually everything else in life, one
cannot reap the full benefits of a situation if he or she does not understand
how to contribute to the situation. For
example, if a Buddhist attends a Christian church service, he or she might be able
to appreciate the concept of collective prayer and of fellowship among the
holders of a common belief, but he or she will not be able to fully appreciate
the intricacies and underlying meanings of the service without a deeper knowledge of the Christian tradition. Likewise, someone who attempts to use new
media tools without knowing the conventions for doing so might be able to
understand the new media culture on the surface, but without a deeper knowledge
of how to write texts for this specific context and why they are written this
way will not come away from the experience with a full understanding of its
uniqueness.
If
we do not want to have a full experience with new media, then it is not
important for us to study how to write in the new media context. However, if we do want our experience to be
as rich as possible, then we must understand this critical aspect of new media,
especially given that a pivotal aspect of new media is content creation.
Thanks for this thoughtful post. It seems like a case of 'expanding your repertoire' while continuing to pay attention to important aspects of writing, like your audience and purpose.
ReplyDeleteHi Johnna thanks for your sharing. As you mentioned we should understand the new media culture so as to have full experience with new media, this made me think of what should be considered when we work in the new media field.
ReplyDeleteUndoubtedly, new media have changed our perception on learning, playing and socializing.
Apart from participation and contribution in content creation, every web users have equal status in discussion in new media culture. In fact, participation is encouraged when user believe their contribution will be valued.
Therefore I think writing in new media should make good use of the "interactivity" provided by new media and try to create conversation with audience. Information is more impressive for audience after rational processing, and our goal is to let audience know their participation have grabbed attention and give them motivation for further action.
This seems easy to but really difficult when it comes to actual situation, hope the course can help and wish we can equip ourselves better for the future!