My computer is a medium just as a novel is a medium. The only difference is that my computer is a digital medium that has the potential to speak to a reader in many more ways than that of a novel. “For my experience in humanities computing has convinced me that some kinds of knowledge can be better represented in digital formats than they have been in print”. (Murray 6) However, there are advantages of narratives in print as well. For instance, most avid novel readers love the fact that they can read a story and imagine what they want to imagine without the author necessarily telling them what to imagine. Yes, the author in a way always attempts to paint pictures for the readers through words, but with a book of print, the reader can imagine what the whale looks like or what Huckleberry Finn looks like without somebody telling him or her EXACTLY what to visualize. But like what Janet H. Murray was saying in her successful medium of print, “Hamlet on the Holodeck”, is that “some kinds of knowledge can be better represented in digital formats”. (6)
Although Digital storytelling will never replace printed storytelling, it will continuously develop into a much desired way of creating and viewing stories. For many people in this era of new media and technological advancement, it has become a way of life with most young people not even realizing the drastic change. “All of them are drawn to the medium because they want to write stories that cannot be told in other ways”. (9) Just imagine watching a digital story. It is a whole different experience than reading most other novels that are in print. It can encompass music, pictures, voice-over, filmed footage, and yes, even text. This is not necessarily saying that it is any better than the older novels; rather it is showing that there is a whole new level of experiencing narratives. As Murray would say,”The computer looks more each day like the movie camera of the 1890s: truly revolutionary invention humankind is just on the verge of putting to use as a spellbinding storyteller”. (2) Eventually nobody will even be discussing this new medium because the older will pass on and the younger will get older. This new media will eventually be old and only by studying history, will someone be able to realize the advancements we are blessed with.
Murray, Janet. Hamlet on the Holodeck. 4th. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2001.
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Josh, you must use quotations within the context of a sentence. You cannot just stick a quotation in the middle of a paragraph. And MLA parenthetical citations come before the closing punctuation. You should know these basic rules of research by now. Also, when writing about a book, you use present tense, not past.
Both of your paragraphs begin with statements that need more attention.
If you had to summarize your point in one sentence, what would it be?
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