Wysocki describes "new media texts" as "those that have been made by composers who are aware of the range of materialities of texts and who then highlight the materiality...Such composers design texts that make as overtly visible as possible the values they embody." She goes on to describe this as a new and innovative idea. Wysocki does not make a distinction whether these are texts with "new media" or "new texts" that incorporate media. Either way, her explanation of the term seems to ignore a rich past of texts (none of which are considered "childish," like the children's books that she uses as an example of texts that incorporate pictures) that include "media." What about Dickens' numerous novels that include drawings of specific scenes in the text? Or the travel guides of the 18th and early 19th century that included pictures of certain key places in the route, so that travelers would know which important places to stop and look at? We could go back even further and talk about the illuminated manuscripts that were so popular during the Middle Ages and even the Renaissance. It is not a "new" idea to incorporate photos or other visual elements in texts, visual elements that mean something and are supposed to be read with the texts. While this may (or may not, as I don't know too much about this) be absent from what is considered "academic" writing, it has certainly not be absent from these other, important writings in history. And, we must remember that Wysocki does not limit her explanation to purely academic writing - she talks about novels, too.
While I found some of the assignment outlines helpful for information on how to incorporate media into writing assignments, it is hard for me to get past the fact that no one mentions this tradition of texts that incorporate media. If Wysocki had done so, then she could have made the distinction between this tradition and the "new media texts" - which would in turn have helped my own understanding of her argument. Even if academia is resistant to the incorporation of media into texts, we just can't say that writers have not effectively done so in the past.
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| From Our Mutual Friend, Charles Dickens http://charlesdickenspage.com/characters/harmon_boffins_wilfer-stone.gif |
I agree entirely. Image analysis isn't new. Ultimately, it's older than written language, and the first written languages started as image analysis anyway. Sure, maybe it ought to be reintroduced to the classroom--or at least the composition classroom--but the history is long and rich, and it's not exactly as though we would be treading new ground.
ReplyDeleteMaybe if Wysocki could have been more specific in her definition of "new media", perhaps narrowing it encompassing video or more interactive visual media, her argument would stand firmer. When looking at digital text, via the Internet, it's a logical evolution that video and interactive surveys are supplemental to this form of learning and deserving of their own critiques. It would have been nice if Wysocki could have directed her "new media" here more specifically.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if, since image analysis has its own history and discipline, it isn't better suited to be taught by members of that discipline. It seems as though we're being asked to teach something we haven't been formally taught ourselves.
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