Rhetoric of Digital publishing

Course Description

How has published writing evolved with technology? Whether it is a blog, a piece of investigative journalism, a listicle, or an essay, what makes a piece of born-digital writing successful? Because the web has such a large audience, and there are so many publishing options, how do writers choose where to pitch a specific piece of writing? What kind of language do writers use to speak to different digital audiences and how do they keep that audience engaged? How are audiences different now than when journalism and magazine writing were only available in print?

Writers in the digital age must take their audience into careful consideration when crafting their work, and even in choosing images and titles. Audience, language, writing, style, content: these are all concerns of rhetoricians and communications and media scholars, which is where our work will intersect.

This course is designed to work towards some possible answers (though we will probably find few "right" answers). In the first unit, we will explore journalism and magazine writing since the late 1960s, 70s and 80s, focusing specifically on New Journalism and writing up to the internet age. We will then move to a more in-depth study of the current state of digital media.


Objectives

Students will learn:

  • Students will learn to identify and evaluate rhetorical strategies across a range of texts: visual, digital, and print.

  • Conduct thorough, effective research using library resources, the Harry Ransom Center, and search engines

  • Assess the credibility of a variety of print and digital sources

  • Analyze multiple perspectives on the development of digital publishing

  • Write clear and effective written arguments

  • Pitch a piece of writing to a professional blog, online newspaper, magazine, or other digital publishing environment

  • Evaluate the importance of branding in the digital age and how it can be used effectively to build a personal brand that gathers attention

Major Assignments

Short paper 1 | Remediation

Choose one article from an original print source found in either the Harry Ransom Center or a university library like the PCL from between 1960 and 1980. You will rewrite this article for the publication’s digital audience, remediating with hyperlinks and images as necessary.  An article or column from a printed collection is also OK, but the publication must still exist. Suggestions include: The New York Times, The Washington Post, Rolling Stone, Vogue, Esquire, The New Yorker, the Village Voice, and others.

You need not rewrite the piece word for word, and you may have to condense or summarize the language. Think about what the author may choose to hyperlink and what image he or she might use. Would it be different in a digital space? How can you condense or rewrite this piece for a digital audience? You don't need to worry about plagiarizing your author, I realize that the assignment calls for it. Plagiarize away and re-mediate! (Look to examples of some of the essays from Didion, Wolfe, and Thomson that have been republished online but were written before the internet). 

Long Paper 1 | Comparison Paper

For this assignment, you will compare a born-digital essay (post-2000) or article to a pre-internet piece (1960-1989ish) by the same author - you can use your article from the last assignment as your pre-internet piece. Possible authors to choose from may include seasoned writers with a long career like David Carr, Joan Didion, Robert Christgau, Nora Ephron, Hunter S. Thompson or others. 

Some questions you might explore here in comparing these two pieces of writing, including, but not limited to the following:

1. Other than the natural development of individual writing styles, how did the author’s writing change for a digital context versus a print one?

2. What kinds of rhetorical devices and modes were used in the digital piece that would not transfer to a print audience, and vice versa?

3. Could the print piece have benefited from any digital objects embedded in the digital piece (hyperlinks, photos, etc.)? (You may use some of the work you did in the previous short paper for support).

4. What is different about the print piece, rhetorically, as compared to the digital one? 

Long Paper 2 | Digital Platform Analysis

For your second longer paper, you will prepare an evaluative argument of one born-digital blog, website, or aggregator (Jezebel, Digg, the Huffington Post, Deadspin, or any other). Your investigation should consist of a few major parts:

1. The paper should be grounded in a brief overview of the platform itself and should include a basic argument for what they do best and why you think they are (or aren't) successful at it.

2. It should give an overview of the platform’s current branding methods (what kinds of headlines are published to grab a reader's attention, what is the brand doing on social media, what kinds of writers do they employ, is the website liberal or conservative and how does that affect its content, etc.). The questions you explore may be different for the platform you choose. 

3. An investigation into the site’s audience through a media kit and other primary investigative means (digging through comments sections, visiting the site's social media channels, observing who is sharing what). 


Final Project | Students may choose between the following:

1. Write a detailed marketing pitch for an original born-digital blog or news service, series of essays, long-form essay, or photo essay. Alternatively, you may write an analysis of a blog or news service that you see as failing in its digital world and explain how you would fix it. 5 pages, double spaced, 12-pt font (Times New Roman or Garamond).

2. Choose a younger writer (journalist, essayist, etc) who has gained prominence in the past 5 years or so, explore their background, and make a case for why their writing is effective and is being read. See me for a list of people, if no one we have read so far inspires you. 5 pages, double spaced, 12-pt font (Times New Roman or Garamond). 

3. Write a 3-4 page long-form digital piece, using some of the techniques we've explored in class (how would you use visual rhetoric? How would you use hyperlinks? What would be an effective title). This will include a polished 1-page single spaced abstract of what venue this would be good for and why it would be successful with your chosen venue's audience.  You can really do anything - if you want to do a photo essay or an art piece, make me a pitch. I am happy to brainstorm with you, so please come see me if you want.

4. Pitch me something.