Writing and the Digital Generation: Essays on New Media Rhetoric

by Heather Urbanski

Overview

Is it true that, in this era of digitization and mass media, reading and writing are on the decline? In a thought-provoking collection of essays and profiles, 30 contributors explore what may instead be a rise in rhetorical activity, an upsurge due in part to the sudden blurring of the traditional roles of creator and audience in participatory media. This collection explores topics too often overlooked by traditional academic scholarship, though critical to an exploration of rhetoric and popular culture, including fan fiction, reality television, blogging, online role-playing games, and Fantasy Football. Both scholarly and engaging, this text draws rhetorical studies into the digital age.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780786437207
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
Publication date:	02/01/2010
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	278
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Heather Urbanski is currently an assistant professor of English at Fitchburg State University in Massachusetts.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Preface     
Introduction: Blurring Rhetorical Borders
HEATHER URBANSKI     

I. React: Maintaining a Fan Community Essays
1. The Inter(Active) Soap Opera Viewer: Fantastic Practices and Mediated Communities
MELISSA AMES     
2. Going Deep: What Online Sports Culture Teaches Us About the Rhetorical Future of Social Networks
MICHAEL R. TRICE     
3. Spoiling Heroes, Enhancing Our Viewing Pleasure: NBC’s Heroes and the Re-Shaping of the Televisual Landscape
MARINA HASSAPOPOULOU     
4. History, the Trace, and Fandom Wank
KAREN HELLEKSON     
5. Writing Wonder Women: How Playful Resistance Leads to Sustained Authorial Participation at Sequential Tart
KIMBERLY DEVRIES     

Profiles
6. What the Frell Happened? Rhetorical Strategies of the Farscape Community
SEAN MOREY     
7. The Realtime Forum
THOMAS B. CAVANAGH     
8. “As Seen on The Colbert Report”: Or, Why I Love Reality
GEORGIANA O. MILLER     

II. Re-Mix: Participating in Established Narratives Essays
9. Making Our Voices Heard: Young Adult Females Writing Participatory Fan Fiction
SUSANNA COLEMAN     
10. Dungeons and Dragons for Jocks: Trash Talking and Viewing Habits of Fantasy Football League Participants
JULIE L. ROWSE     
11. Alternate Universes on Video: Ficvid and the Future of Narrative
KIM MIDDLETON     

Profiles
12. Dean, Mal and Snape Walk into a Bar: Lessons in Crossing Over
JULIE FLYNN     
13. Stars of a Different Variety: Stealth Teaching Through Fanfic
KRISTINE LARSEN     

III. Re-Create: Creating Narratives within Established Frames Essays
14. Writing and Rhetoric for a Ludic Democracy: YouTube, Fandom, and Participatory Pleasure
DIANE PENROD     
15. World of Rhetcraft: Rhetorical Production and Raiding in World of Warcraft
CHRISTOPHER PAUL     
16. Rekindling Rhetoric: Oratory and Marketplace Culture in Guild Wars
MATTHEW S. S. JOHNSON     
17. Virtual Guerrillas and a World of Extras: Shooting Machinima in Second Life
MARK PEPPER     
18. Remix, Play, and Remediation: Undertheorized Composing Practices
ANDRÉA DAVIS, SUZANNE WEBB, DUNDEE LACKEY, and DÀNIELLE NICOLE DEVOSS     

Profiles
19. Conf(us)(ess)ions of a Videogame Role-Player
ZACH WAGGONER     
20. Born Again in a Fictional Universe: A Participant Portrait of EVE Online
HARALD WARMELINK     
21. A Place to Call Home: The Experience of One Guild Chat in World of Warcraft
WENDI JEWELL     
22. Magic Canvas: Digital Building Blocks
CATHERINE MCDONALD     

IV. Teaching the Digital Generation Essays
23. Encouraging Feedback: Responding to Fan Fiction at Different Colored Pens
JULI PARRISH     
24. MetaSpace: Meatspace and Blogging Intersect
ELIZABETH KLEINFELD     
25. Meeting the Digital Generation in the Classroom: A Reflection on the Obstacles
HEATHER URBANSKI     

Profiles
26. Making Dorothy Parker My MySpace Friend: A Classroom Application for Social Networks
ASHLEY ANDREWS     
27. Novel Cartographies, New Correspondences
JENTERY SAYERS     

About the Contributors     
Index     

Editorial Reviews

captured my heart and engaged my mind”—Science Fiction Studies.

From the Publisher

captured my heart and engaged my mind

Science Fiction Studies