Paula Miller In the 1970s, freelance journalist Ralph Lee Smith referred to the internet as an “electronic highway,” and through the 90s, we called the internet the “information superhighway,” a place to link humans with knowledge on just about every topic imaginable. Since those exciting early moments, the ways we conceive of the internet has shifted, and while that information component is still strong, we’re living in an era of community-driven digispace, with human-centric tools (the writing studies tree, rhetmap) and meeting places (Twitter, Reddit, Snapchat) that are empty without their communities driving them. There are even those digital phenomena…
Author: Nathan Riggs
Paula M Miller, Brandy Dieterle, Leigh Meredith, Jenae Cohn, Nathan Riggs, Neil Simpkins
Nathan Riggs is a doctoral student in the Rhetorics, Communication and Information Design program at Clemson University. His current research focuses on the convergence of simulation, cognitive science and new (and old) materialisms as they relate to Rhetoric and Communication. On the side, Nathan creates digital artifacts and serious games. You can find more information, as well as some of his work, at http://www.nathanriggs.com; the website is currently being redeveloped.
Title: The Data Drive Author: Daniel Kolitz Publication: Useless Press Release Date: August 3rd, 2015 Website: http://www.thedatadrive.com When researching and practicing digital rhetoric, as in all disciplines, it is often far too easy to forget to aim one’s critical lens not only at the rhetorical content of the platform in question, but also the platform itself. This is only natural (whatever “natural” means), and applies to more than just the digital; in fact, many have argued that a good text—again, whatever “good” could possibly mean—is so engrossing that the means of its delivery seems altogether transparent. If it is not…
It never really occurred to me, until somewhat recently, that I learned how to “say” something complicated to a computer before I learned how to do the same thing effectively in more traditional, print-based writing to other people. I learned how to use a semicolon to separate statements in computer languages long before learning how to “properly” use one in the English language (and how to “properly” use scare quotes), and I knew how to navigate through a vast array of file formats, on multiple operating systems, before I was taught how to format a standard academic essay. It sounds…