Hypertext Essay Response

For the hypertext response essays, the idea was to address the issues Jenkins, Barlow, and other readings or videos had introduced, particularly along the lines of their contributions to the democracy of society and internet culture. Exploring videos and projects on the web was also included in analyzing these democratic ideas for this project. The project was supposed to be minimally hypertextual and the author was advised to use the readings and at least one story, video, or project from each source provided. What I consider to be an A project, is a hypertext document that is a) easy to navigate through—well organized, b) makes a strong claim on the contribution of media to democracy and c) uses the proper sources. In analyzing individuals’ projects I found Jamie Coakley’s, “Media Ownership and Striving for Democracy,” Sean Lee’s, response hypertext, and Lauren Tsugawa’s, “The Fight for Democracy,” to be specially well-done.


I thought that Jamie Coakley did a great job with this project because she efficiently used hypertextual concepts to help navigate through her paper, made a strong argument, and used many of the sources. Her in-text links were both internal and external where it seemed appropriate. She also had a side navigation bar that helped navigate through the major parts of her paper. Her arguments were supported exceptionally both through her reasoning and use of external sources (as was indicated in the prompt).

Sean Lee also did a great job with this project. Although the webpage design is not all that exciting, the content and the organization are great. Every major topic addressed in media creation and ownership is clearly marked and easy to navigate through. The ease of the navigation made comprehending the essay much better. The project also used very helpful in-text links throughout the text. I found this essay to be extremely informational and it introduced the major controversies in the media discussed in class and in the readings.

Lauren Tsugawa created the last project that I think was exceptionally well-done. The essay was very easy to read and very easy to navigate through. She addressed the major controversies in the media as we know them and used great examples, including embedding her videos into the pages, to support her claims. The use of internal links kept the ideas and the reading flowing well, and made it easier to comprehend. The web design and creativity was also great! In addition to all of this, she had a “sources” section on the side of her introduction that I could click on and view, which I thought was very creative!

Overall, many people in this class did a great job with their projects. Just about every project I viewed covered the basics of addressing the topic, using the sources, and using hypertextual links both internal and external. However, I felt that these three projects were done extremely well. They all used hypertextual elements, the sources provided, made a great argument supported by sources, and kept my attention! Great job everyone!