Reading Week Four

Extracts from: Landow, George P. Hypertext 3.0: Critical Theory and New Media in an Era of Globalization. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2006. Print.

This reading covered a lot… and I mean a lot. Then again, perhaps it only seemed like a lot because it all felt kind of new in a strange, common-sense kind of way. Rather than trying to summarise all the points made (since they don’t really fit together nicely anyway), I just want to reflect on the two bits of information I found most relevant: hypertext and blogging. Obviously hypertext, because really that was what the whole reading was about, but even so it was interesting to just read about hypertext, not in relation to anything. How there are different kinds of hypertext that exist with the rise of new technology, for example a linear text might link out to other texts, references or excerpts to better support its claims or intentions. On the other hand, there might just exist a web of links to more and more references, without a clear lineal procession. Either way, a text is making use of the modern technology available to link out and to relate different texts to it and to one another. It has the ability to change the structure and shape of a text, and that’s kind of exciting, I suppose, in the nerdiest way possible… Then there’s blogging. The reading spent a bit of time discussing different kinds of bloggers, how a blog is a form of hypertext due to various links out to other sites, platforms, media and the even to other posts on the same blog, and how serious bloggers tend to be quite tech-savvy. I suppose this makes sense, especially when the topic of RSS feeds was brought up, and I was reminded of Adrian Mile’s demonstration during the symposium on network literacy last week. I guess to blog proficiently is to be network literate, and to do that is to be aware of your use of hypertext and its possibilities in the modern sphere of social technology.

Kiralee

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *