Interactivity is considered one of the defining features of the online experience, yet the reality of most media consumers today is one defined by interpassivity. And it presents a serious challenge for those of us engaged in online journalism.

Gwen Harwood’s sentiment about editors – eloquently expressed in an acrostic, has become Australian folklore. While some authors would agree with Gwen, for others it’s not as simple. Nor is it always obvious in this blogging, tweeting, forever-online world, who our ultimate editor might be. In many areas the editor-author partnership remains unchanged. Editors and […]

My name is Mark William Jackson and I was a compulsive blogger. It has been eight weeks since my last post. At my worst I would spend up to two hours per evening posting, responding to comments and checking statistics. If I wasn’t in my dashboard I was checking my email to see if anyone […]

A brandspanking new Meanland post: The idea that the printing press democratised reading, writing and ideas is widely embraced. This is not to suggest it was – or remains in its internet incarnation – politically progressive or, indeed, revolutionary. Matthew Battles reminds us: The printing press never only produced the kind of deep reading we […]

Unless you slept through yesterday (or for some incomprehensible reason went offline), you probably heard how Amazon won the book wars, summed up so succinctly in this New York Times headline: E-Books Top Hardcovers at Amazon: Monday was a day for the history books — if those will even exist in the future. Amazon.com, one […]

A writer needs their tools. Chisel Quill Ink Parchment Chalk Pencil Paper Crayon Biro Fountain pen Notepad Typewriter Word Processor ThinkPad Personal Computer Macbook iPhone iPad Tablet What do all these tools have in common? They help us make permanent that thing that makes us human: language. Language marshalled into journals, books, literary fiction, non-fiction, […]

‘It puts you in the position of a journalist, in a way’, said Margaret Atwood late last year when asked how the Internet has changed her relationship to her readers. ‘You become the journalist of yourself. Which is really weird.’ Margaret Atwood has not only enthusiastically embraced life online, but has also gone one step […]

As a writer, and as a reader, I am daunted by the digital age. Perhaps this is because I am not technically savvy, but I think the fears are more deeply rooted. Writing that is only published in a digital form seems less permanent and more vulnerable to being tampered with or lost and forgotten. […]