Page 147 - Literacy in the New Media Age

136 LITERACY IN THE NEW MEDIA AGE

Figure 8.2 Page or screen: Institute of Education website

the left, and a block on the right, itself consisting of visual and written blocks –
though again, at the next level down.
These two blocks seem ‘unbalanced’, with the one on the right much larger
and more salient. It is at this point that the functional aspects of the entity
‘screen’ are significant: the ‘menu’ may be visually less salient, but functionally
it is at least equally so. It is in fact the significant block on the screen; it is one of
the two major paths of access. Readers/viewers/‘browsers’ (an entirely new term
now in relation to literacy!) largely find their own way. The traditionally trained
and inclined viewer/reader, such as myself, might choose the large block of
image and writing perhaps not so much as a point of entry – though it is that too
– than as a spot to rest for a moment. I know that much younger users of the site
would go immediately to one of the ‘entry-points’; indeed the technology is able
to track the routes of entry taken, itself a useful insight into forms of ‘reading’ or
use. It may be then that the central square area is balanced, with the
functional significance of the menu ‘heavy’ enough to counterbalance the ‘weight’
of the larger and visually more salient block to the right of it.
In fact there are eleven ‘entry-points’, which themselves respond to or perhaps
reflect the interests of potential ‘visitors’ (another new term in relation to