Text Media

Text Information and Media

Text Media are data or information sources which exist as
references in textual, numeric, or similar formats. These include
various types of publications as well as unpublished manuscripts,
databases, and documents. They do not include material written for
internet-based web display, but they may be hosted on the internet
retrieved from there.
 These sources can generally be consulted for verification
(although their availability may expire in some cases). They are
generally considered second-hand data sources, and their reliability
is generally lower than direct observation but higher than many
websites or direct communication with persons.

Definition
Text media overcomes the transience of speech, providing a
permanent record that can be revisited, thus accurately preserving
history, allowing mass communication, and promoting linear
thinking. Not only can text record past events, it can help us in the
present by communicating more exactly and about more
complex ideas, and providing a mirror into our thoughts for
contemplation and modification. Text reduces the load on working
memory compared to speech, and visual organization cues such as
white space and headings help readers decode and understand the
message.

Characteristics
Text Media has its limitations too. Speech transformed into text
diminishes its expressiveness, emotion, and impact. It is bound up
in many conventions that writers must follow and readers must
understand.

Characteristics
When text is correctly structured and formatted, it can be the most flexible
way to present content. To make distributed online learning accessible,
developers of learning platforms must provide a means to render digital
text in alternative formats.
 Visual Information. Text can be displayed on computer screens or
other electronic devices (e.g. cell phones, e-book readers).
 Audio Information. Text can be translated into speech using recordings
or via synthesized speech provided by a computer.
 Tactile Information. Text can be displayed on refreshable Braille
displays or printed using a Braille embosser.

Advantages and Limitations

Many of the same strategies used to make sense of print, can be used
to understand a visual text. Like print, text media has its own
genres, features, codes and conventions. All of which work
together in the construction of meaning and ways such as reading
picture books, comics, video, photographs, etc.
 Nonfiction and other information-based texts include any kind
of text designed to give information. However, the range of
nonfiction texts available to our students in their daily lives
stretches far beyond the factual writing found in textbooks and
essays.

Text as Visual
We need to broaden our perception of nonfiction and make a conscious
effort to introduce text media to all ages appropriate for expository,
argumentative, persuasive, and procedural texts, by means of:
a. hearing information-based texts read aloud
b. having access to a variety of well written nonfiction and information-
based texts
c. exploring the structure and features of a variety of these texts and
think about why they are used and how they help the reader
d. knowing the strategies for reading information-based texts
e. having opportunities to write and produce a variety of information-
based texts for authentic purposes

Text as Visual
• newspaper or magazine • documentaries
articles • news clips
• information leaflets • public service
• websites announcements
• biographies • manuals 
• advertisements • maps 
• book and film reviews • letter

• literary nonfiction

Types (Nonfiction Text Media)

We do not read information-based texts in the same way that we read
fiction. In order for students to be successful they need to know
effective strategies for dealing with a wide range of information-
based text. When talking about the structures and features of
information-based texts it is important to always connect them to
their purpose. 
 When reading information-based texts ask students to think about
the following points.

Reading Strategies
• Decide on your purpose for reading the text. This will help you
decide how you will read and remember what you have read.
• Think about what you already know about the topic.
• Preview the text. Look at the features, e.g. bold print, headings,
captions, photos, etc. Ask yourself why they are there and how
they can help you.
• If you are reading a nonfiction book, skim the table of contents or
index to help you understand how the book is organized.
• Break the text into chunks.  

Reading Strategies
• Information-based texts do not have to be read cover-to-cover and
the table of contents or index can be used to help you find specific
information.
• Take note of the details. Details are very important when reading
nonfiction.
• Be a critical reader. Ask questions about the text. For example:
What techniques did the author use to influence my thinking? Is
the point of view presented in the text balanced? Are there other
points of view? Is this information accurate? How can I find out?

Reading Strategies
Industry and/or Business Function Adaptation
We seek solutions built around the “frame semantics” notion that
words may have different senses in different domains and from
different points of view. “Thin” is a favorite example: Thin is good
for a mobile phone, while in a hotel, thin walls mean a noisy room
and thin, describing sheets, is associated with worn rather
than warm. “Responsive” means very different things in e-discovery
and in customer service.

Selection Criteria
Customizability
Domain adaptation may not be enough, if your company, customers,
and prospects use distinctive language around product and features.
Coke Life and Pepsi True are products. If a product you’re
evaluating hasn’t been adapted for soft drinks, it may miss or
misclassify social mentions of life and true, which after all are
common words. Can you build/modify the rules, taxonomies,
training sets, and other artifacts that drive marketing analyses in that
category, to capture the way people talk about these brands? If not,
you’ll be missing insights.

Selection Criteria
Data Source Suitability
e.g. Twitter vs. Reviews vs. Chat vs. Reports
The best algorithms for extracting information from 140-character
tweets, from long-form Yelp or Trip Advisor reviews, from Flyer
Talk discussion threads, and from e-mail or chat exchanges will
differ. Does the tool you’re considering handle well a data source
that’s important to you?

Selection Criteria
Languages Supported
Some tools handle only a single language, typically English. Others
claim to handle dozens, but you may find that some languages are
handled much more carefully than others. Your provider may
translate material from less-common languages into English for
processing, in which case idiom and culture-related nuance may be
lost. And even when non-English material is handled natively, it may
be handled with less refinement. Ensure that the languages you need
are supported, adequately for your needs.

Selection Criteria
Analysis Functions Provided
We’re thinking here both about information extraction – for instance,
lots of software will resolve entities or topics but not necessarily
both, and they’ll score sentiment, but not necessarily at a topic,
entity, or attribute level – and about analytical functions such as
clustering, regression (for trending), or link or path analysis.

Selection Criteria
Interfaces, Outputs & Usability
A nice graphical interface is… nice, but does the candidate tool’s
GUI match your work practices? If you need to automate a
frequently repeated process, are there scripting possibilities? Or if
your developers will be plugging an external Web service into your
own software via an application programming interface (API), is
there a software development kit (SDK) that fits your coding tools
(e.g., Python, Java, C++, Ruby) or are you forced into a generic
restful interface?

Selection Criteria
Accuracy & Performance
The speed, precision, recall, relevance & results granularity. There
are no measurement standards, but you need only good-enough
accuracy anyway, not some unobtainable absolute. But we’re dealing
with human language data. If you can read the inputs (or a colleague
can if they’re in a language you don’t read), you can assess a
candidate tool’s accuracy for yourself.

Selection Criteria
Common text accessibility problems include:
• hard-coded fonts that prevent users from changing style, size,
color.
• text presented with background images or poor contrast colors that
hinder readability.
• text presented in an image format that screen readers and Braille
displays cannot transform.
• multi-column formats (including some tables) that screen readers
cannot process in the correct order.

Advantages and Limitations

Contrast
Readers notice contrasting elements; changes in font, color, and
layout are examples of contrasting elements.
• To promote focus, contrast should be dramatic. Yet this doesn't
mean you should align garish, bright colors with soft pastels.
• To develop your "design eye," take a moment to analyze the design
of documents you see each day. Look at newspapers and
magazines, evaluating how they use contrasting colors and fonts to
draw your eye to their advertisement or story.

Design Principle and Elements

Repetition
• Repetition refers to repeated visual elements, such as use
of color, shape, columns, headers, and callout boxes.
Repeated design elements help readers understand how
you have organized the work. As they scan the document,
they can anticipate content based on your design.
Although readers dislike reading passages with words
repeated incessantly, they enjoy repetition as a design
element.

Design Principle and Elements

Alignment
• Alignment refers to the positioning of elements. For
example, texts can be left- center- or right-justified. Text
columns, tables, or pictures can line up equally. Captions
can be anchored next to images.

Design Principle and Elements

Proximity
• Proximity refers to chunking information together that
belongs together--and, conversely, separating information
that belongs elsewhere. Obviously, you don't want your
work to appear like a jigsaw puzzle. Instead, you can
create focus and highlight your message by organizing
similar elements together. By grouping related
information, you can reduce clutter.

Design Principle and Elements

Conciseness
• A virtue in any printed document. On the Internet, brevity
is a necessity. Image-rich introductions can be very
impressive. When you first come on to a site, a
Macromedia Flash introduction can be a fun way to learn
about the site, but as a general principle, you should value
brevity and simplicity over sophisticated, animated,
image-rich introductions that require software plug-ins.

Design Principle and Elements

• Create an advertisement using Powerpoint/Photoshop of a specific Product.

Group Activity
  http://www.literacyto  https://
day.ca/reading/readin writingcommons.org/
Text g-strategies/reading-i
nformation-based-tex
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information-literacy
 http://

Information /
 https://
elearningwiki.com/in
dex.php?title=Media_
characteristics
and Media www.imsglobal.org/a
ccessibility/accessible
vers/sec5.html

Sources