Robert Scholes "On Reading A Video Text"

In Robert Scholes’ article on: “Reading a Video Text”, Scholes mentions that “From a few scenes, then, aided by the voice-over narration and a music track, we construct an entire life.” He is describing video text and the way they’re created and the way people perceive them. He is saying that within a minute long commercial or advertisement, a whole scenario can be displayed, versus reading the same scenario in a few pages worth of text. More and more people choose video text over regular text simply because its easier to get a clear understanding of what the author is portraying and it is more fascinating and simpler to absorb. Overall, in Scholes article, he explains the idea of ideology, meaning the believes of culture or individuals, and ties that in with how commercials are made and what producers look at when they’re trying to sell their product to the average consumer. They direct their ideas and scenarios based on what people can relate to and what they know, which allows the consumer to become more interested, and maybe lead to them buying their product. Even though Scholes thinks that more and more people are watching video texts, I concede that just as many people are reading texts, depending on the age group and the focus of the text. Some people are visual learners and have to see what they’re trying to learn about, and others need to write it down or maybe have something in front of them at all times to read and reread, to get a better understanding of what the text is about. Although, I do still agree with Scholes when he mentions that video text is giving us “power through the enhancement of our vision”, which I think a lot of people look at as an advantage. All in all, I think that both video text and reading text will be around for a while due to people’s different learning styles and what captivates them.