Traditional Motivations for Authorship
To consider the reasons for authorship in the context of the Web, we must first look at some of the motivation for authorship under traditional situations. There are many different reasons for authorship. Many would say that the primary motivation for authorship is money. In print media, the primary goal of writers is to achieve publication. Aspiring writers must submit their work to publishers, who judge the value of the work. If it is judged valuable, then the author will be able to profit, if not, then they won't. This author/publisher relationship limits the number of professional writers and provides a sort of quality control on published print writing. The advent of electronic media could have a serious impact on this relationship, perhaps eliminating but certainly changing the role of the publisher. Writing on the World Wide Web does not directly lead to profit, and at this point there is very little quality control. The uncertainty of copyright law also affects this relationship, since without strict copyright law in electronic media, the possibility of profiting from authorship is considerably less.
One thing that most people would likely agree on is that individuals have a positive personal motivation in authorship. Whether they are writing for profit, to put forth a set of ideas or beliefs, or merely for public acclimation, even in traditional print settings authors stand to benefit from what they write. This assumption remains constant when looking at electronic media. There has to be some reason for people to create, specifically, World Wide Web pages. While these reasons are changed somewhat from the realm of print to the realm of the Web, and the focuses shift considerably, in many cases they remain of the same.
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