new media & visual rhetoric
TRANSCRIPT
New Media Visual Rhetoric
Alan J. Reid, Ph.D.
Coastal Carolina University
&
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.
