new media & visual rhetoric

New Media Visual Rhetoric

Alan J. Reid, Ph.D.

Coastal Carolina University

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Today’s Objectives

• Understand and explain the terms new media and

visual rhetoric.

• Conduct a rhetorical analysis of a digital

interface.

To be able to:

New Media

Includes science, humanities, computing, and

visual arts, specifically, in relation to digital text.

The Medium is the Message

The medium of communication is as valuable as

the message itself (McLuhan, 1964).

New Media & Composition

Just as good writing involves more than putting

words on a page, good design involves more than

using words and pictures to convey information

(Handa, 2004, p.4).

Media dictates rhetoric, ethos, and attention.

“

New(s) Media

Answer Poll Question #1: Where do you get your news?

News and Social Media

• 64% U.S. adults use Facebook

• 3 in 10 users get news from Facebook

• 78% of users receive news incidentally

We Are All Producers

Twitter, along with all social media, has made

everyone producers of content, not just consumers.

Producers of content carry varying levels of

authority and credibility (ethos).

New Media

Advantages

• Immediacy

• Accessibility

• Networking

• Interactivity

Disadvantages

• Immediacy

• Limited Perceptual Span

• Split-attention

• Encourages task-switching

New Media

Using images and symbols to construct argument,

consciously or not.

The composer as the “maker of meaning”

(Trimbur, 2002)

The visual design of writing factors into the rhetorical

posture. The page itself is a “unit of discourse

(Trimbur, 2002)

Visual Rhetoric

Visual Rhetoric & BYOD

iPad

iMac Pocket Reader

Visual Rhetoric & Barcodes

Now, they are ubiquitous, functional, and they have

connotations of “technology, identity, and identification” (Morrison & Arnall, 2011, p.229).

Barcodes, invented in 1948, used to signify “Big Brother.”

Visual Rhetoric & Quick Response (QR)

Answer Poll Question #2: Have you ever used a QR?

Visual Rhetoric of the Interface

Interface is the...

“place of interaction for the technological, human, social, and

cultural aspects which make up computer-mediated

communication and, more specifically, new media”

(Carnegie, 2009, p.165)

Simply put, interface is a meeting-point or intersection.

A print text and its type, pages, book jacket

A computer and its monitor, mouse, or keyboard

A website and its graphical design

TheFacebook, 2005.

Facebook, 2014.

Visual Rhetoric & Interactivity

New Media implements visual rhetoric.

Visual rhetoric engages the user in its Interface.

Interfaces determine the level of interactivity.

Modes of

Interactivity*

Multi-directionality

Manipulability

Presence

* Carnegie, 2009

Multi-directionality

Hyperlinks to outside content.

The role of the network user: sender, receiver, both

Low High

Sending a message unrelated to a previous

message or not expecting a return message.Real-time interaction, ability to

send and receive.

Manipulability

Low High

Digitization of objects such as sounds, text,

animation, video, and photos into units of data.

Customization.

Moodle BlackBoard WordPress

Presence

Users’ perceptions of immediacy, movements, and

connection to others.

Low High

Asynchronous,

online courses

Face-to-FaceWeb-enhanced,

telepresence

Answer Poll Question #3: In which mode of

interactivity is Facebook’s interface the strongest?

‘Leave a Reply’

• Name a way in which online technologies have

influenced or persuaded a decision.

• How has social media turned everyone into a

producer as well as a consumer of new media?

• Is the medium truly as valuable as the message

itself?

*Please utilize language from today’s presentation.

References

Carnegie, T. (2009). Interface as exordium: The rhetoric of interactivity. Computers

and Composition, 26, 164-173. doi: 10.1016/j.compcom.2009.05.005

Facebook. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.facebook.com

Handa, C. (2004). Visual rhetoric in a digital world: A critical sourcebook. Boston,

MA: Bedford/St. Martin’s.

Morrison, A. Arnall, T. (2011). Visualizations of digital interaction in daily life.

Computers and Composition, 28(3), 224-234.

Contact Information

Alan Reid

areid@coastal.edu

alanreidphd.wordpress.com