This week we looked into Kevin Brock’s views in Toward the Rhetorical Study of Code. He discusses that computer coding is a helpful tool to use in the world of technology. Code is a way to communicate. Not only is it a way to communicate but it is a way to influence people. He discussed how code is like a language and must be understood as to how it shapes certain actions.
Communication Through Code
Code can be used as communication as essentially it is telling a program or computer exactly what to do. He explained that it was a form of expression as it reflects the intended purposes from the individual that created it. I can start to see this in the personal website I am creating for my nails and work. While I began to mess around with my website and uncover all of the hidden features I had no idea about, I ended up discovering the coding behind my website. This was quite fascinating to me. I knew it would change as I continued to make the website mine with its own intended features.
Rhetoric
Code can also be used as a form of persuasion and it connects to rhetoric. People who write the code, they are basically making the choices that people interact with. The choices provided can influence what can and cannot be done. I saw through Brock’s explanation that as rhetoric is a form of persuasion, it is linked to coding as the code persuades the person using it and the machine, website, or platform it is on.
As a whole, I believe that code is something that is a whole complicated study of its own. It is able to communicate, persuade, and influence very effectively to a set audience and is overall a very necessary tool within the world of technology and digital studies.
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