Form and Content

http://www.scottparent.me/

What is the relationship between form and content and how has been affected by the advent of the Internet and the growth of web publishing.  
New forms of web publishing have enabled form and content to be published by amateur writers who are now very easily able to participate in the creation of online content. Recent influences to form and content are the cause of an upsurge in writing that has made significant changes to the way in which we now communicate. 


I propose that these changes are a natural evolution in the form and content of writing and act as a catalyst to new literacies to the point where we are on the verge of a writing renaissance.

 I refer to content as the ideas or information and the form being the shape or structure of the content and how it is presented. Content can be expressed in many forms – a message, essay, poem, script, tweet, letter or post are all examples. Form and content do not stand alone as Paul de Mann literary theorist points out- form and content have a mutual relationship, the content actually determines form and form determines the content (Smith, 2012).

The ubiquitous use of the Internet has, since its inception altered form and content most noticeably in the way we speak, use language, and express our identity. Online form and content varies widely from brief messages on twitter, to personal revelations and self- expression in diary format to pictorial narratives on social media, e- books and every genre in-between and is commonly called user generated content (Anderson, 2007)

The nature of user generated content is that there is no little difference between public and private as all content is easily copied, can be retrieved at any time and lasts forever. Therefore all individual content across multiple platforms collectively creates our unique web footprint and identity. Consideration of our public and private identity or voice is required to decide whether we choose to be one person privately and professionally online or whether we attempt to hide our identity behind an avatar or pseudonym.  One’s online presence should reflect the nature of the identity we want to present to the world (Rettberg, 2008)

In the late 1990’s web publishing saw the development and introduction of software that enabled self-publishers to post content to the Internet without being skilled in writing the necessary code (Blood, 2002) These early forms of self- publishing were originally called we-blogs. Technological advancements have since developed that allow self-publishers to easily set up a format for the writing of content called an  “a blog”. The writer called a “blogger” adds content in their chosen style with some clearly defined characteristics. Each page of content - termed “a post” appears in reverse chronological order with the latest narrative visible on the opening page. In my Tickled Pink blog (TP) I designed my posts to have a timeline so that as each new post appears it adds a sample text and visual snippet to attract attention with the hope of getting viewers to continue to read. The content of a blog post in the past would only be found in professional publications but the Internet has enabled content to be distributed by an amateur writer like myself who may gain popularity and regular readership by engaging successfully with their audience.

Our role as an audience or consumer of information and media has also changed. The new styles and forms of writing allow one to become at once the producer and the audience, the author and the reader of content in its diversely different forms moving from a “one to many broadcasting model” to a “many to many conversation” (Shirky, 2009)

It is the interactive functionality of hyperlinks that allow the reader to message or comment that changes the role of the audience to become participatory. This is the key difference in written content on the Internet as compared to traditional publishing. The linking of content increases speed of access to information and acts as a filter to disperse the content to a wider audience  (Blood, 2002). The hyperlinks are used throughout to enable your chosen news-feeds, social media, and bookmarking sites to be subscribed to for automatic updates. As well links provide quick referral to other sites as a way to verify information or add a certain emphasis to specific content that becomes mutually beneficial for both the viewer and author. It is as if someone had pre-surfed the Internet for you and prevented a laborious search for your topic of interest (Blood, 2002). The more forms of content that are linked to social media applications and the more hyperlinks to other sites the more traffic will be driven back. There is an added advantage here because the Web 2.0 applications are self-perpetuating and are enhanced the more they are used. My own experience verifies the benefits of linking, sharing and tagging content as once TP was linked to social media my pageviews jumped from approximately 10 visits to 38 – 40 per day.

The conversational nature of online content is clearly demonstrated with Twitter because the structure of this social media platform disperses the conversations throughout the entire network as many people can be discussing a specific topic at once. This has been described by academics as “being surrounded by the conversation” we may be uninvolved directly but able to be peripherally aware of the stream of conversations (boyd, Golder, Lotan, 2010)

The form and content of online writing can be considered a new form of literacy (Gleason, 2012) as Alexandre Dumas called his daily chronicles - jour par jour, heure par heure or “hour by hour, day by day” (Rettberg, 2008) Similarly our modern day content chronicles the daily lives of millions, hour by hour and day by day although now one can build relationships with readers, tag content, share, communicate, collaborate online and crowd-source information. Unlike in Dumas’s 19^th century our chronicles have become conversational where ideas are trialled, discussions ensue and comments are made. Likewise the brevity of twitter allows fast-paced conversations to be produced, consumed and shared in seconds with little effort needed to reach a widely dispersed audience (boyd, Golder, Lotan, 2010)

Content can be added to web based formats in any style of choice  -informative, sarcastic, humorous or personal but amateur in nature and reflecting our own voice. I commented to the author of the design seeds blog to complement her on an inspiring design website. The author replied creating a line of connection and opening a conversation that could be developed over time and is not possible in traditional platforms. Comments remain accessible on websites and twitter to search through or retweet and add value in verifying what the author has written or to aid in clarity and scope of information.

I also commented to add value to a web design site in reference to colour adding information about trends and forecasting. Similarly I replied to an online news article about the Perth Colour Run after reading a story of a Perth bus company refusing to allow passengers to board the bus if they were still covered in bright coloured powder from the fun run (TP, 2013).  The opportunity to comment and reply to blog posts develops participation, involvement in the public voice and gatekeeping of the news (Newman, 2009)

Self-expression and self-discovery is an important motivator for bloggers in the phenomenon of self-publishing and the amateur nature of blogs is the blogs own appeal. Rebecca Blood states and I concur with her from my own experience that until starting to write the content of her blog she did not know that she was interested in her topic so the writing of the blog became a self fulfilling revelation (Blood, 2006)

Responsive design and mobile devices have also had huge impact to the form and content of news and information. The ever-present use of these devices and the speed of communication that they allow creates the ability to seize eyewitness accounts of news as it happens.  Sometimes an amateur writer or bystander may become a citizen journalist by being first on the scene and hence able to deliver news content to services immediately via social media options such as twitter or SMS.

In addition to twitter and blogging there are many forms of writing content through Web 2.0 tools and other social media. The following remarkable statistics demonstrate just how much content we are writing on a daily basis. Collectively worldwide we are reported to send 294 billion emails worldwide every day (digital buzz, 2013), 58 million tweets, 6 billion SMS as well as writing 2 million blog posts and 2 million different people will visit facebook in one day (Pingdom, 2013).

The magnitude of our Internet and social media use is staggering and has altered the natural evolution of language with some interesting occurrences to the way we write and use language. These developments are sometimes considered a negative due to fear of the dissolving of grammar (Abrams, 2010) poor proficiency of written content, overuse of acronyms, abbreviated text, overuse of lower case and prevalence of shortened sentence and paragraph structure or hijacking of existing words as well as a profusion of swapping nouns to verbs (Kleinman, 2010). It is also thought that Internet use may threaten the existence of minority languages (Monajemi, 2002) such as Sanskrit or the identity of oppressed communities and nations I argue that these claims are kneejerk reactions to new phenomenon and the changes seen to form, content and language are positive aspects of the evolution of language (Sawers, 2010).

Furthermore because of the way we now communicate people from different countries are able to link directly with one another enhancing language acquisition. English dominates as a second language at a ratio of 3:1 with non-native speakers (Criterion, 2012) and it is predicted that by 2015 there will be more English spoken by Chinese than in actual English speaking countries (Crouch, 2011)

I argue therefore that the Internet has not caused negative affects on form and content. Moreover it has provided new platforms that are conducive to bridging connections, aiding human contact and building a sense of community for users (Straubhaar, 2013)

The proliferation and ease of use of web publishing platforms does however present a dilemma because there is so much choice, diversity and speed of retrieval of online content. The question arises- how do we gain the viewer’s attention to ensure they read our content? This cannot be solved by out-dated modes of problem- solving; a new paradigm of thinking is needed to look to the intangible aspects of information that will add value for the viewer.  These attributes Kevin Kelly has termed “generative value”  - the uniqueness or niche value that cannot be copied or reproduced in fact should be nurtured and cultivated (Kelly, 2009). Generative value can be added by responding quickly, providing content in a form that is personalised to a particular audience that will also foster and build relationships. Furthermore by simplifying or interpreting content for the viewer, by offering a seal of authenticity and providing ease of flexible access. Also important is that our content can be found easily by making one’s site or post visible to the niche audience you are seeking and to provide your audience an opportunity to voluntarily support the content of their choice (Kelly, 2009). These are in the main ethical (Blood, 2000) (Blood, Weblog ethics, 2002)attributes or old-fashioned intangible values that if used successfully create engaging content for the reader that becomes a new style of modern journalism.

In reflection of my own writing I am inspired to contribute well-written content of relevance and meaning to the chosen niche audience and easily able to publish content regularly at little cost. The writing of TP allows me to be involved in the public sphere and provides an opportunity to connect and collaborate within my area of expertise. As an amateur writer I do not dispel the professional but search them out for validation, experienced viewpoints and inspiration. The weekly writing of a blog   or interaction on social media is an enjoyable form of self-discovery and creative expression that develops interest in a diverse range of ideas and is motivated by the sheer love of doing it. It is not a threat to either language or traditional publishing because we remain amateurs and maintain a small niche audience. As Shirky states it is the participation in the conversation that is its own reward (Shirky, 2009)

To conclude, whatever form the writing of new content takes - tweets in short code, cryptic text speak, chat room dialogue, business emails, technical websites, travel posts or personal diary entries in blogs and social media there is no doubt that we are all writing far more content than we ever did prior to the Internet. As language is dynamic and constantly taking on new shape and style it does not matter that these forms are different to the traditional forms of writing. I propose therefore that there is no threat to language depletion but rather our prolific writing of online content is a catalyst for the evolution of language and publishing towards a post-print era, a renaissance of a writing era that is more conversational in nature than the past written culture (Shirky, 2009)

For works cited and refernces see tab on home page
Cheers Diyu