From the first paragraph of Mark Zeltner's article, we can understand what his opinion on newspapers really is. He clearly states that he loves everything about newspapers and wanted to show his class the good things newspapers had to offer. He started off with a question "What do you think is the future of newspapers or, more specifically, what is the future of news on paper?". All he received from his question was confused looks. He quickly found that the question he was asking was wrong. He shouldn't ask "what will happen" but "when will it happen." His class remained, without a doubt, in favor of the new media.
Zeltner goes on to show that new media has its advantages but also, how many critics feel that it lacks the appreciation of traditional literature. He goes on to say that even though new technologies are growing in a very fast pace, he still feels that "there will always be a place for the printed newspaper in our society." Zeltner does not completely take the side of the newspaper, but states both the pros and cons for it and the new media.
I enjoyed reading his article because he did not just give us his opinion, he showed both sides of his argument in an interesting way. I agree that newspapers have their own charm, but technology is moving fast and the internet is our generations newspaper. Also, I agree the criticism that great pieces of literature are written, and thats how you can appreciate them.
Zeltner has created ten basic rules, which are helpful to students who are writing for the new media. Zeltner's first rule talks about quality over quantity. He tells the students that in the new media, longer is not necessarily better. Now a days we want to get our information fast, without any unnecessary details. The second rule is to make your piece pleasing. The content of your writing has to make the reader want to scroll down or click to see what's next. He says that you have to be aware of "how the reader is viewing and interacting with the material."
In rule three, Zeltner explains that in traditional writing, the authors think in words, then pages, then chapters and then books. In this new style of writing you have to keep the readers interested because if the writing is too long they may not pay attention to what they are reading. He mentions that you have to guide the reader to "figure our the paths" that you want them to take. Rule number four, tells the students when it is appropriate to use a photograph. The new media have it easy for writers to use photographs, with a click of a button you can upload anything. When using a photo, the traditional rules apply. If a particular photo captures the meaning better than the words then, Zeltner says, use it. He reminds the students not to forget to give a description of what is happening in the photo. Zeltner warns us that photos can also take away the readers attention. He says you have to use photographs to enhance your writing, using too many photos may throw off the reader.
Zeltner continues on to rule five, which talks about sound clips. Sound clips can show the impact of words by giving them a voice. He says that using music is also good because it set a certain mood. He tells the students that the audio clips should not take reader away from the words, but interest them to explore when they have finished reading, or before they begin. Zeltner goes on to rule number six about video clips. He says that the point of a video clip is to be short. Zeltner tells the students that video clips can convey a mood, much like audio clips. Video clips can help give the reader a glimpse of what you are trying to show in your writing. Keeping videos short will not completely distract your readers. Rule number seven on Zeltner's list is about footnotes and bibliographies. He says that setting up a bibliography page and a definitions page can be helpful to readers instead of just hyperlinking everything. Sometimes hyperlinking to a certain page, after a long time may not be there anymore, so setting up these two pages can help the reader find what they do not understand quicker and easier. Rule number eight is about keeping writing short and using hyperlinks. Hyperlinks can take away the reader from the writing and free them into another massive flow of information. The writers job is to make sure the reader doesn't trail off to another site. He tells the students to not overuse hyperlinks and if they really want to show the reader other sites, to simply add them to the bibliography page.
Zeltner's rule number nine talks about sidebars instead of hyperlinking. He feels that using sidebars, which are short story that "compliments" your main story, can limit the risk of the reader linking to another page and not finishing the story. He warns the student not to let the sidebar "upstage the main document". He also says to make sure you include ways to return back to the original story after clicking on the sidebar just incase the reader isn't interested. Don't make them work to find it. Zeltner's final rule, number ten, is to make sure the reader interprets your writing the way you meant it. He says that in the new media, the writer acts almost like a creator. The author has to in a way "broadcast media", all his or her writing, photographs, audio or video have to come together in order to make the story "visually interesting." Once again, he reminds the students to make sure not to get the readers attention away from the writing.
In my opinion, the ten rules made complete sense in making your writing more effective on the internet. Now we want our information fast, short, with visual and audio effects, and in order to not wonder to other sites, we need it to be interesting and pleasing. I think the ten rules overall captured what it should the writing be like for the new media very well. This is our generations way of writing.
