Digital Rhetoric
In Doug Eyman’s book “Digital Rhetoric: Theory, Method, Practice”, he introduces us to the term digital rhetoric. This term appears in a wide range of locations such as: scholarly articles, blogs, discussion lists, etc. which is why it is hard to have just one straight definition of it. To better understand this, let’s break it down. The digital part is what surrounds technology, it is used to create. For example, Microsoft or Google docs. Rhetoric is essentially persuasion. Persuasion is how you convince the reader of something. As long as there’s persuasion, there’s rhetoric. Digital rhetoric is basically rhetoric in digital spaces. He goes on to explain that almost all human acts of communication involve rhetorical practice whether they realize it or not.
Intersexuality
He also explains some pros and cons of intersexualities. Intersexuality is used as a rhetorical effect. For web users, intersexuality is based off of the texts/websites they come across while surfing the internet. That means they’ll be able to access more information than a medium user would. Eyman also argues that it is important to consistently develop online and offline mediums in order to keep a sense of the web’s history and development.
He tries to find a balance between old and new, and traditional and current. Although the present might seem like it should be the main focus, it is important to also remember the past and the process of the web so we are aware of how it developed to where we are today. Working on the present after having an understanding of the past will help to advance the future of technology. It provides us with the possibility of new methods, strategies, and theories that can be tried and utilized by scholars. However, with changes being made so rapidly it can be hard to keep up.
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