In this week’s reading we were introduced to Kevin Brock and his article “Toward The Rhetorical Study of Code.” Brock confronts common misconceptions about programming. When most people think of codes it is usually followed by some sequence of letters or numbers. However, Brock argues that they also have means of communication and persuasion. He makes the claim that codes can have an influence on our understanding and interactions with different digital environments. This is also referred to as the “rhetorical code”, meaning that programmers can influence the user’s emotions through the codes they program.
Communication & Codes
Codes can use communication to inform a program or computer on what to do. Brock defines it as a form of expression. That is because it’s doing the intended purpose that it is meant to do by the programmer who created it. This makes me think of our websites. We are creating it to do exactly what we want. We can make it display specific fonts, colors, styles, etc. And we can even add additional features such as live polls, ratings, and more. But no matter what we choose, we are creating it in a way that will make sense with our topic.
Persuasion & Codes
Codes can also use persuasion because the programmers who create the codes get to pick the choices that users can interact with. What they decide to choose will influence what users can and cannot do on the program. For example, take the game Fireboy and Watergirl on the computer (commonly found on CoolMathGames). Fireboy is coded to move with the arrow keys and Watergirl is coded to move with the WASD keys. These controls can not be switched because that is how the game was coded. Rhetoric is also linked to coding as it is also a form of persuasion. Overall, I believe that coding is a crucial and complex part of the digital world.
Side note: check out my recent blog post Principles of New Media & Multimedia
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