Despite the growing ubiquity of new forms of communication and media (foursquare, googletv, diaspora) and the monolithic status of those that have become household names, much of academia remains unaware or indifferent to the significant connection between English /Composition studies and these new forms. Anne Francis Wysocki offers up some alleviation of this disconnect by defining not only the term "new media" but the relationship between these forms and the composition pedagogue. New media, Wysocki asserts, must be seen within the context of materiality, which she identifies as including a range of circumstances which influence and are influenced by the act of composition. Wysocki names these circumstances by referencing Bruce Horner, who locates materiality not only in the local manifestations of technology (paper/screen) but in broader spaces and conditions of "publishing," "social relations" and "socioeconomic conditions" (3). New media depends upon such materiality just as "old" media. Writing, like composing, does not occur apart from local or global material conditions but shapes and is shaped by those conditions. It is within this context that Wysocki defines "new media texts" as those that are created with the knowledge of their materiality, "that have been made by composers who are aware of the range of materialities of texts and who then highlight the materiality" (15). Such a definition posits the composer in terms of his/her agency. Thus, "new media" is not limited to forms which new technologies make available but can be any composition that is created with the knowledge of the full range of possibilities of form and structure that technologies (old and new) allow. Furthermore, this knowledge, and the decisions that go into composing a new media text, should be informed by and utilize the most rhetorically effective combination of mediums: "I am trying to get at a definition that encourages us to stay alert to how and why we make these combinations of materials, not simply that we do it" (19). Ultimately, Wysocki's positioning of "new media" as a concept which can and should be "opened to writing" reveals her broader argument that it is composotion studies / english studies that is qualified/and accountable for bringing media literacy into academia. It is the writing teacher who, already adept at understanding rhetoric involved in alphabetic /old / written media, can learn and teach not only how to both "read" and "write" new media in the most effective /rhetorical ways. Ultimately, Wysocki's exposition of the materiality and agency of new media, as illuminating as it is, serves a specific purpose: it is a proposal for the encompassing of (new) media literacy into English departments across academia.
Wysocki, Anne F. Writing New Media: Theory and Applications for Expanding the Teaching of Composition. Logan: Utah State University Press, 2004. Print.
Should I be worried that I haven't heard of foursquare, googletv, or diaspora?
ReplyDeleteI worry about boundaries of discourse if Wysocki is suggesting that composition teachers are "accountable for bringing media literacy into academia." Our readings continually ask us to "read" new media in ways that don't involve text and to consider every aspect of the creation. But aren't there entire majors devoted to web design? Film making is its own art. Even writing a newspaper story for online publication requires short paragraphs and headings and planned white space. Composition teachers cannot--and should not--bear the burden of new media literacy alone, just as they should not have to teach writing for all of the discourse communities.
ReplyDeleteI also am not convinced that it is English Studies (composition teachers) who are primarily respobsible for teaching new media. That idea goes on the presumption first that we should be responsible for teaching all freshmen to write too (which is an impossible task in one quarter -- or two semesters, depending on the school). I think there is a problem with viewing Freshman english classes as merely service classes for communication. Clearly, with writing we can't cater to all disciplines. Will it be that different with new media communication?
ReplyDelete