Reflections on Digital Rhetoric Class

Discuss ways multimodal composing differs from and is related to your composing practices for alphabetic, print texts. How did this class affect your previous experience with digital writing both as a reader/consumer of digital media, and as a creator of digital media?

Multimodal writing is text that includes more than just written text, words, or letters.  This type of rhetoric uses photographs, videos, drawing, music, and any other form of compositions that are geared towards informing or persuading the audience or viewer(s).  The form of multimodal writing that I am familiar with are that of the digital world: blogs, podcasts, and video/audio essays.

These two methods are similar in production in that they both require an understanding of the methods of rhetoric.  In order to appeal to my audience both the alphabetic and digital texts have to consider the audience/speaker/subject triangle often used as an example for what rhetoric is.  Furthermore they both require an understanding of ethos, logos, and pathos and which one will succeed for the specific multimodal or traditional text They both require knowing what style and structure of the piece is necessary to appeal to the audience.  So when I create either of these texts (multimodal or alphabetical) I consider what the purpose is and how to best navigate the outcome, seeking information that successful reaches the audience with the right intention.  This information just changes its form from text to visual, but isn't necessarily that different regarding composition choices in these terms.

I find that because the multimodal pieces that I create are “published” in the digital world (online) then my thoughts are filled with concern of the “whole world” being able to read my words because it is more easily accessible than alphabetic text.  This makes me more cautious as to what I create.  This may be because I considering how all of my alphabetic text, so far, have been for classes.  When something is publishes and made public (all of the digital is) then the same would apply.

The actual ways in which I compose these two different texts differ in how I gather my thoughts or ideas.  When I compose an alphabetic text, I make a list of what I want to accomplish and start making examples.  Everything is done with words and letters.  So when I create multimodal texts I find that because I can’t just simply write everything out my process varies a little.  With my experience as a photographer and specifically a photographer that leans towards sending messages through images only I tend to visualize messages via images, meaning I tend to “see” an effective method rather than writing through texts.  When I want to reach an audience using visual and textual elements I find that there is a high importance in what words are left out.  Take for example the Rape Culture video essay that I created that relied heavily on images.

For the Rape Culture blog post, I created a ton of text for people to read and also linked to multiple online webpages that further explained the idea of what rape culture is.  But for the video, had I included all of that information it would have been too bombarding for the viewer.  The audience will get impatient and not finish the video if there is too much information that is included.  For short video essays, the viewer expects to be hit with the information in a short amount of time and least amount of effort.  I used mostly images with little text in order to make a point and I feel that the success of the video comes from the information that I chose to leave out. 

In terms of our class  “Digital Rhetorics and Multimodal Writing” the ways in which I read/consume digital media wasn’t drastically changed.  I think this is because of my dual majors in both very different forms of communication, but when used together is an application of multimodal writing.  I have combined text with images before and had an introduction to what I consider to be the affects of digital media.  What it did do was expand my world of what includes digital rhetoric, like the gaming world and comics.  And simply just looking at multimodal composing in terms of rhetoric. 

Having once been apart of owning an internet marketing company made me aware of the hypertext, html formatting, word usage within a website, etc. in order to appear first in the search engine.  I feel that the knowledge of that business thoroughly prepped me for digital writing in terms of marketing.  And in a way successful marketing is an expression of successful rhetoric (for that type of text). This class did however help with how I create digital media.  Having our multimodal project put me in the position of being a multimodal writer as well as our blog.  Having these experiences and this position of creation made me conscious of how to best create both.  I wouldn’t say that I succeeded in either, but that I am more aware now of the implication of a blog and how using images with entries is helpful for the audience in both breaking up all of the reading (as the viewer hasn’t sat down to read a book) so that they don’t feel overwhelmed, and visually stimulating and narrowing down an intended message.

In the future, I think I will definitely be keeping a blog but now I’ll be considering the rhetorical implications of such an easily accessible composition of things that I will be responsible for creating.  I don't think that this wouldn't have been of consideration, but now I will certainly include more multi-modal forms of blogs, rather than just written alphabetic posts because I found that those blogs that includes imagery seemed to be more effective than those that did not.

How do you now apply rhetorical theory to digital/multimodal texts? How might this knowledge be important/applicable outside a classroom setting in terms of issues like power and ethics?

The expansion of rhetorical theory has now expanded from the alphabetic text to multimodal writings.   When I look at digital/multimodal texts I analyze the information letters, words, images, and sounds to find the style, tone, and structure along with the use of ethos, logos, and pathos.  I would say that applying rhetorical theory to the digital would be to analyze the visual composition along with the word composition.

Take for instance the video that I uploaded in the beginning of class, the one on Consent.  This video uses sounds and images along with text to get the point across to the audience.  When I think of the theory in terms of a “language that is comprised of persuasion” then I start to analyze the images that were used in a specific multimodal piece, the choice of the combinations made, the use of videos.  I look at these in terms of the above: ethos, logos, and pathos, style, tone, and structure.

For the Consent video because it was such a heavy topic, the writer used a softer element “tea” to make the point of consent.  This choice is easier to digest for the viewer while still maintaining truth towards the intended message.  The use of a simple pencil drawing choice for the visual aspect was a way the reader could maintain a lightness for a heavy topic.

If I am thinking of this question correctly, how would this apply to outside the classroom setting in terms of issues like power and ethics?  The first thing that comes to mind is the how rhetorical theory is applied to digital/multimodal texts in the way that is actually used to persuade the audience. 

I guess, it’s more like when we are aware of the digital release of information like that of the search engine and the reality of net neutrality then this knowledge can be applied to go around this power struggle and lack of Internet ethics that exists.  By understanding what is involved in the rhetoric of the digital world then one can navigate around the power and ethics involved.

Why is it important to gain a multimodal literacy as a writer in contemporary times?

I find this question quite valid.  I believe that due to the direction we are moving as a society, people that are gathering information are seemingly doing so on a digital level.  Books are being read on cell phones through a kindle app, Facebook is the platform (unfortunately) where many people get their “news”, video essays are littered all over social media to spread awareness.  For these exact reasons, multimodal literacy as a writer is incredibly important.

With the statement earlier about Facebook “unfortunately” a large source of news for many people, multimodal literacy is crucial.  As a writer, if one wishes to be an honest writer that spreads the “truth” is it important to understand how to create successful memes, videos, and images linked with the right text (if needed) to spread knowledge to the audience.  However, because of the accessibility of creating such information the validity, honor, truth, accountability tends to fall more lenient, providing a platform where “news” becomes “entertainment” and therefore not as reliable. 

I feel that being a successful writer means understanding how to successfully reach the audience and a large part of the audience relies heavily on the digital world make it crucial to have multimodal literacy.  I have witnessed a close friend who refuses to pick up the newspaper, magazine, book but spends countless hours a week surfing the “texts” on his phone.  I safely argue that this is the case for many people, so to succeed, as a writer expanding from the alphabetic text will be crucial.

For those that are more interested in reading a book online, it could be beneficial as a writer to learn how to design a digital version of a book so that the audience is expanded. 

What I see as the most crucial are the video essays.  For a writer to have in-depth multimodal literacy would mean that one could create a successful video essay, which have been known to have MILLIONS of viewers.  This amount of people to reach is largely conducive to a successful writer, and in our time period seemingly the smartest decision one could make.

There is also the blog.  Blogs are a common outlet for readers to be exposed and to have a platform to expose their work that doesn’t need to be published first.  The freedom of accessibility and deliverance allows for more writers to have more success, which means that understanding this digital rhetoric will be conducive to surpassing the millions of bloggers that are already out there.  The industry is saturated and therefore to stick out will be crucial and to stick out means to have multimodal literacy.

An Experience of an Archivist

I have found a love for sifting through somebody's (artist, writer, created, etc.) personal files in order to determine their creative process.  This is all due to the a class project involving MSU's digital/physical archive of Ivan Doig.  Here is a link to the our project: Ivan Doig Story Map.  I spent hours sifting through folders in the special collections in the library.  I found it best to physically handle his research as oppsed to digitally searching it.

In terms of archival literary, I would say that the most beneficial part, wasn't using the digital archive and understanding it as the digital archive has some difficult navigation in terms of finding certain information.  However, using the physical archive to then link back to the digital archive to analyze Doig's rhetorical properties of research was the most beneficial.  For me, this is the most valuable part of the project, was actually "seeing" his creative process and understanding the rhetorical properties and thus benefits of his research that creates his work.  By analyzing his research we were able to conclude the connection behind his detailed research and process to his novel The Last Bus to Wisdom.  This allowed us to give the archive meaning.  In creating a story map that connects his research to his creative process to the end product of his book, then there is significance in the archive itself.

What I like the most, is that he completely inspired new methods of writing for me.  For the research of The Last Bus to Wisdom he has papers that cover every little detail of the story, down to the stamps used in the book, moccasins worn, etc.  It seems like a beneficial process, to physically surround a work space with the visual elements of things that are to be written about.

I like the method that our group chose, the story map, because it's a way to digitally access some of his work but in a more interconnected way.  We also used this method to discuss the meanings that we found from the archive into web text.  The platform is user friendly and easily accessible.  During this project we used the help of the librarians extensively, who were always attentive and knew exactly what to do to answer the problems that we were having.  It's quite incredible, the knowledge that those ladies have regarding such a large collection.

Also, Ross nailed the creation of the story map.  We all participated in the research and then Ross created the story map with it!  I enjoy the final product as there was a short time where I feel (all of us maybe) didn't quite know exactly how this idea was going to come together, it rather unravelled throughout the research.