[OPLIN 4cast] OPLIN 4cast #382: Serious reading

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OPLIN 4Cast

OPLIN 4cast #382: Serious reading
April 23rd, 2014

reading glassesWe are inundated every day by words on the web. We are 
constantly reading emails, tweets, news headlines, and, of course, the 
OPLIN /4cast/ every Wednesday morning (we hope). But for the most part, 
what we read nowadays is pretty short. Some people are concerned that 
all these short chunks of text are affecting the way we read, how we 
judge the importance of an item, and even the availability of detailed 
information. As a result, there have been some efforts to effectively 
use the web for long, in-depth writing that is more like the 
professional magazine journalism of the past. But not everyone has 
embraced this movement.

  * Serious reading takes a hit from online scanning and skimming,
    researchers say
    <http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/serious-reading-takes-a-hit-from-online-scanning-and-skimming-researchers-say/2014/04/06/088028d2-b5d2-11e3-b899-20667de76985_story.html>
    (Washington Post/Michael S. Rosenwald) "The Internet is different.
    With so much information, hyperlinked text, videos alongside words
    and interactivity everywhere, our brains form shortcuts to deal with
    it all - scanning, searching for key words, scrolling up and down
    quickly. This is nonlinear reading, and it has been documented in
    academic studies. Some researchers believe that for many people,
    this style of reading is beginning to invade when dealing with other
    mediums as well."
  * A founder of Twitter goes long
    <http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/10/business/a-founder-of-twitter-goes-long.html>
    (New York Times/Matt Richtel) "He's [Evan Williams] carrying out
    ideas he toyed with in his first big commercial venture, which was
    called, simply, Blogger. He sold that to Google a decade ago,
    begetting his first millions. Now, he is joining the mini-movement
    to celebrate long-form expression at sites and apps like Longform,
    Longreads and the Verge. The oddity is that Mr. Williams helped
    found Twitter, which is to long form what snacks are to dinner:
    sometimes a prelude, often an appetite killer."
  * When 'long-form' is bad form
    <http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/25/opinion/when-long-form-is-bad-form.html>
    (New York Times/Jonathan Mahler) "What's behind this revival?
    Nostalgia, partly, for what only recently had seemed to be a dying
    art. And technology: High-resolution screens make it much more
    pleasant to read a long piece online than it was even a few years
    ago. Also the simple and honorable intention to preserve a
    particular kind of story, one that's much different from even a long
    newspaper feature, with scenes and characters and a narrative arc.
    [...] The problem is that long-form stories are too often celebrated
    simply because they exist. And are long."
  * Against beautiful journalism
    <http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2014/03/27/against-beautiful-journalism/>
    (Reuters/Felix Salmon) "[...] people intuitively understand that the
    way that their story looks implies a certain level of quality and
    importance. That can be a good thing: it encourages contributors to
    up their game. But equally, it can simply result in people giving
    up, on the grounds that they don't particularly want such a
    grand-feeling venue for their relatively small idea. It's time for
    websites to put a lot more effort into de-emphasizing less important
    stories, reserving the grand presentation formats only for the
    pieces which deserve it."

*/Opposite fact:/*

Rather than use some long-form web venue for his 4,000-word essay on 
immigration, Teju Cole published the entire thing in a series of tweets 
<https://twitter.com/tejucole/timelines/444262126954110977>.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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