Naked Media

I think naked media is important in that we should be aware that whatever we are sending out into the world may not be read or perceived how we want it to be. On a number of levels this is true for any form or anything we put out there–even when speaking out loud. Everyone has a different experience, perspective, opinion, and view-point which makes it just about 100% impossible to control the reaction of your audience. Things that are very important to you within the text may be a passing footnote for someone else that finds something else in the text very note-worthy. For this reason, it is not strange to think that whatever is being put out there will be up for grabs and interpretation depending on the person.

What is distinctly more difficult is when you cannot even control visually how your work is being taken in. In the case of naked media, there is a n enormous leap from print, to electronic, to even the e-mailed copy. I receive dozens of forwarded articles and pictures or posts from friends daily. I never stop to think in what browser they might have opening this up, or even in what context. This is especially true when things get arbitrarily posted on Facebook, or I’ll read a tweet from Twitter that completely disregards the original person who said that–whether it be a funny line or even a movie quote. I think its worth thinking about, when we stress out over form and fonts and layout, that we may not necessarily have the final say in where that final product may end up and whose eyes will be around to see the re-mixed edition. Whether though harmless sharing, or a slower browser.

For that reason its important to focus on content as telling the story and getting the fact, you cannot solely rely on media, though it does provide for excellent back-up. Your words need to be able to get the point across and explain what is happening. Chances are if someone is really invested in your work, they will do the necessary research to find your original posting or the original way in which something was shared. These are things that are not truly that hard to find unless absolutely all source material has been erased–even your name.

So while it is prudent to take a step back and think about what can get omitted in the process of sharing, I don’t think it should take away from the work you already put into the original publication. There is no way to completely control how someone will experience something, short of strapping them down to a chair and peeling open their eyelids. But that’s creepy and completely un-kosher. Who is that seriously desperate to broadcast the original in that sense? As long as the work is being read in a context that still gives sense to it, then it should be okay. But, still keeping in mind that media does matter–whether its included or not.