Digital Rhetoric

There’s always a difference between real and online situations. Yes, online has its perks, but it does not always apply. Traditional rhetoric can be more complex than what we think of it. In attempting to use rhetoric in digital spaces, the rhetors and the audience will have to adapt to the gaps in it. But I am not saying it is impossible.

Living in a modern society, people have become more vulnerable as they have a representation of themselves in social media. They are more subject to affection on what they see, and that provided the space for online persuasion. Even without the physical appearance of the rhetor, there are other factors that allow the audience to see through the screen and recognize ethos. Hence, the rhetor is still able to make use of rhetorical strategies online.

Additionally, there is a potential to digital media to extend and transform traditional notions of rhetoric as persuasion. Meaning, the platform alone can add up to the rhetorical impact of content — computer programs can surpass the level of persuasion available in the real world as technology opens the situation to a broader audience. Digital media is getting under the spotlight and it offers more opportunities for reader participation and interactivity and achieving unity of purpose. It is new and exciting, eventually receiving more attention from the people who used to appreciate mainstream media.

Studies of the new digital media also explore some of the purposes and outcomes of communication in digital spaces such as self-expression for the purpose of exploring individual and group identities and participation and creative collaboration for the purpose of building communities of shared interest. Somehow, the way we portray ourselves in social media contributes to our whole identity.

Sherry Turkle explains the processes of identity formation as interactions among multiple versions of our online selves and between these and our real selves: “As players participate [in Multiple-User Domains, or MUDs], they become authors not only of text, but of themselves, constructing new selves through social interaction.”

Zappen, 2004

Although still different from traditional rhetoric, these attributes of digital media make rhetorical practice available in the virtual world. We are still able to express ourselves online and make an extended online identity which can be a rhetor or an audience. There are many possible activities we can do online to have a full rhetorical experience.