The Internet VS Printed Media

There are all forms of ways to present an idea or topic to the public. And, depending on your message, there may be a form that works considerably better than all of the others. One website that I tend to frequent, or at least did in the recent past is thus: http://www.eliteskills.com/. This website does not really present a set argument or view, but rather it is a collection of views from people of all ages from all over the world. It is a place where people can come and share their poetry or stories, and then receive critiques back from other users. I started my own site after I had one of my poems published from a poetry contest; my English teacher at the time told me about it, and said that joining the site was a good way to improve my writing. It has all types of poetry and stories: teen angst, love poems, poems concerning the topic of death and destruction, and even a few stories people post, chapter to chapter.

A website is the best way overall to present this material due to the sheer amount of it. It allows ease as a user goes through the site, letting him or her pick where each wants to go and not forcing them to read through a variety of information before getting to a desired topic. The digital format also allows for more creativity than would printed or oral media. Here, a person can display his or her story, poem, or thought in any form and is at the complete freedom to change the format as often as wanted. In a printed media however, this would require several copies and could become costly. Same for oral media; although the author can change the context and structure of the words, there would not be a way to SEE the format as a visual.

On a Web site, there are endless topics to cover. One can add as many links, as much information as wanted. Its timeless as well. No matter how much time goes by, the Web site can be updated, changed, or completely renovated. Printed and oral/ multimedia presentations do not allow that, at least not with as much ease as a Web version. Also, a lot of information could be covered in a relatively short space. The World Wide Web is limitless. One page can have hundreds of links that would take you anywhere anyone would want to go, and it travels with the ease of internet access. As long as you have a laptop computer, you can have everything at your fingertips. Printed media would require a vast library for that - not so easy to carry around. As for oral media…can you imagine having all that information in your head? And how reliable would all that information be?

For this web site, a “translation” into printed or oral format would be almost impossible. To do such would completely undermine the freedom of it, the ability to change and revise as comments come along and as ideas change. Commenting on another’s work would also be much more difficult. The closest thing to a translation, for the live oral media anyway, would be a coffeehouse setting, where people can go to read aloud the poems or stories they have created. The upside would be that those “listening” could hear the syntax and word definition used by the author as he or she read, which is not possible over the Web. But overall, it would take far to long to convert ever poem into a readable subject. Print media would be even more difficult due to the sheer majority of the things posted onto the internet site. However, if one were to try, he or she would need to print everything off and start by organizing each post into set categories. Then decide on how to present the information. The best way in my opinion would be to make it into a sort of weekly or monthly newspaper that posted several pages of poems for each issue. This however would be very costly, and production time would outweigh the benefits of sharing a poem or story.

In my opinion, the site is best left as is. Too much would be lost in switching the Web design to a print or live oral format. It would be costly to maintain a printed newspaper or to find a suitable club for people to share poetry. Also, the fluidity of the site, one of its best aspects, would be lost. People could no longer just click a link to be brought to a poem. Instead he or she would have to read or listen through several. Same for the world-wide access it has now. It would be very hard indeed to create that through any other media. The only asset I see is the ability to better understand the author’s portal of words. Hearing someone speak is always better than reading it. The emphasis can easily be misplaced there. Overall, the Web design is the best bet.

Many people are intimidated by the Internet and the possibilities is can offer. I can understand that because, for a while, I was one of them. There is a lot of information out there and for people who do not understand technology, it is scary. But what many have to realize is thus: technology is growing. It is becoming the basis of everything in today’s world. And the older versions of newsprint or oral tradition are going out of style. There is just too much information to hold. Such things will never completely die, but they will grow more scarce as our world grows. There will always be subjects that work best for each style of format. And this site is a perfect example of one best suited for the web.

P.S. If anyone is interested in my site,: This is the link. My posts are not all that good, but I don’t care about that. To me, it is a place to express yourself and to get out much needed feeling.