The Reader's Role

The traditional notion of reader puts the reader in a fairly passive role: receiver of information. In hypertext, the reader must take a much more active role, the role of information seeker. Reader response critics would certainly argue that even in print, readers come to texts with experience, associations, that will color how they will make sense of what they read. In hypertext on the Web, the difference is that the reader can actively pursue associations. If Web authors have provided the possibilities a reader then can use the document to get information she is interested in. Rather than relying on authors to make a point, however, readers should create their own arguments out of the information provided by Web authors. Since the reader is responsible for making sense of what she reads, it is also her responsibility to actively seek information, to challenge what she reads by finding new and different sources of information on the Web.

The Power of the Reader Reader Control

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