Audience Relationship While Recieving Hypertext (How the Bastard Child Gets In Your Head)
Hypertext is much like a fairy tale in the aspect of reception. By this, I am speaking of the oral performance style. Fairy tales are short, holds linear and non-linear formats, ever changing as it is retold, performed in an oral style, and has a message. All of these qualities are capable in hypertext and if used properly, can increase audience reception.
The first aspect is the terse nature of hypertext. A fairy tale is often short in nature, or presented in short chunks of information. The Odyssey was often told by Greek bards in sections, since it was far to long to present en masse. Hypertext has adopted this nature, creating links to different sections so that the reader is not confused or can start and stop at certain places.
My webpage is divided into particular sections with varying length for this reason. Presenting the reader with short sections allows your particular message to be received simply. While the codex allows the same division, hypertext can be viewed by anyone around the world with access to the Internet.
Hypertext holds aspects of both linear and non-linear formats. The fairy tale, in its comparison to hypertext, can be the same way. Fables can be told in any order in different societies. The Greeks would often explain the message in the prelude, which Shakespeare followed suit. Thus, the conclusion is shown at the beginning and is then explained. Hypertext allows any format to be done, but that does not mean it is received as well.
As Snyder put it, "Hypertext developers face a dilemma: as users we require rhetorical conventions that limit the complexity of hypertext documents, but such conventions may curtail many of the features that make hypertext so interesting, namely implicit and associational links" (116). Traditional rhetoric, taught to us through the codex, has placed its own limitations into our brainpans. The audience can get confused if the link or page does not follow traditional rhetorical form, which is often linear in format.
Too many links can also distract an audience member. "In one sense, the act of navigating through the text based on an intuited map of its structure approximately reader's flipping quickly to the end of a particularly problematic narrative to discover how it ends, in an attempt to make sense of its middle" (Douglas 16). A reader will inherently want to know the point of links presented en masse. I limit the number of links to avoid this type of misconstrued confusion.
Hypertext has an ever-changing format. Like a fairy tale being told differently as it progresses through generations, hypertext can be updated and revamped over time. Nothing seems to be static in the world of hypertext. Changes in page addresses and links could result in new styles and message being presented. Each new addition to my page results in a different aspect, a continuous fluxing nature. In this way, hypertext is pure chaos, raging against the logical and orderly processes of the codex.
Hypertext is also presented in an oral style, which finds its home in the aspect of communities. Hypertext brought back the old campfire circle in society. Chat rooms, online messaging and mass emails have brought a social structure that books, television, and letters could not, instant feedback. Online groups hold themselves to a particular code or message, held together by a document online.
Why do we join these communities? John Hagel III and Arthur G. Armstrong explained that, "Communities satisfy our need to interact for purposes of relationship, interest, transaction, and fantasy" (116). I feel that there is another aspect to it. It is very much the oral campfire mentality. Socially and psychologically, we have a need to find others like ourselves that hold similar interests. Doing so helps reinforce and bolster our own belief system.
The opposite is also true. Intellectual argumentation taking place on a hypertext format allows for instant conversation. Scientists and scholars may now go online, find a particular subject room, and debate the theories presented. All of this is done without travel, expenses by a college or university, and time issues. All one needs to do is log on.
This type of community, once only found in face-to-face or telephone communication is now less expensive to upkeep, yet still retains its instantaneous nature. Hypertext in its oral style does have its downfalls. Its informal nature, credibility issues, and lack of nonverbal aspects still place it at a disadvantage over previous campfire formats.
Many feel that hypertext is very informal. Email is more often used to relay short, simple messages. Webpages often hold short paragraphs that are to the point. Language used also provides an aspect of informality. It is an inlaid nature that hypertext in any format is quick and simple. While hypertext does hold these issues, one only needs to read the pages placed by scientists or doctors that hold formal terms and logical procession of thoughts to see that this is changing.
Hypertext also holds credibility issues. Due to its chaotic nature, many do not hold hypertext in the same light of the codex. John Tulva discusses this in his essay, "The Heresy of Hypertext: Fear and Anxiety in the Late Age of Print." Tulva feels that hypertext doubters go beyond the "Luddite distrust of change" (Heresy) and goes into age old reasoning. Tulva's best explanation of distrust lies in the following message:
'The fear is not that text-based computing will keep students from "exercising their memory" but rather that their powers of creative association and assimilation will atrophy as they navigate around an amorphous, virtual "docuverse" via predetermined hypertext pathways.' (Heresy)
It makes sense to worry about these powers becoming less. However, Tulva does not keep in mind the power of the reader to choose what link to click. Readers are gaining a valued researching skill. They learn to eliminate the dross to find the gold in hypertext.
Hypertext fails to hold a nonverbal aspect of communication. One cannot see the signals we send to one another to show the emotional content behind the words. This is one argument I cannot present a counter against. Nonverbal aspects are currently impossible or too difficult to include. A web cam might show some of the nonverbal signals, but its speed and clarity makes translation by the receiver difficult at best. However, those that may use this against hypertext must also use this against the codex.
Finally, hypertext, like all mediums, contains a message, but it is completely controlled by the audience member. As Illana Snyder said it, "In hypertext, the reader is fully engaged" (71). This is probably the best sentence to explain reception in hypertext. The reader has complete control over what is presented. They type in the address, click the link, and choose what to and not to read. Despite what others may state, readers control hypertext messages.
Even if additional windows pop up with new information, this does not mean the reader will read it. I, myself, often close these windows as soon as they pop up. I have placed no such windows on my website, nor will I. I will not force information on the reader, who will most likely ignore it.
Introduction ||
Presentation and Composition ||
Audience Relationship While Recieving Hypertext ||
Effects on Pedagogy ||
Conclusion
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