Reading # 4 Whitaker

This week in Com430Z, I was assigned to read Jason Whitaker’s chapter “New Media and Web production” in the book “The Internet: the basics”. In this chapter Whitaker highlights a few old media forms which have since been updated and become better equip for the steady development of the Internet. He also takes a look at some of the advancements in web production like the use of style sheets, java, and scripting. In the beginning of the chapter he specifically focuses on those old media forms which have taken the path from analog formats to digital. The differences between these formats is described in the chapter as one being like rolling down a hill(analog) while the other is more like walking down steps(digital).(Whitaker, 58) He goes on to express how important this path has been to the advancement of the Internet as whole especially increasing its effectiveness to its users. This brings us to one media form which was focused on heavily in the chapter; hypertext which is defined by Theodor Nelson as “non-sequential writing-text that branches and allows choices to the reader”. (Whitaker, 59) It was also stated that besides connecting text it could also be useful for videos and images as well. Besides focusing on hypertext Whitaker also looks at various elements of web production like the style sheets and scripting. These outlets have enabled people to control the entire way in which a web page can look from the colors to the font styles. These two elements have allowed for the advancement of web production from a simple task to something which involves much skill.

After reading this chapter about the new media and web productions of the Internet I have discovered numerous ideas. With these new ideas I have managed to gain a better understanding of some elements of the Internet like hypertext and style sheets. The chapter was very informative and helped me to see how effective the shift from analog formats to digital formats could be.All in all Whitaker's ability to highlight specific channels of the Internet allowed for me to truly see how important it is to stay up to date with what is occurring in the Internet based world we live in.