Media Theory

I found J. David Bolter’s theories in “Seeing and Writing” the most intriguing because of the way he integrates the connections between old and new media we have been discussing in class and reading about in other selections with the idea that new media must be something truly unique. In the introduction to “Seeing and Writing” Nick Montfort wrote that “an understanding of new media can only come when truly novel elements can be divided from those which are imitative, using scrutiny of the sort Bolter applies” (679).

At first, I was confused reading Bolter because Montfort’s introduction led me to believe that new media was something truly unique and most of Bolter’s examples dealt with strong similarities between new media and the media that came before like evolutions in printing and typography. In some cases, technological advances even allowed people to go back and revive once rejected formats in a form of technological nostalgia as Morris did (681). So, what is new about new media? Surly it is not solely that it allows nonprofessionals to use professional tools without developing professional skills, creating the appearance of a literacy crisis of sorts.

Of course, it was not. Bolter’s point is not that new media must be completely new. After all, there must be some link to connect the new and the old so users can adapt and relate to it. As Montfort explained in his introduction, “one might approach new media from adjoining, better-understood territory” (679).

Bolter’s point is that in all its familiarity, new media is completely unique in some way whether it is enlarging a window size, scrolling through a window, or forging links between online documents (684). These small but often revolutionary changes alter the way documents are read, what people expect out of their documents, and even the way people think and learn. All of this seems fairly obvious after reading Bolter’s article, but what I think is really interesting is how easy it is to see the similarities between the new and the old that it is hard to articulate what is really unique about new media other than that it is accessed by a computer, etc. rather than in a book or other print source.