Types of online texts. Among the most common types of texts online are Web sites, blogs, wikis, and audio or video texts.
Web sites and blogs are similar in appearance, and both usually include links to other parts of the site or to other sites. Both are relatively easy to update. Web sites are often organized as a cluster of associations. Readers expect blog content to be refreshed frequently (more often than the contents of a Web page), so blog posts are commonly time-stamped, and the newest content appears first. Blogs usually invite readers to comment publicly on each post, while Web sites often have a single contact link allowing readers to email the site’s creator(s) directly.
Wikis—collaborative online texts—create communities where all content is peer reviewed and evaluated by other members. They are powerful tools for sharing a lot of information because they draw on the collective knowledge of many contributors.
Audio and video content can vary as widely as the content found in written-word media—audiobooks, video diaries, pop-culture mashups, radio shows, short documentaries, fiction films, and so on. Writers who create podcasts (which can be downloaded for playback) and streaming media (which can be played without downloading) may produce episodic content united by a common host or theme. Audio and video files can stand alone as online texts on sites such as YouTube, but they can also be embedded on a Web page or blog or included in a presentation to add dimension to still images and written words.