If language is ever shifting, and if we have
more recently seen a massive shift in communication practices both in terms of
presentation tools and global connections, how should rhetoric shift in terms
of its instruction?
First, rhetoric is no longer confined to words. Music and pictures can shape our impressions of events; listen to "Dream of Abraham" by Daniel Bukvich or this picture taken by Steve McCurry. To dismiss the ways the world communicates to each other, especially across language barriers, does a disservice to the children who were born in the Internet Age. The song I mentioned brings to life the world of Abraham Zapruder, the man who filmed the JFK assassination decades ago. A picture, spanning 15 years, lays bare the soul of a war-torn and war-weary Afghanistan. Spoken or written word isn't needed there.
Second, a classroom isn't just desks and four walls anymore. Teleconferencing brings two (or more) cultures together in a space in time. A student in Texas can debate global issues with a student in Australia or Argentina - or both! Globalization has literally changed the metaphorical landscape of traditional classroom instruction. Cultures are mingling every day; so must the rhetorical genres.
Lastly, instructors should be encouraged to bring in these rhetorical modes into the basic composition courses. The same principles when writing a paper full of Aristotle's Five Canons, Bacon's psychology of moving the will, and Toulmin's logic can be applied to blogs and vlogs. Why not have students publish in the ways the world chooses (to some extent) to receive information or search for new views on the new topics?
Nice point. Rhetoric, in fact, is not confined by words. Perhaps the academy still relates too much to words than other modalities. Many modalities are needed. And nice point about how education works in different ways today. It isn't desks and chairs. It's a messy mash-up space with all sorts of transactional rhetoric going on. And we need to teach students how to make meaning in such spaces. I'm very impressed by mediascape setups, and barco. We're using these now in our department at TTU. Nice thinking about blogs and vlogs. New views on new topics. How can this be done in large composition programs?
ReplyDeleteYes, there is definitely a greater emphasis on video and text that can be authored by anyone at any moment, but it seems that the visual element has been around longer. What has really changed is how we can access the visual and how much we are bombarded by images. But how do you think composition classrooms - or programs, as Dr. Rice asked - could or should change to reflect these changes?
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