Debunking Nicholas Carr

If you're interested in a counter-argument to Is Google Making Us Stupid? have a look at this post on the academic blog Cyborgology:
http://thesocietypages.org/cyborgology/2010/12/29/myth-instant-communication-is-shallow/

Learning from YouTube

This article from the Chronicle of Higher Education contextualizes the project:
 http://chronicle.com/article/Free-Video-Book-From/126427/

By Marc Parry

"When Alexandra Juhasz began teaching a class about YouTube in 2007, journalists poked fun at the Pitzer College professor. Academic credit to watch goofy kitten videos? TechCrunch, a popular blog, said it might be the most ridiculous class any college had ever offered." (Parry)

Professor Juhasz and her class created a website combing video and text revealing the result of their inquiry into the educational uses of YouTube. Their results are here:
http://vectors.usc.edu/projects/learningfromyoutube/index.php

The parts I wanted to show in class have more to do with the discourse community formed by the class and the result of their inquiry. This page describes what happened when Professor Juhasz offered an A on the midterm to students who created the most popular entry to YouTube:
http://vectors.usc.edu/projects/learningfromyoutube/texteo.php?composite=104
I showed the first few minutes of this video in which students attempt to decode why certain videos are popular on YouTube.

In the next video, a student reveals the results of his inquiry into comments on popular political videos

In both these examples, students are looking into how discourse communities interact through YouTube.

This next example shows one student's response to the class inquiry. Watch her video on the right and then watch the professor's response on the left. I was interested by this student's rejection of video as a substitute for the written word and the professor's description of her video as "bad." What does she mean here?

 http://vectors.usc.edu/projects/learningfromyoutube/texteo.php?composite=95&tag=10
It seems like these videos have different audiences in mind. The student wants to demonstrate her ideas through text.She thinks text is the best way to explain her ideas. But the professor is looking to the video to "compete" in a way with other videos and show interesting images. This is an excellent example of how different genres (text versus video) reach out to separate discourse communities.

More Rhetoric Links

The Blogora is a collaborative space for connecting rhetoric, rhetorical methods and theories, and rhetoricians with public life. The Blogora is an initiative of the Rhetoric Society of America and is hosted by the Digital Writing and Research Lab, part of the Department of Rhetoric and Writing at The University of Texas at Austin. Visit the Blogora:
http://rsa.cwrl.utexas.edu/about

Rhetcomp may look like a site from the early days of the internet, but there are useful links here to blogs and online journals in the field of rhetoric.
http://mattlevy.home.mindspring.com/rhetcomp/index.html

If you find useful websites on rhetoric, language or literacy that you'd like to share with the class, please post them in the comments.

Nick Carr: "Is Google Making Us Stupid?"

This week's reading can be accessed here:
 http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/6868/

The excerpt comes from Carr's book The Shallows
His website is here: http://www.theshallowsbook.com/nicholascarr/Nicholas_Carrs_The_Shallows.html

We will discuss this reading in class on Friday the 25th.

Kairos

Here is a link to a journal that collects articles on technology and rhetoric:
http://kairos.technorhetoric.net/

Logos Gone Wrong

Wikipedia has a pretty good list of logical fallacies:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fallacies
This is an extensive catalogue of the ways logical appeals can be abused.
Have you seen any examples of these fallacies online?

How the Internet Gets Inside Us

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2011/02/14/110214crat_atlarge_gopnik
Here is an article about the books that claim the internet is making books irrelevant. With Harry Potter references.

Interview Reflection

Post your short reflection on the interview process here.
What worked? What didn't? Did you gather useful information through interviewing?
Your response is due by 5pm on Friday February 18th. 

Language as a Window into Human Nature

Here is an interesting talk about how language use affects our society by Steven Pinker. Have you seen any other good examples of discourse touching on how language shapes our society?

What is an academic article?

An academic article is written for scholars and specialists. Even though articles in publications like the New York Times or The Economist may be written for an educated audience, they don't have all the features of an academic journal article.
This chart from the UCF library's website can help clarify the distinctions between periodicals.
Questions? Ask here.

The Rhetorical Situation

My plan was to cover the elements of what is called the Rhetorical Situation for Wednesday. The Rhetorical Situation describes the elements that are present in discourse. Much of the thinking on this subject follows the work done by Lloyd Bitzer, who wrote an essay describing these elements. There are people who have disagreed with Bitzer; notably, Richard Vatz.

Read Bitzer's essay here: Rhetorical Situation Bitzer
and respond to this post with one thing from the essay you found yourself agreeing with and one question the essay made you ask.

I will see you on Friday, where we will pick up a quick review of your responses to Lutz and Allport.
Thank you!