Everything starts in a physical form. The initial understanding of text is something physical. But “text” is not just a book. Anything can be read by tracing connections and finding non-existent details. . Think of it this way: the last time a person read a new fact was from information on the internet. That is text. But how? That person after reading that form will now be able to look deeper into the facts and create their own ideas. They will see what is written on that website and notice it as the result of social action and based on facts. Hopefully. Doug Eyman in his work “Defining and Locating Digital Rhetoric” doesn’t exactly jump into an argument this time, shocking. He does however delve into how Text is the ground zero. Or more so helped by it.
Text needs something to back it up. Similar to Digital Rhetoric, the information had to come from somewhere. It didn’t just appear from thin air, but some of it can. Text is a container for arguments and opinions. Digital Rhetoric falls perfectly into that category. I’ve definitely fallen victim to the false information I have read in those texts, but the underlying truth is that there was an understanding of design. That false information didn’t start out false. It may have achieved the purpose of speaking of the topic, but their opinions of it just took over.
In modern times an example of this could be a new station reporting a current event and the media taking it way out of proportion. This is what creates pretty websites on opinions that only have the information that would get other people to riot with them. In Eyman’s words, “digital rhetoric is the case of the website, which persuades each user that it is worthy of use, based on design, usability, and accessibility”. Digital Rhetoric uses text and creates a whole new realm of theorizing and studying, which then creates a circle.
I watch this one guy on YouTube whose shtick is to create theories based on a solid foundation. Whether it be games or food or clothing, he has something solid to start with. People then take his theories and make their own while also going back to the original source. It’s getting something solid and turning it into something new. See, a circle. Or, maybe a really pretty oval since it takes so long for people to actually want to go back to the beginning.
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