The Power of Print

Heba discusses the power that print technology holds over our ideas about formal or official information. He claims the way in which everything must be "put in writing" verifies the significance that people place on the written word. "Our orientation to communication is still predominately centered in a concept of the authority of the written word and its power to shape formal experience" (Heba 129). Literacy of the print medium is important. While "print literacy" is at the basis of all writing courses (including technical writing), "traditional communication models," Heba argues, "are not adequate for preparing technical communicators to become multimedia literate" (Heba 129). Traditional models simply reinforce the idea that printed matter is the best, and perhaps only, formal medium for transmitting information.