Writers Blog #6
This week we explored more into digital writing. Something that we talked about was multimodality. In Jones and Hafner chapter 4, they described this as “the practice of combining multiple modes and texts that are made up of a combination of modes in this way are called multimodal texts”. Along with the expansion of technology, there has also been a rise in multimodal content. Often when we are online now we see multiple modes at once. This can be good or bad. Something we also talked about along with multimodality was why media should be used in digital writing. Some of the reasons that I thought about are that the media can help to draw in a larger audience including those that do not typically engage in texts. It can also help to add to the writing by pulling on emotions and feelings. Lastly, media can be used to help keep the reader’s attention. This was something that another classmate said that I found important but did not originally think of. This is important when thinking about attention economies, a lot of people struggle to pay attention to things for a longer period. Often we are seeing way too much media every day and it’s almost a fight for our attention. Using media in digital writing can help to keep the reader’s attention since attention spans are so much shorter now due to social media and heavy internet use.
Implementing media into digital writing can be very beneficial but it can also take away from the writing. I think there are certain instances where media is not necessary or little media at least. Media can end up taking away from the writing if not used properly. When trying to spread a message or writing, I would like to highlight the most important part, which is not always the media. I have not used any media in my writer’s blogs and I think that it is mainly because I just never thought about it and because I felt like it didn’t add anything to my writing. In my blogs, I am writing about the class or my writing and I don’t feel that it requires any type of media. Adding an image will not enhance my writing in any way and I am not trying to spread an important message. I do see the importance of media in other forms of digital writing, just not so much in my writings that are not trying to grab anyone’s attention.
Lastly, I wanted to focus a little bit on the medium feature assignment. I found this assignment to be really interesting because it covers a social issue. Some of the ideas that I brainstormed to write about were voting and environmental inequalities in lower-income neighborhoods or cities. These are two topics that I have previously looked at and have some knowledge of. Often in both of these scenarios, lower-income and minority individuals are disproportionately affected. These are things I feel strongly about and do need social action if those topics work. I am looking forward to this assignment and deciding on my topic. I think this is a really important assignment and good for students to look into social issues if they do not usually.
