As I read Doug Eyman’s article Defining and locating Digital Rhetoric I knew that he had a different idea of what the word text meant than what I did. After reading, I realized how layered and complex the meaning of this word truly is. Doug says a good start to understanding the meaning is to approach text as a communicative event. I wasn’t surprised after reading his other ideas on words. Eyman believes that it should be understood broadly. The word text actually doesn’t just include written words but can also include images, videos and other multimedia elements. The word “text” actually has many different layers to it, to be exact there’s 7 criterias. They consist of cohesion, coherence, intentionality, acceptability, informality, situationality, and intertextuality.
Rethinking the word Text
The word “text” shouldn’t be limited to just written words because in reality it can include any communicative act. Some examples of some digital texts can include websites, blogs, podcasts etc. But many of you probably are wondering how a podcast is a text when its people talking on microphones? ? A podcast is considered a text because of the audio files that are distributed that often are accompanied by the show notes or transcripts that help them as they are live in action. As students part of this class many of us have experience dealing with texts through a blog as we have to write and read them weekly. But did you ever really think about it as a text? We probably never thought about many of the words Doug Eymnan has talked about as anything deeper until we read his texts.
Overall, Eyman’s view emphasizes the importance of considering ALL the different components when analyzing texts. Also, by recognizing and using the different components that make up texts we can communicate more effectively. We can also create better and more engaging content in our lives.
Read my latest blog post: Writing vs. Orality
Leave a Reply