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Critical Literacy in A Digital Era
Critical Literacy in a Digital Era offers an examination of the persuasive approaches used in discussions on and about the Internet. Its aim is to increase awareness of what is assumed, unquestioned, and naturalized in our media experience. Using a critical literacy framework for her analysis, author Barbara Warnick argues that new media technologies become accepted not only through their use, but also through the rhetorical use of discourse on and about them. She analyzes texts that discuss new media and technology, including articles from a major technology-oriented periodical; women's magazines and Web sites; and Internet-based political parody in the 2000 presidential campaign. These case studies bring to light the persuasive strategies used by writers to influence public discourse about technology.
The book includes analyses of narrative structures, speech genres, intertextuality, argument forms, writing formulae, and patterns of emphasis and neglect used in traditional and new media outlets. As a result, this distinctive work identifies the features of online speech that bring people and ideas together and enable communities to form in new media environments.
As a unique study of the ways in which ideology is embedded in rhetorical texts, this volume will play a significant role in the development of critical literacy about writing and speech concerning new communication technology. It will be of interest to readers concerned about how our talk about communication affects how we think about it, in particular those interested in communication and social change, public persuasion, and rhetorical criticism of new media content.
The book includes analyses of narrative structures, speech genres, intertextuality, argument forms, writing formulae, and patterns of emphasis and neglect used in traditional and new media outlets. As a result, this distinctive work identifies the features of online speech that bring people and ideas together and enable communities to form in new media environments.
As a unique study of the ways in which ideology is embedded in rhetorical texts, this volume will play a significant role in the development of critical literacy about writing and speech concerning new communication technology. It will be of interest to readers concerned about how our talk about communication affects how we think about it, in particular those interested in communication and social change, public persuasion, and rhetorical criticism of new media content.
158 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2001
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February 15, 2012
I may be unfairly biased against this book because it wasn't relevant to my specific project, but I was far enough into it that I had to finish reading.
This is a good book. It's important to talk about critical thinking in technology, because it's so easy to see technology as increasingly "invisible" as media become more widespread. When Warnick was writing, and in the time of the cases she was studying, technology was still about the elite. The Internet was more about science and math nerds than it was online shopping, watching Hulu, and blogs, blogs, blogs. The Internet was still about the specialist. Now that we're all on board, the need for critical literacy is far greater to keep us from joining the cheerleading team.
MVQ (most valuable quote): "A rhetorical middle course much be steered between uncritical enthusiams for the new technologies and bleak rejection of them. Uncritical enthusaismm encourages unthinking acceptance, whereas bleak rejection paints a picture that is doomed to be rejected by the public. Intelligent discussion of issues related to Internet policy is what is needed" (125).
This is a good book. It's important to talk about critical thinking in technology, because it's so easy to see technology as increasingly "invisible" as media become more widespread. When Warnick was writing, and in the time of the cases she was studying, technology was still about the elite. The Internet was more about science and math nerds than it was online shopping, watching Hulu, and blogs, blogs, blogs. The Internet was still about the specialist. Now that we're all on board, the need for critical literacy is far greater to keep us from joining the cheerleading team.
MVQ (most valuable quote): "A rhetorical middle course much be steered between uncritical enthusiams for the new technologies and bleak rejection of them. Uncritical enthusaismm encourages unthinking acceptance, whereas bleak rejection paints a picture that is doomed to be rejected by the public. Intelligent discussion of issues related to Internet policy is what is needed" (125).
Displaying 1 of 1 review