In case you haven't noticed, I am a mountain biker. I have been riding and racing bikes since I was 17 years-old. My favorite rag is BIKE magazine. It is HIGHLY, visually stimulating with photos that make you want to pack your bags and hit the trails. I continue to subscribe to their print mag, but in an effort to stay alive BIKE mag has found a spot in cyberspace offering the same vibrant pics, mind-shreddin' articles, and a layout that keeps the reader moving from page-to-page as fluidly as your bicycle flowing along a beautiful, sinewy piece of single-track heaven.
Just like its print counterpart, the cyber-version offers much of the same info. (Bear in mind there is an online version that is identical to the print version, however, the website contains much of the same info., but with up-to-date news added as well as a forum or two.) Notice the "cover article" in the black box just below the tabs and heading followed by subsequent articles below.
All advertisements are placed along the right-hand side on every page. This is an example of Bernhardt's Modular Text with all of the "modules" containing articles, photos, or ads. What I like most about this web-based text is that all of the "pages" are laid out exactly the same. This allows the reader to quickly locate whatever s/he is looking for. Notice the section below labeled "PHOTOS" looks the same as the "HOME" page above.
This is an example of an Interactive Text allowing the reader to choose where to go next and not just within the BIKE mag website. The reader can load photos to his/her Facebook page or Twitter account and journey to YouTube and various other interactive sites. The reader can also watch imbedded videos and travel from page-to-page based on the image chosen.
Should the reader decide to "read" an article; s/he is met with a barrage of photos and very little text reinforcing the new digital media literacy we have been studying. We are not just reading text any more. We are "reading" images along with text to create a story.
The cyber articles still rely on the same layout as the print version with a title or heading followed with the by-line. The difference being the narration is done by the text and the photos. It is impossible to have one without the other. The print version of BIKE mag has a great deal of photos as well so the transition from print to an online version is easy.
Since you most likely have no idea who you are looking at...Tinker Juarez (the hispanic dude with the long hair), is training to race an endurance race. He is "training" with his teammates and is one of only a few veteran riders to have remained with the main sponsor he started out with many moons ago. Tinker has been racing with Team Cannondale for as long as I can remember. He is truly an amazing rider and anyone reading these mags knows his story. So "reading" these images has real meaning for cyclists the world over due to the legacy of pro cyclists such as Tinker. (I got to hold his bike for him once in Arizona at the port-o-potties! I felt so privileged! What a goober...I know.)
Just in case you didn't catch it, the author is also the photographer signaling a shift in emphasis from writer to photojournalist. It seems the ability to tell a story is no longer done with words but with pictures. Although the shift from creative writing to narrative images may seem to be a "dumbing down" of one's storytelling abilities, I assure you it is not. Next time, see how well you do to convey a particular message with images and present them to total strangers and see what kind of response you get. You will be surprised. Even these training images seem overly simplistic, but each one adds another piece to the puzzle until you finally get this...
Then it all becomes clear. Each rider's stats are being monitored for improvement. Cycling has become a highly technological industry just like the automotive and computer industries.
Bernhardt presents Hierarchical, Layered, Embedded Text as one of the distinctions, but I found traces of this in BIKE mag online as well. There are smaller hypertext that take the reader to contact info. or to other pages within this site. This is distinguished from the rest of the text with tiny, blue font while the remaining text ranges from large to medium with black font. Regardless, there is a distinct hierarchy signaled by font size and color that leads the reader's eyes across and down the "pages" as is desired by the designer of the layout using Navigable Text. Everything on BIKE mag's site utilizes Spacious Text since the "page" length can be endless. Text can now take on any size and shape and fill up a small space or a large space. It goes without saying that this is absolutely a Graphically Rich Text. As for the publisher of BIKE mag, s/he is creating a Customizable, Publishable Text that can be altered at any time.
Initially, I thought I would be able to pick one type of text listed by Bernhardt and apply it to my example, but quickly realized that his breakdown of text is antiquated but relevant. Current screen-based text applications layer all of these types creating more complex texts that require a great deal of media literacy and a knowledge foundation that is rich and runs deep.
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