Running head: INTERNET AND PRINT

ENG 105 Research Paper

Internet and Print: Differences and Popularity

Mike Hawk

XXX XXX XXX

North South University

 Internet and Print 2
Contents

Abstract ...................................................................................................................... 3

Introduction and Background ..................................................................................... 4

Research Questions................................................................................................... 7

Research Methodology ............................................................................................ 10

Data Presentation and Analysis ............................................................................... 12

Summary of Research Findings ............................................................................... 17

Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 19

Works Cited.............................................................................................................. 20
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Abstract

Writing is always changing, adapting to the demands of the world. Thanks to

the Internet, writing has changed drastically. Writers have found a new way to reach

out to a broader audience than ever before. This has led to a massive shift in the

style and perception of writing and writers. My hypothesis is that most people prefer

the print medium over its web counterpart due to a more refined style. Keeping that

in mind, I found out a few interesting facts. Most importantly, my hypothesis was

confirmed correct, with people pointing out that print will remain dominant for a long

time to come; however, some indicated that they expect the web to improve in the

years to come. Print was also more readily accepted by my correspondents; many

noted that they respect print authors far more than web authors. As I suspected, it

could be attributed to how people perceive the print medium to be more refined than

the Internet.
 Internet and Print 4

Introduction and Background

There are various mediums through which language is used in today’s world.

Body gestures, eye movement, and even visual language (for the disabled) are all

used by people, but they are only temporary and are used to communicate only then

and there; they are not permanent and are never used for archival purposes. The

only language that can be archived is written language and the ones who are

proficient in this medium are highly recognized, however small their contribution may

be. There are various uses of written language: letters, diaries, shopping lists,

memos, etc. However, the most popular medium is the print which spans

newspapers, magazines, journals, books and many other forms. It has been around

for a very long time and is now the most widely-read and most popular medium of

information and entertainment in the world.

The Internet is a very recent phenomenon, but has picked up millions of users

around the globe. It is a cheap and instantaneous way of communicating and sharing

knowledge and information; it has given birth to blogs, forums, and instant messages

that can be used for either of the functions mentioned above. Also, major sources of

news like CNN, BBC, Reuters and MTV have gone online and established major

web presence alongside online-only titans like Wikipedia and Gamespot, just to

name a few. As expected, the Internet has become a widely-read and a very popular

medium besides print. However, despite being so popular, the Internet has yet to

gain the respect and authority of being a major source of information that the print

already has.
 Internet and Print 5

Print has been there for hundreds of years, starting from the outdated letter

press to the now-modern computerized printing presses that can push out thousands

of copies a day. Even though it has had such a long established run in the history of

mankind, print is now being rapidly overtaken by the Internet as the most popular

medium of information, entertainment and other forms of reading. Since its inception

in the mid ‘80s as a communication tool for the US army and its public

commercialization almost ten years later, the Internet has stood the test of time and

many “dot com” crashes to become the most used and widely available medium in

the civilized world.

The rise of the Internet – which is actually a huge network of computers

connected to each other – came during the ‘90s when major corporations,

newspapers and news agencies like CNN and BBC were looking to expand their

reach as well as find a way for their reporters to contact each other quickly. As we all

know now, the Internet was chosen and the rest is history: CNN, BBC, Reuters and

other similar agencies now have major presence on the web, serving millions of

visitors around the world, which would not have been possible if they remained

dedicated to print and TV. However, this was not the only reason Internet has

become famous: people flocked to it to socialize in chat rooms, bulletin board

services, email and social networking sites (a rather recent event), all of which were

cheap and easy ways to connect to each other. Unfortunately, it was not fast enough

– instant messaging came to the rescue in the late ‘90s. The burgeoning technology,

most popular amongst teenagers then, allowed friends and strangers alike to

message each other instantly, adding the major social aspect to the Internet which

was missing previously.

Interestingly, the social aspect of the Internet was never truly formal. No one

knows why, but many suggest that the information nature comes from the fact that
 Internet and Print 6

most people using it originally were friends, making it unnecessary to facilitate formal

conversation. Whatever the reason may be, the Internet is informal in nature, leading

to specific lingo and a subculture stemming from it. The instantaneous nature of the

medium gave birth to shortcut words and abbreviations, more popularly known as

netspeak. Common phrases and reactions such as “oh my god” and “be right back”

were transformed into “OMG” and “BRB”. It has also given birth to “net pidgin,”

otherwise known as “kitty pidgin” thanks to a joke website called “I Can Has

Cheezburger”; there are other netspeak phenomenon such as the “O RLY” owl that

have also contributed to the cause (Ramadge, 2008, para 4).

Netspeak extends to blogs, forums – basically, the whole of the web

landscape. Popularized in the early 2000s, blogs have become one of the major

aspects of the Internet. It is basically like an online diary where people can post

anything they want – snippets of their lives, news, commentary, photos, videos,

poetry, etc. – and share it with other users. Millions of users have jumped on to the

blogging bandwagon, with many looking to blog just to be digitally hip. As Suzan

Revah has pointed out, blogging and netspeak have become parts of culture, even

appearing in mainstream media such as movies and music (1998, para 6). Forums,

which have evolved from BBS (bulletin board services), have also integrated

netspeak, making it part of its culture. As the name implies, forums are an avenue for

like-mind people to get together and discuss a topic. It has given rise to many

netspeak terms, which Revah mentions has been styled by the “cyberpunks” and

hackers, though they are not as much influential now because of the masses that

now speak the style (1998, para 8).

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Research Questions

As an avid Internet user, it has always interested me: is the language on the

Internet and print mediums different, and if so, how are they different. I had always

considered language through style, grammar, tone and all other linguistic devices,

and wanted to know if they were used on the Internet in a fashion similar to that of

print.

I have also been interested by the fact that many people write for both the

Internet and print (newspapers, magazines, etc.) – do they change their writing style

for either medium? If so, how are they different and why do they do that, as well as

how they do it. These answers were revealed to me through my interview with

Ahmed Ashiful Haque Niloy, who said that writing as a person is important to both

mediums, one of which makes it more important to be personal than the other.

I also wanted to know about the standard of the language on the Internet,

especially blogs which have started to hit mainstream and are driven by masses of

unpublished writers, citizen journalists and whatnot. Since blogs are so popular now,

can they be considered major sources of information and if so, how influential is their

authority – this is a major question I got answered through my survey. Also, how has

the print medium reacted to the whole advent of the Internet; I have also explored

whether they have accepted this up and coming medium as a contender or not.

My research has also explored what netspeak is and how it has developed.

I’ve also noted the major netspeak phenomenon currently making rounds on the

Internet. Emails and instant messages, both of which are fast and instantaneous
 Internet and Print 8

methods of communication, have also been explored. Finally, I have also noted

whether language of the Internet has affected that of “offline” writing like letters,

diaries and academic papers. The answer was a resounding “no,” with only a few

exceptions.
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Hypothesis

I feel that the use of language is quite similar in both mediums, especially in

the fact that they both use it to convey information to a group of unknown, unseen

readers. However similar the mediums may be, there are some major differences in

the way they use language.

I have come to note over the years that print and web mediums use very

different styles of language. Print mediums, especially news agencies, use a

standard form of language. Websites, on the other hand, such as Newsvine, Reddit,

Slashdot, and Digg use very simple, short structure. The same style is used in blogs,

which people use to express themselves, voice their opinions, or act as citizen

journalists. Therefore, the online medium is more personal than print, which follows a

rigid, structured style. Given that, I believe articles in print have a more refined style

than its web counterpart, and it is the major reason why most people prefer the print

medium over its web counterpart.

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Research Methodology

To prove my abovementioned hypotheses, I set out a research plan. It

consisted of interviewing relevant experts on the matter and looking up reference

materials like online articles, newspapers, journals, books and other mediums that

offer information relevant to my field of inquiry.

For the interviews, I selected three people who are long time contributors in

their respective fields. First up, I conducted an email interview with Ahmed Ashiful

Haque Niloy, a long-time writer for Rising Stars, a Daily Star publication for

teenagers. He is also a prolific “online” writer, having created and still maintaining

several blogs. In the interview, he claims Internet to be more “flexible” and that it

offers “much more freedom [than print].” However, he still states that since more

people “get” the print medium, he will have to keep writing for it even though he

prefers writing for the web.

The second interview was conducted with Sabhanaz Rashid Diya, who is also

a long-time contributor to Rising Stars as well as a couple of other publications by

The Daily Star, including Lifestyle. She is also an accomplished writer, having

published a biographical book “Bits of Me”. Interestingly, she is open to the idea of

her articles appearing online, but is not happy when asked if she wants to publish

her book as an electronic book (e-book), saying that she has not really considered

doing it.

Finally, the last interview was conducted with Md. Faheem Faruq, a veteran

blogger who runs BD Pollution that attracts readers from all across the world.
 Internet and Print 11

Surprisingly, he states that although he writes for the web, he is interested in writing

for print due to the fact that it offers “huge subscriber bases”. He also believes that

bloggers are more influential as a group rather than individuals, claiming that major

world events like World Aids Ribbon and viral marketing have been carried out by

online authors as part of a collective unit.

Lastly, I looked up reference materials on the subject matter to shed light on

the current situation as well as the past history of blogs, the Internet as well as the

rise of the print medium. I wanted to take a fresh look into the matter – netspeak and

whether it affects offline writing or not, among other things. My perspective was that

of a neutral outsider who is interested in learning about the differences in the use of

language in either medium, as well as the social connotation of the two.

To find out information about the social aspects, I decided to survey a group

of twenty individuals of various age groups, though I focused most on the 18-25

demographic as they are the current and will be future users of either medium and

are thus more important to me. The group consisted of equal number of male and

female correspondents who were spread out across friends, acquaintances, as well

as complete strangers; they completed completely objective questionnaires that

quizzed them on their reading habits (Appendix figure no. 1), among other things. It

also took into account their usage of Internet (Appendix figure no. 2) – whether for

social purposes like email and chatting, or for news/information, or other tasks like

downloading, etc.
 Internet and Print 12

Data Presentation and Analysis

This research has led me to find very different answers from the ones I

thought I would find. In the survey I conducted among equal number of male and

female correspondents, I found out one major point: Internet simply is not as well

respected as the print medium and it also does not carry much influence over

general readers, though the trend is changing now. According to most people in the

survey, there is a huge difference in the languages used in print and web, with the

latter being more personal and informal. Such language is used mostly in instant

messages and blogs (very popular among the 18-25 age group), which were used

most by the male respondents, who had a majority share of bloggers (Appendix

figure no. 3).

Another interesting bit of information came to light: those who read

newspapers, blogs and online websites – all major sources of information in today’s

world – are those who blog. The major reasons for blogging were to “express

myself,” with most people saying that it is free and fast (Appendix figure no. 4).

Interestingly, one of my interviewees Niloy said that “when blogging, I as a person

matter immensely… people are interested in me… blogging is more personal,”

reflecting the sentiments of the survey correspondents.

Moving on to use of language, netspeak was widely known and used by

respondents who were students. The most popular terms were “LOL” and “ROFL” –

the graph below shows the popularity of the many other terms included in the

questionnaire.
 Internet and Print 13

Figure 1. Chart showing respondents’ answers to “lolspeak”.

When asked why they use such terms, the common answers were that they

are “easy to type” and because “they speed up the conversation.” These

respondents were also the ones to use email and text messaging quite regularly.

A question I had before conducting this research was that of the influence of

Internet language in print. While most people in the survey refused to acknowledge

it, some two or three people said that it has indeed affected them as they use

netspeak unintentionally and subconsciously. When asked, Niloy said, “It has made

my writing more casual and more personal.” However, after the same question was

posed to Diya and Faruq, my two other interview subjects, they replied negatively,

with the former saying that “[a writer’s style] doesn’t change with the medium

because it is his/her signature style.”

 Internet and Print 14
I also wanted to know where the authority level of Internet content stood when

compared to that of print, as well as whether bloggers are influential or not. As I

expected, almost all people prefer the print medium, citing “authentic information”

and “more respectable” as the major selling points. The Internet’s biggest drawback

was that “anyone can write,” thus devaluing most of the content on the World Wide

Web. This was reflected in the question where people were asked about their major

sources of information, which can be seen in the graph below:

Figure 2. Pie chart showing respect for writers among survey respondents.

As can be seen above, majority of the votes went towards published creative

writers – authors of novels, biographies, short stories, etc. The major reason people

chose these writers is that because they are “imaginative and creative” and that “it

takes a lot to get published.” The latter sentiment was reflected towards journalists,

who were voted second-most respected, mostly due to the fact that they “work hard”.

In his interview, Faruq stated that reporters have a “regular, daily paid job… and can

conduct face-to-face interviews which other people without a press pass cannot.”

Online news reporters were a distant third, with bloggers and forum posters trailing in

the last two places. My survey correspondents did not leave a reason as to why they
 Internet and Print 15
are less likely to respect a blogger, or even a forum poster, but Faruq said during his

interview that bloggers have a “larger audience” than that of their newspaper

counterparts and that “people are likely to respect [bloggers] in the future since

blogging is exponentially increasing.”

In today’s world, information can be gained from any source, be it from other

people – even random strangers – or a respected, national newspaper; people have

a lot of choice when it comes down to getting news and references. In my survey I

questioned my correspondents which are their major sources. Here is an overview:

Figure 3. Graph showing number of readers for various forms of publications.

From the chart above, it can be understood that newspapers and “other

people” were the major sources of information for most people, with Internet

websites ranking at third. Books come in at a distant fourth, followed by forums,

blogs and magazines. It came as quite a surprise to me since I believed forums

 Internet and Print 16

would be lowest at the pile, but it was a bit more popular than blogs and magazines,

which I thought would be more popular than that above.

 Internet and Print 17

Summary of Research Findings

Futures of either medium are quite certain and clear at this very moment. As

per my research, the Internet will keep growing with millions of users being added

every day and blogs will become very important and famous and expert bloggers will

gain the power of being authoritative sources of information. This is reflected by

Niloy, who states that “some bloggers [will be] very, very successful.” However, he

believes that many other bloggers will get lost in the crowd and will end up without

any readers. Diya also states that she believes that “we’re heading towards more e-

books and online publications,” though she believes that there should be a balance

between the two competing mediums. Unsurprisingly, all three, including many others

whom I spoke to, as well as my survey correspondents, believe that print is here to

stay and that it will always be there. Faruq went one step further, saying that the

medium will be ever-present due to the fact that “if it’s there you’ll read it.” He also

believes that it will stay as a tradition.

It can be safe to conclude that so far the print medium is more accepted by

most people. The Internet still has a long way to go, especially when it comes to

acceptance of its content by the general public. This is mostly due to the fact that

they are “unpublished” by a major publication with clout. Since most people prefer

mainstream publications, this is worrying, though things may change in the years to

come. The lack of respect for bloggers and online writers is very low when compared

to those who have been published by major news agencies or publishers. This can

be attributed to the fact that people view journalists and published writers as

maintaining jobs and the related sentiment that goes with it. Bloggers, on the other
 Internet and Print 18
hand, do not share that status, and they are given very little respect because they

are voicing their opinions from a small, independent platform over having a proper

platform to voice their opinions from.

 Internet and Print 19

Conclusion

Overall, I have come to a conclusion that language use in either medium is

different, with the Internet being more personal and print being more formal and rigid.

I have also come to an understanding that the Internet simply is not as popular and

well-respected as newspapers, magazines and other members of the print family.

This is mostly due to the fact that they have been around much longer than the

Internet, though it is gaining steam quite fast.

As for suggestions or recommendations, I wished the research could have

been done in a more thorough manner. The number of respondents were low and

the demographic was severely limited. I feel it would be interesting to see how

people in other age groups perceive the two mediums. It would also provide insight

into people’s reading habits, especially in what they read during their leisure time. I

bring this up because the Internet offers both brief and long articles that cater to

various groups of people—both serious and leisurely. Finally, I also hope to find out

if people think this perception towards the two mediums will change over time or not.
 Internet and Print 20

Works Cited

Blood, R. (2000, September 7). Weblogs: a history and perspective [Blog post].

Retrieved from http://www.rebeccablood.net/essays/weblog_history.html

Leiner, B. M., Cerf, V. G., Clark, D. D., et al. (2003, August 10). Brief history of the

Internet. Internet Society (ISOC). Retrieved from

http://www.isoc.org/internet/history/brief.shtml

Ramadge, A. (2008, June 29). Rise of the LOLcats. News.com.au. Retrieved from

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21988724-2,00.html

Revah, S. (1998, April). The language of the digitally hip. American Journalism

Review. Retrieved from http://www.ajr.org/article_printable.asp?id=2301