1. Thesis/Main Purpose
As the audience for writers change, so does the form in
which writers create content and produce or sell it. In a digital world, changing
books to digital format does change the content being produced. However, just
because form changes content, it does not mean writers have to avoid it. In my
attempt to turn Moby Dick into a blog
and the characters as bloggers, I hope to prove that even though media changes
the content, the different form sheds new light on how the characters interact
and the themes the book produces; this in turn will demonstrate that in a world
where critics write anthology upon anthology about the same literary classics,
changing those classics into new forms of content will give new scholarly
thought to the critic world.
2. Preliminary Exploration
I have posted
here about the different ways
Moby Dick has been presented in different
forms of media.
Here I wrote
out my process of how I've gotten to pick this topic and the questions I'd like
to explore. In my
review of
Understanding Media I have McLuhan's ideas (the man
who started this question of media changing content) as a source to support my
exploration of media changing content. I've also made Google+ updates that talk
about authors and playwrights entering the digital age who utilize the digital
world to produce their content via blogs, youtube videos, and personalized
websites.
3. Relevance
The idea that media changes content concerns authors
entering the digital world, as well as all humanities students and professors
who are adjusting from written formats/forms to digital formats. My intended
audience is to reach those who are wary of entering the digital age in fear
that their content cannot be academic, profound, professional, etc in the
digital age. I would like to change the idea that having published books is the
only way to be taken professionally. Though change is inevitable when writing
in different forms, it does not mean authors should shy away from different
forms of content, written or digital.
4. Format
I want to create a prototype blog in which Ishmael is the
main blogger with guest bloggers or comments by other characters in Moby Dick. The blog posts will reflect the
story as closely as possible, to show how just format changes content, but does
not take away the scholarship of Moby
Dick. I will use this as an example for my formal paper which I will use to
argue and explore my thesis/topic.
5. Outlet
Curation
of Content: I will use the online version of Moby Dick to quickly gather quotes from the text by all characters
so that my comments by minor characters reflect their quotes in the book. I
will also create a wiki where terminology can be defined and I can organize the
important themes of Moby Dick into
one source.
Curation
of Secondary Sources: I will look at general publications and scholarly
publications on project-based learning and authors entering the digital world,
and how to do this successfully.
·
Marshal McLuhan’s Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man
Curation of Community:
·
Twitter:
#digitalhumanities, #digitalauthors, #mobydick
·
Google+: digital
authors, moby dick
7. Social
Proof
I
received informal social proof from my homies talking about how the conventions
of writing have changed over the years. What used to be limited to the spoken
word and written books has expanded to twitter feeds, blog posts, articles
online, eBooks, and so on. From my academic peers I have discussed a lot about
how form will inevitably change content and meaning of works. But it could also
be used to our advantage. By shortening something as complex as a novel,
understanding a book can become more accessible. By putting it online or in
blog form, there can be reviews by other readers and input from the readership
on a global scale (comments on my post
here were especially helpful). I've messaged different scholars and authors that are active online. Those who answered back believe it is beneficial to be online because it reaches directly to the
readership. They can suggest topics or ideas to develop further in future
content productions by these authors. Too often do people use the internet as means of distraction rather than means of getting
into the world and curating content with everyone.
I plan on
finding communities now that are really discussing how books are being put into
the digital world and what they think of media changing content. I want to find
more articles discussing this idea of content changing in the media and the
pros/cons of this evolution. I can comment and Google+ these articles too to
curate the content I’m learning about.
8. Next
Steps
Now I need to make my prototype blog and see where that takes me in terms of social proof and response. I will have to curate content so that people can see my thought process and understand what this prototype is for. I'll also need to draft my paper and organize my already curated content to support my thesis. I need to get more social proof and feedback so that I can better form my analysis and know my audience better.
