ABSTRACT

Theorizing Digital Rhetoric takes up the intersection of rhetorical theory and digital technology to explore the ways in which rhetoric is challenged by new technologies and how rhetorical theory can illuminate discursive expression in digital contexts. The volume combines complex rhetorical theory with personal anecdotes about the use of technologies to create a larger philosophical and rhetorical account of how theorists approach the examinations of new and future digital technologies. This collection of essays emphasizes the ways that digital technology intrudes upon rhetorical theory and how readers can be everyday rhetorical critics within an era of ever-increasing use of digital technology.

Each chapter effectively blends theorizing between rhetoric and digital technology, informing readers of the potentiality between the two ideas. The theoretical perspectives informed by digital media studies, rhetorical theory, and personal/professional use provide a robust accounting of digital rhetoric that is timely, personable, and useful.

chapter 1|16 pages

Introduction

Theorizing Digital Rhetoric

part I|66 pages

Philosophical and Rhetorical Conceptualizations of Digital Technology

chapter 2|13 pages

Critique of Digital Reason

chapter 4|12 pages

Rhetorical Affects in Digital Media

chapter 6|15 pages

Towards a Minor Assemblage

An Introduction to the Clickable World

part II|84 pages

Digital Intrusions in Rhetorical Theory

chapter 7|13 pages

From Coercion to Community Building

Technological Affordances as Rhetorical Forms

chapter 8|14 pages

Fluidity in a Digital World

Choice, Communities, and Public Values

chapter 10|14 pages

The New Data

Argumentation amid, on, with, and in Data

chapter 12|14 pages

Reviving Identity Politics

Strategic Essentialism, Identity Politics, and the Potential for Cross-Racial Vernacular Discourse in the Digital Age

part III|73 pages

Being Rhetorical Critics in Our Digital Lives

chapter 13|15 pages

Toward a Digital Methodology for Ideographic Criticism

A Case Study of “Equality”

chapter 14|12 pages

Hashtags and Attention through the Tetrad

The Rhetorical Circulation of #ALSIceBucketChallenge

chapter 15|13 pages

Ethics, Agency, and Power

Toward an Algorithmic Rhetoric

chapter 16|15 pages

Pinning, Gazing, and Swiping Together

Identification in Visually Driven Social Media

chapter 17|10 pages

I Am What I Play and I Play What I Am

Constitutive Rhetoric and the Casual Games Market

chapter |6 pages

Afterword

Digital Rhetoric at a Later Time