Audio Clip

Dig Rhet Assignment Fin

Credit due to Mark Buckner for gracing Grossman with the power of speech. Here we have Grossman and I in conversation over drinks, talking about the internet, constantly evolving browsing habits, and his article in 2006.

Short Script

Cafe - day

Grossman is already seated, finishing an espresso. Jeremy arrives.

Jeremy

Hey, I hope you haven't been waiting.

Grossman

Not at all. Please, sit, sit.

JEREMY

So I read your piece for Time on the way over here. Helluva piece, really top notch work.

GROSSMAN

Why thank you. And congratulations on all your success, by the way. You, one of Time's Persons of the Year. No small feat.

Jeremy

Thanks, bud. Yeah, like the rest of us I pretty much just spent a lot of time online in 2006. Didn't go out much.

Grossman

But it paid off, ultimately.

Jeremy

Naturally, naturally. Yeah.

GROSSMAN

So where did you start? Where did the bulk of your success stem from?

Jeremy

Realizing we were in an increasingly stagnant, analog world really got me depressed, you know? I could only have one conversation at a time, could only watch one television program. Then I realized it didn't really have to be this way.

GROSSMAN

How so?

Jeremy

I'm sure you know where I'm coming from.

Grossman

I do, I wrote the article, Jeremy. But it would be really helpful if you explained it in your own words.

Jeremy

Yeah, word, I hear ya dude. Um. So, yeah. What was the question?

Grossman

You were spending a lot of time online...

Jeremy

Right. Yeah. I don't know. It just kind of happened. I got bored watching just one TV show, so I went online and opened a few tabs. I got bored just talking to my friends one at a time, so I went to my computer and talked to a few of them at once. It was a pretty natural progression.

Grossman

So it was an organic happening?

Jeremy

Probably the most organic thing I've done since, yeah.

GROSSMAN

So when you -

Jeremy

Excuse me. I really want to take a break, can we take a break?

Grossman

We've only just started.

Jeremy

I know, I know, but this is like, the opposite of immediately gratifying.

Grossman

Excuse me?

Jeremy

Sorry, go on. I'll get through it.

Sounds of seats stirring.

Grossman

Thank you for bearing with me. So, have you used the internet in a different way now than when you and those like you broke ground back in 2006?

Jeremy

I've never been personally at the forefront of social media. Wasn't the first kid to get a Facebook, never had a Myspace, but ignoring it all has also become less of an option. Twitters, Tumblrs, there are so many people and so many options for connecting with them online.

Grossman

And now?

JEREMY

What about it?

Grossman

How do you interact with the internet now?

Jeremy

I don't know, it still just happens. I will sit down at my computer at 12 and I get up around 1:30 or 2. I have about 12 more songs, two more posts, a few more pictures, and I've seen two videos I'll forget and one I'll send to my dad. It can happen like that 2, 3, 4 times a day.

Grossman

So your relationship with the internet has been a passive one?

Jeremy

Actively passive, yeah.

Grossman

How so?

Jeremy

Not so sure.

GROSSMan

Contrary to my article, then, it seems like the internet is happening to you more than you are happening to the internet, no?

Jeremy

It certainly seems that way.

Grossman

Do you feel like you are losing control of, or have already lost control of, how you interact with the internet?

Jeremy

Not til I sat down with you, no. Can we take a break?

Grossman

Can you sit still for a moment?

Jeremy

Hey listen, would it be too much to ask if I could do this from home? From my computer. Can we do this online? Do you have Vchat, or maybe you could just email me your questions?

Grossman

No, I do not have VChat. There's probably something to be said about having this conversation in the analog world, Jeremy.

Jeremy

Probably. But it's really totally easy to download. I brought my laptop, let me show you.

Grossman

Can it wait, Jeremy? We're almost done.

Jeremy

Yeah, we can wait. But do you mind if I just open it up and put it right here though?

Sound of computer opening, being put on table, and whirring to life. Mac OS's start up sounds.

Grossman

Are you going to be using it for anything?

Jeremy

Just having it here soothes me.

Grossman

And why is that?

Jeremy

The sounds. The light glow. The connection to those around me. The millions at my fingertips. Knowing I am at the fingertips of millions. It's really quite empowering.

Grossman

And crippling, it seems.

Jeremy

Yes. And crippling, it seems.

Microbloggin'

The internet certainly provides for the kind of pop culture enthusiast Jenkins identifies in his article, and I see nothing incorrect with identifying it as an environment where fans can interact with one another, gain exposure and engage not just new fans but also creators, artists, and writers they are fans of. To qualify the internet as fandom in and of itself seems a bit simplified though - a passive user may only go online to retrieve emails at work, wholly forgoing message boards, forums, and fan sites. The internet is no longer an elite place for coders, hackers, and forums, it has been commercialized in a more utilitarian way. Although Jenkins identifies something important, that even passive email checkers can become seen as grouped into a community of, say, fans of Convenience, it seems doubtful that the group would self-identify in that way. Another media, like cell phones, even those with internet access, resists qualifying its users as Fans, so it seems an arbitrary word for the whole internet too. What, then, makes a fan? Can any group sharing sentiments be considered a fandom, or are they required to share more than coincidental media preferences? Must they identify as being fans of something in particular, or is trolling the internet enough to unify all of these people?

Rhetorical Affordances

I. Affordances

>Blogs allow for both average people and technologically informed people to communicate with one another.
>Use of multiple media is readily available for a blogger.
>Blogs allow for mass amounts of information to be shared.
>Blogs offer an opportunity to write more substance than, say, Facebook or Twitter.
>Blogs also present less freedoms than books or journals because they exist within a blogging institution with its own rules and regulations.
>Wider accessibility without the constraints of traditional publishing (time restraints, editting restraints, marketability restraints, etc)

II. Audience Involvement
>Topics should appeal to a target audience.
>The voice should be directly engaging, directly addressing the specific audience to encourage a forum-like feel
>Use of multi media helps attract and keep an audience interested
>Organization of pages important
>Visual appeal is important
>Pages should be easily to navigate from one to another

Suggestions
>One should learn all the tools readily at the blogger's disposal
>One should use multi media
>Page organization and lay out
>Know how to market the blog to a wider community. Link it to other blogs, actively market to forums, twitter, facebook, etc. Use the internet to rise above the pack.
>Word of mouth in social circles, work collegues, classmates. Make blog relevant to your life.
>Make it very accessible

With Love,
Jeremy, Michael, and Rashmi

Post 1

My name is Jeremy Lerner, and I'm an English major. I'm a senior, so this is my last semester at the University, and probably the last time I'll live in Michigan for an extended period of time. And that makes me pretty sad.
Along with reading both fiction and non-fiction, I like reading and watching plays. Music is good too - I like to make it and listen to it all day, for the most part. Movies feel like a waste of time, unless they're super funny or make me feel like it was the most dramatic thing I'd seen until that point.

 I've never been too savvy with the true mechanics of digital media. The more specialized it gets, the more intimidated I become by how so many details spawn so many more. Even though this class is not tech-based, I feel like in confronting the web directly, I will inevitably learn a lot in the topic that intimidates me most. (Except for Math, but I've given up on that.)

Michael Wesch uses his web video to make a point about how the web works. In this way, he shows he is keenly aware of his audience, his audience's knowledge, and the critical time and place for this video to be most effective: online for a modern audience to find. By emulating a computer screen and relaying information across channels familiar to the computer user, the video makes the very points his text "narrates." Like his text says and shows, the web is a huge place which humans must create bridges within in order to navigate it efficiently. He links from page to page countless times with both speed and efficiency, showing how the internet is governed by both its huge size and the human need to access what is desired immediately. In this way, the rhetoric of the video accurately paints a picture of the scope of the web.

In-class Assignment I

In the video below, a politician expresses his personal anxieties to his advisors before he changes his attitude while addressing reporters in a news conference. This furthers my understanding of rhetoric because during his time on screen, the politician shows awareness of his audience and he tries to appeal to them with persuasion and carefully chosen language. Although he is disapointed that none of the reporters were present at an urban development project's debut that morning, he spins it in his direction by mentioning it again during this conference, which is otherwise called to address serial anonymous murders. Since this violent issue attracted more press, he brings the press's attention to what good his administration is doing. He addresses the audience, a group of reporters, directly, and by persuading them with the dangers a violent criminal poses to a community, the lack of morality a society must have to allow such a criminal to continue, and the helplessness of the murderder's victims, he is demonstrating pathos and ethos.

It's a super good rhetoric video, and you can watch it too. If you click, that is.