In The Electronic Word by Lanham, he explores the ways digital technologies impact the humanities, and the role technology and rhetoric play in higher education. My understanding of digital rhetoric is the way people use technology like websites, blogs, and social media to communicate, persuade, and share information. Rhetoric works in the way messages are delivered and understood in the online world. Lanham argues that digital production connects to other theories, sociology, and literary theory. Digital production must defend certain aspects of copyright, the baseline of rhetoric. Arguing to defend copyright law or any other legal argument is rooted in rhetorical theory. Digital production will automatically bring up legal debates because it raises questions around ownership.
Hypertext
The hypertext theory explores how digital texts work when they are connected through links instead of being read like print text from a book. George Landow, author of Hypertext/Text/Theory, explored hypertext theory. He connected hypertext to past forms of print text. Furthermore, when he compared hypertext to print text, he noted that print text keeps things separate. However, hypertext shows the connections between different texts. This proved Roland Barthes’s point that “no text stands alone.” Hyperlinks change how we read and interact with text.
After 1997, theorists thought about how rhetoric works in digital spaces, and they realized that it was not just about being able to convince or persuade a reader. Instead, it was about how communication shapes people and their actions (Bazerman, 1999). Moreover, there are strengths in communication, and these changes build digital rhetoric. As Aristotle explained, rhetoric uses “all available means.” However, the difference is that our means include technology and digital tools.
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