How do YouTube and Podcasts change our understanding of "writing" on the web? How is writing different for video? Include a link in your blog entry.
The difference between traditional writing and writing for broadcast is the amount of content left out of the text and relegated to the intonation of the medium. Literature requires a description of everything the writer wants the reader to experience. When a writer writes for audio, they can leave out "the character screamed" or "a bell tolled in the distance." The intonation expresses the sentiment on its own accord.
Still, audio depends on a description through dialogue or narrative. Writing for video requires less descriptive text, but more "behind the scenes" writing in the manner of screenplay.
Opening slowly, the creaking door reveals the stalker's shadow.
Butler: Who goes there?
Stalker: I'm early.
The butler reaches for the broken broom handle...a moment too late.
In it's original "book" format, the writing would have moved with a fuller description.
Opening slowly, the creaking door revealed the stalkers shadow. Hearing the creak, the butler tensed calling "Who goes there?" The stalker rasped from her slight opening "I'm early." She heard his waistcoat billow as he moved toward the broom handle. Through the ink of the parlor shadow, she silently leaped across the room. The broken broom handle, liberated from it's hiding place hours before, splintered across the butler's knee with a crisp pop.
Audio & video change the writer's literary approach based on what the writer is describing and for whom.
Nice point about "intonation." Incidentally, I attended a conference recently in which "intonation" and the crossover between speech and writing was becoming more evident. I find it fascinating in the day of digital writing that we are tending to things like intonation and voice more often. You make the point well that writing for audio changes the writer's literary approach.