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Electronic Monuments chapter, “Introduction: The EmerAgency”
1. Electracy: Literacy of digital media. Same concept as what literacy is to print. Similar to the idea of being ‘technologically literate’.
- The Internet Accident: Public space in real time becomes an image in some medium, “when you invent the ship, you invent the shipwreck (Virilio). Ideas exist in a social setting.
Jenkins, “Why Participatory Culture Is Not Web 2.0“
- What Popularity Means: What can we learn from memes and viral content? Do these popular things reveal anything about us? (Group level)
Bring in humor/enjoyment to educate a group. Electracy for civic engagement, active creation of content … rhetoric of entertainment.
Group identity vs. individual identity.
Facebook & Philosophy chapters (?-?):
- Spectacle Two Point Oh: We care most about “The Spectacle” ask, how many of us get together and cook elaborate meals? Or get together and sing or perform? (vs how many people watch American Idol/Talent/Cooking BS). Decline of the “Authentic Experience”…
Thus, singing != music, but is about glamour/stardom.
Clothing -> fashion. Transportation -> bling.
- Surveillance: generates power, datamining… Internet is self-regulating in that we have internalized who monitors us (and we will control/moderate what we reveal).
Networking = mediated communications, happens in Interstitial Space
Gatekeepers – who do we let in?
Moderators – how do we present ourselves? (selective)
Payoff – what are the implications for community?
- Identity: Users wear many masks and reveal different sides of self to specific groups of people (or hide from family, employers, etc) Identity can be manipulated, evolved…
Restraint of Accountability = by removing anonymity and requiring personally identifying info, user is not free to “radically” create a fictional identity…
Life as play, maintaining an identity -> narcissism? Distorted reality? Identity crisis?
“Weblogs and the Public Sphere” Andrew Baoill
INCLUSIVITY: Three obstacles:
(1) Time Commitment: Bloggers must keep track of news/info – monitor the “electronic neighborhood” to find good blogging material… daunting task: hard to be noticed, how to establish credibility?
(2) Tech Literacy: 24% of Americans have no direct experience with internet. In general, the internet population is younger, wealthier, and more educated. Consider audience…
(3) Financial Resources: Hosting, funding, encouragement/incentives … a connection.
RANK: should not be a factor – you should have to build your own reputation. The rise of “A-List Bloggers” from outside connections is bad for the meritocracy-based blogosphere.
Reaching an audience is a necessary step in becoming involved in debate.
Clay Shirky recognizes, “It’s not impossible to launch a good new blog and become widely read, but it’s harder than it was last year, and it will be harder still next year” (2003).
Culture Clash: Journalism and the Communal Ethos of Blogosphere
Ethos = credibility, ethical appeal, commanding respect/attention
Traditional Media Ethos: accuracy, fairness, timeliness, clarity, comprehensiveness.
In order to establish, requires a team of Reporters, Editors, Fact-checkers, Designers, Technicians, Etc!
Communal Website Ethos: inclusive, transparent, rewarding, smart…
Maintained by one voice. Consistent. Produces “smart mobs, trust matrixes”
Rice, “The Making of Ka-Knowledge: Digital Aurality”
(Everything is a remix)
Consider audience, how to engage? Pace? Tone?
Digital Rhetoric as stitching or “mashing up”, including memes/images/whatnot.
Brown, “Composition in the Dromosphere”
Dromosphere = speedy rhetorical environment
Writing rhetoric as nimble, attends to various rhythms. Tuning in to the audience…
The network platform analyzed for Exercise 1 (reddit): will determine…experienced public sphere? imagined/actual community? sense of being networked?
Favorite cultural form: video games/emulation (SNES)
Internet Policy Monitor 