New Media

&

Visual Rhetoric

Alan J. Reid, Ph.D. Coastal Carolina University

Todays Objectives
To be able to: Understand and explain the terms new media and visual rhetoric. Conduct a rhetorical analysis of a digital interface.

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 Disadvantages Immediacy

Accessibility
Networking

Limited Perceptual Span

Split-attention

Interactivity

Encourages task-switching

New Media Visual Rhetoric

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 & BYOD

iPad

iMac

Pocket Reader

Visual Rhetoric & Barcodes

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

Now, they are ubiquitous, functional, and they have connotations of technology, identity, and identification
(Morrison & Arnall, 2011, p.229).

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.

Multi-directionality Modes of Interactivity* Manipulability Presence

* Carnegie, 2009

Multi-directionality
Hyperlinks to outside content. The role of the network user: sender, receiver, both

Sending a message unrelated to a previous message or not expecting a return message.

Real-time interaction, ability to send and receive.

Low

High

Manipulability
Digitization of objects such as sounds, text, animation, video, and photos into units of data. Customization.

Moodle

BlackBoard

WordPress

Low

High

Presence
Users perceptions of immediacy, movements, and connection to others.

Asynchronous, online courses

Web-enhanced, telepresence

Face-to-Face

Low

High

Answer Poll Question #3: In which mode of interactivity is Facebooks 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 todays 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. Martins. 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