Monthly Archives: September 2016

Corporate interest will always affect the information we receive as it can effectively censor certain topics or bits of information. Corporations will usually think from a financial standpoint rather than in the best interest of others. The information being presented needs to be profitable for them and something that isn’t too controversial, unless it’s unintended or an oversight, and can bring upon more views, more advertisement, or more clicks, basically, more revenue for them. Simply think back to when cigarettes were being advertised as healthy and research studies were concluding that were, in fact, healthy. Even though at the time it was known to be the opposite, as long as corporations could still get more money into their pocket, they would do whatever to manipulate or fabricate results.

In terms of an example of something not being covered, I remember a video I watched last semester when researching a similar topic, where a big new corporation was interviewing a reporter. In this interview, they were discussing all the issues and problems that were occurring in the Middle East. The reporter then when on to tell them of all the good things that were going on in the Middle East and asking why these things were not being reported on. Why had all the news outlets omitted anything positive going on and only focused on the negative? The interviewer simply tried his best to avoid speaking on the subject and would try to steer the conversation back to the negative.

Badke and Jabr state that we translate information differently depending on what format we choose to read in.  Some may prefer to use physical books because they want to feel a book’s texture and size. Perhaps these individuals are physical learners (defined as the ability to retain information using ones hands) and automatically gather knowledge differently depending on how heavy a text is. Others may be more interested in reading information digitally via their E-books or tablets. Unlike readers of print, digital enthusiast may consider the weight of a book to be a nuisance and simply like having it at their disposal at all times.

I personally prefer to read any text digitally because it is more convenient. For example, carrying a 1000 page textbook to college everyday gets tiring quickly and becomes more of a chore within the first few days. I rather turn on my tablet, choose the textbook I need to read, and swipe across the screen to flip its pages. The same can be said about books that contain only 500 pages as I often find myself carrying enough weight as is.

However, after reading The Non-Designers Book by Robin Williams in print and digital, I learned that it is about more than just convenience. In print, I would get distracted easily and stop reading after a few sentences. But in digital, I read the text thoroughly with ease. I also retained information better and was more engaged with the text as I asked myself questions about what it discussed. In addition, unlike in print,  I gained the ability to listen to music while reading. I often listen to music on my tablet while reading on it because it allows me to focus on the task at hand.

Overall, reading The Non-Designers Book by Robin Williams in print and digital allowed me to see how differently I translate information. I learned more about myself as I found out that I prefer to read text digitally. With digital text, I can process information quickly and not get distracted.

Both Jabr and Badke’s perspective on printed books versus the progression of digital books also known as e-books are very similar. Referring back to Chapter 1 in the book Research Strategies Badke explains, “While some readers will allow you to do note-taking and highlighting, etc., the e-paper book readers lack the ability to function easily within the world of the Web the way an Ipad or Android device can”.  For example, when I read the article “From papyrus to pixels; the future of the book” I began reading it on my android device while riding on the train.  Like any other day I would look around and see others on their Kindles or Nooks and think to myself, how do they read their books with the screen being as dark as it is and not being able to use any features such as highlighting, note-taking, etc., as Badke plainly put it.

Although I do find it handy to highlight and add any additional notes while using my play books application on my phone to read. I constantly think to myself everyday how can people read all their books and article selections on these technical devices? The reason I say this is because I find it easier to read something in front of me such as the printed book rather than try to focus and grasp information from any other device or computer. Jabr clearly explains this in his article, “As far as our brains are concerned, however, text is a tangible part of the physical world we inhibit”. As part of human nature we all tend to gravitate and absorb information a lot more efficiently when we can physically get our hands on it, rather than what we can see (or in this case read) at any given moment. At the end of the day, after the first paragraph or so I chose to print the article “From papyrus to pixels; the future of the book” and read it that way. I found it so much easier to just jot down any notes anywhere on the page and simply breeze through the reading without any straining to my eyes or taking on a major migraine from trying to navigate through an app. or internet source on a computer.