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This course provides a theoretical and critical overview of communication in cyberspace, such as email, MOOs, Web pages, Usenet newsgroups, e-lists, and other forms of Internet-based communication. Although television and radio have had significant impacts on the rhetorical situations of human discourse, the interactive, simultaneous, global technologies of the Internet are being viewed as an even greater force (some say revolution) in how we communicate with each other. This revolution can be understood from many perspectives, but rhetoric offers a critical lens through which to see the social and cultural implications--particularly the persuasive power and implications for personal privacy-- of this technology.
Communication in cyberspace is different from traditional communication in many ways. In rhetorical studies, for example, communication is usually evaluated first by deciding if it is spoken or written and then by considering such communication in terms of the rhetorical canons. Yet online communication blurs the boundaries between oral and written discourse and raises questions about the traditional canons. In addition, interactions in cyberspace raise questions about identity, literacy, gender, community, intellectual property, privacy, commerce, the classroom, and the corporation. An interdisciplinary body of research called Internet Studies has arisen in response to this phenomenon. As a result, this class will analyze Internet discourse using rhetorical and other theory, with an emphasis on the persuasive power of electronic space. We will apply these ways of thinking to discourse taken from the Internet. Students will have an opportunity to publish white papers as part of the Internet Studies Center at the University of Minnesota.
View all five works by Gurak, Laura J.
View all 18 works published by University of Minnesota |
Rhetoric, Privacy, and Persuasion in Cyberspace
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~gurakl/syllabi/8550.html
Gurak, Laura J.
University of Minnesota
2002
Abstract: This course provides a theoretical and critical overview of communication in cyberspace, such as email, MOOs, Web pages, Usenet newsgroups, e-lists, and other forms of Internet-based communication. Although television and radio have had significant impacts on the rhetorical situations of human discourse, the interactive, simultaneous, global technologies of the Internet are being viewed as an even greater force (some say revolution) in how we communicate with each other. This revolution can be understood from many perspectives, but rhetoric offers a critical lens through which to see the social and cultural implications--particularly the persuasive power and implications for personal privacy-- of this technology.
Communication in cyberspace is different from traditional communication in many ways. In rhetorical studies, for example, communication is usually evaluated first by deciding if it is spoken or written and then by considering such communication in terms of the rhetorical canons. Yet online communication blurs the boundaries between oral and written discourse and raises questions about the traditional canons. In addition, interactions in cyberspace raise questions about identity, literacy, gender, community, intellectual property, privacy, commerce, the classroom, and the corporation. An interdisciplinary body of research called Internet Studies has arisen in response to this phenomenon. As a result, this class will analyze Internet discourse using rhetorical and other theory, with an emphasis on the persuasive power of electronic space. We will apply these ways of thinking to discourse taken from the Internet. Students will have an opportunity to publish white papers as part of the Internet Studies Center at the University of Minnesota.
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