Developing key notes into a structured paragraph

Structured Paragraphs

Meredith Davis writes about the role of technology  in the Graphic Design World. She discusses which of both digital and print media has more of an affect on viewers and what affect each of them have on design itself. She starts by explaining how audiences once viewed photography as the ‘denotative documentation’ of fact, however due to advances in technology such as photoshop, it is now seen as an ‘eternally malleable fiction’. Photoshop started out as a computer software to aid design but very quickly became a verb in itself ‘referring to the digital alteration of images’. The 'cut and paste’ marks that were once visible to the naked eye are now ‘seamless’ which means that how design is made and distributed is as important as the subject matter. This has had a huge impact on the design world as people are now drawn to design that makes you think about how it’s done rather than why. Print media on the other hand has less emphasis on the production qualities and is far less seamless. This is one reason print media is still seen to have the most trust in advertising in magazines and newspapers. As well as trust, print media can have a much more lasting effect on the audience, take the New York 9/11 bombings for example. Memories of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre are less about any reporting at that moment and more about the ‘iconic imagery’ replayed for days and weeks after. Any live reporting was soon forgotten about but the print images on every newspaper tabloid, magazine and billboard stayed with the audience until this very day. This proving that amongst all the advances in technology, print media still comes out on top in having a larger and more lasting impact on the masses.

  

  Davis then goes on to discuss what affect technology has had on the process as well as practice of graphic design. ‘No longer are capital, approval, and production time necessary to distribute content’. It is clear that Davis does not agree with this change in the industry as she explains that although it has contributed to a wider availability of information, it has ‘not always promoted a greater understanding or assign deeper credibility’ to the information displayed. This leads on to a theory by Marshall McLuhan describing a Global Village. This is the idea that because of television, and other forms of digital information distribution, everyone has access to the same information at the same time all over the world. This has had and continues to have 'major affects on nations and their practiced democracy’. Take the Richard Nixon versus J F Kennedy election for example, through the digital media coverage, certain images were created of both candidates. Nixon appearing ‘rumpled’ and disordered wheres Kennedy held his own and appeared far more ‘composed' when on television. This undoubtedly had an affect on the end result. This further emphasises why print media still needs to exist as it is a lot more personal and open to interpretation allowing the audience to form their own opinions and beliefs.