About Print Media

From SPARK

Print is a mark or marks on a surface which form words or pictures.

In a culture that uses oral means to transfer knowledge, pictures may communicate better than words. Pictures may be printed or added to text.

Our purpose is to communicate to oral learners; so the resources on the site are placed there so that others might translate them and produce them in oral form, such as on an audiocassette. (Another example would be to show the pictures and give instruction orally. In this case we think it's important for people to have access to the visuals because the visuals illustrate the story or lesson.)

Advantages

• The material is easily reviewed and is handy as a reference.
• Readers cannot easily change the content. But revisions can be produced.
• Printing can be done economically in many situations.
• Printed material is usually easy to distribute.
• Print allows readers to choose a section to start with that is at their level of skill and interest and to advance according to their individual needs. This is especially true if the material has different levels or is designed for self-paced instruction.
• Black and white images may be included easily.
• Print encourages logical and linear thinking. This is helpful in a culture’s decision-making processes and in its educational system.
• Children may have fun and learn as they add color to images on paper.

Disadvantages

• It is difficult to show motion on a piece of paper.
• Paper can be damaged, lost, or destroyed fairly easily.
• Print is easily skimmed for content. This may lead some to skip uninteresting parts that may actually be essential to understanding other parts.
• Printing time may take several days or much longer, depending on the complexity of the job and available local services.
• Print is not natural for oral cultures. Information in oral cultures is oriented around events. Information in printed material is oriented around sequence and logic.
• Various individual factors, including poor eyesight, can limit the number of users.
• People may need help in understanding flat two-dimensional pictures, much different than the three-dimensional world they are used to.

Other considerations in using Print

• Colors can be added to most print surfaces.
• Printing artwork or photography in color is usually a lot more expensive than printing it in black and white.
• In the case of Braille for the blind, meaning is obtained by a person’s sense of touch.