Reading Response

The first reading response that stood out to me was Kate Bradley’s. The whole layout of the website is very efficient, and helped me easily navigate through all of her pages and understand her argument. First of all, the home page for her project is not just a blank page with an introduction paragraph – she states the question that her project is focusing on, and then goes straight to the examples. She has a few main examples in the middle, followed by a “read more” link, and the rest of the examples are organized by categories on the left side. But more important than the layout of the website is the way she presented her argument. It doesn’t read like a typical essay. She explains her examples, provides links to the videos, and then spends a significant amount of space stating her opinions on the subject matter of the examples. After going through her pages and reading her opinions, we really get a sense of her feelings towards the whole subject of media ownership.
The second reading response that I liked was Craig Benko’s. Again, the first thing I noticed was the organization of the site. He has a clear introductory statement, short enough not to scare away a reader who is just browsing through the site, but long enough to get the purpose of the project. He then has his examples listed down the side of the page, and his argument split up into three sections, “Music Creations,” “Political Movements,” and “Political Activism.” This is helpful because it really pulls the examples together and puts them into specific groups, instead of just having them as a list and going through them one by one. Finally, he has the technological ability and know-how to imbed the videos he is talking about right in his website. There is no need to click a link and follow it to YouTube or some other site – you can see what he is talking about right on the page.
The third reading response that I enjoyed was Nicolas Feigenbaum’s. I was initially drawn in for two reasons – first, his user friendly format, which has all of the different sections of his project clearly labeled on the left side of the page. Second, his introduction paragraph was unique. Instead of launching into why he was doing the project or what the debate about media ownership entailed, he started with a great example of a political video and how it has been remixed several times. By starting with an example, and then relating that to the broader subject of media ownership, the reader, in this case me, has a better understanding of what the rest of his project will be about. The project then goes into further detail, using more examples to explore the issue and prove a point.