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For this post, I chose the linguistic and visual modes. I chose to use the visual mode because I found the perfect gif to show my audience what the concept of these topics were. I also used linguistic mode because this helped me to present what I had learned and gathered from these two topics. In the reading and video, Sustaining Critical Literacies in the Digital Information Age: The Rhetoric of Sharing, Prosumerism, and Digital Algorithmic Surveillance and the video Dana Boyd on the Spread of Conspiracies and Hate Online, they both talk about the prevalence of social media has today in everyone’s lives. In the article, it’s about how social media users share information with one another. The article describes the use of “sharing” on social media websites as invisible capitalism. Prosumerism is everywhere nowadays because people are posting their favorite products and giving customer feedback on the internet. The article provided some examples of prosumerism to help the readers get a better grasp of what the definition entails. Some examples provided within the article for prosumerism was, “IKEA’s build-your-own furniture, self-service gas pumps, automated teller machines(ATMs), store-purchased medical kits” (Beck, pg.3). That type of prosumerism is known as the third wave which is the information era. People also might not realize that we are being watched by what we interact with and click on, on websites. This is called Digital algorithmic surveillance which is when websites collect data on their users based off of what they look at and interact with. This is so social media websites can gather information on their users and then personalize what they are seeing based off of what they like. 

The video by Dana Boyd who is a senior researcher talks about how mass shootings and other events could be a result from the manipulation of the media. It’s the idea that media spreads false information also known as “fake news”. Dana talks about how easy it is to spread false news by producing viral media, creating advertisements that anyone has access to, also to get journalists to write stories based off your claims. There’s a conspiracy theory on crisis actors where people who would show up on TV after a shooting had just happened, which the theorist believe the shooting never actually happened. This lead to the theorist wanted journalist to use the phrase “crisis actors” so people can start to look up that word and discover the conspiracy theories behind that phrase. For me, hearing all of this was just a crazy concept to grab that people would really fake these kinds of things. 

This week’s readings, 7 Things Every Designer Needs to Know about Accessibility and Accessibility guidelines for UX Designers is all about accessibility which really interested me since this is what I’ve learned about in my major and will continue on to work with individuals with disabilities. In today’s world technology has become so prevalent in our everyday lives. So, for individuals with disabilities it can be hard to interact and engage on website because they cannot navigate without accommodations. I thought it was important that in the 7 Things Every Designer Needs to Know about Accessibility article it stated that creating accessibility will not make a website “ugly, boring, or cluttered”. This will also lead to more individuals interacting and looking at the website because it’s accessible. In the same article it points out an aspect of accessibility that we talked about in class, which is to make sure that the word text are visible and don’t blend in with the background. Also, to make sure that the text isn’t too small so individuals with visual impairments are still able to read the information. From my experience I know that some websites have the option to make the wording bigger after clicking on the magnifying glass. In the article Accessibility guidelines for UX Designers, I liked how they pointed out the importance of researching different disabilities and the accommodations these individuals will need in order to be able to easily access the website. I thought these readings were very informative and provided a lot of great examples of how to make websites accessible. 

For this Wednesday’s reading on What is Rhetorical about Digital Rhetoric? Perspectives and Definitions of Digital Rhetoric it was about how digital rhetoric came to be and how is it a hard topic to define because everyone views digital rhetoric differently. Even in the video that is attached in the article, scholars themselves have a hard time defining what digital rhetoric is. Most of them joke about asking an easier question or tried to go around from answering the question. From that video, my understanding is that when talking about digital rhetoric there is a wide range of things that can perfectly fall under that definition. From the Indiana Digital Rhetoric Symposium I gathered that the people attending were challenged to our their minds and try to see from different perspectives and to consider the information that is being displayed to them. This conference made scholars think differently and maybe even change their views on digital rhetoric to be more wide ranged instead of viewing it to be one main topic of conversation. They also explained how culture also influences how people view digital rhetoric which makes it harder to create one definition. So, from this I learned that it depends on who is describing digital rhetoric because they will influence how they view and define digital rhetoric because it will be different from person to person.

In chapter 9 of Writing in Knowledge Societies the focus is on the relationship between the development of scientific knowledge and rhetoric. Rhetoric is used by scientists in order to persuade other scholars on their new findings based off of research. Some scholars also think that the use of rhetoric aides them into looking at information in another perspective. Scholars have researched the topic of rhetoric and the way it helps scientists develop new ideas and develop more of an understanding on a set topic. This showed us that rhetoric is everywhere around us even in the world of science. Then they go on to research the meaning of metonymy and how it is like a metaphor but less complex. The reason why metonymy is less complex than a metaphor is because a metaphor offers two meanings within one word. The creation of metonymy relies on cultural models and encyclopaedic which means a person's experience with an idea or word. An example from within the reading where a person reads a set of text, how they might interpret the things that are real or “brute facts of nature” or the linguistic construction. For me, I know that I use metaphors when making comments either for someone to better understand what I am talking about or when making a joke.

The two readings, Multimodal Composing and Women, Rhetoric, and Politics on Pinterest I gathered that composing is all around us in many different forms. There are many different places to compose someone's writing like on the computer, on a sticky note, on a notebook and a phone. In Multimodal Composing, it explains how important it is to collaborate with others when writing in order to get different perspectives and ideas. In Women, Rhetoric, and Politics on Pinterest it explains how engagements and interactions with other women on the internet is important because this is where they share ideas with one another. These women who use Pinterest shares many things with one another like cooking recipes, their political views and their crafting projects. For me, I use Pinterest when I need an idea on a new craft project and to find what to cook for dinner that night. Composing happens even when people aren’t aware, something just as simple as sending a text or sending out a simple tweet. When we compose writing we are also influenced by the things around us like other people’s work, society and interactions with others. When I read this article I thought of how I get my roommates opinions on topics I have to write about to get their view. For me, collaboration is very important in my composing process.

The chapters assigned to us in the book Multiliteracies for a Digital Age, were about how teachers should be integrating technology with literacy. This is because technology has become more prevalent nowadays and understanding how to combine literacy and technology is the key to success. The book states how technology is always changing so one must commit to understanding the advancements that are being made. Then when able to fully commit to the changes being made a teacher can integrate the use of technology and literacy. Computers have become an important part of writing and being able to communicate while being in the classroom. I think in reference to ESU, the professors all have a different way of integrating technology with a class. Some professors still have us hand in hard copies of our assignment, other professors have us submit an assignment to the Dropbox and others will use other educational websites like Revel. I think if all of the professors were mandated to implement technology in the same way, the students would become a lot more computer literate. Also in the First Year Experience class the professors should be mandated to show the class how to navigate around ESU’s website along with D2L because I know when I went through that class we were not shown how to use these sites.  Some universities have started to implement the importance of computer literacy by creating classes for students to take inorder to get more comfortable with using software like Word and Excel. As well as a computer class that teaches students how to use software in a business setting. I think this is very important because technology is all around us today for example, people are using computers at their jobs in order to be more efficient with their time. Having these kinds of skills on a resume will also be very appealing to an employer. In chapter 5 it is all about how to integrate functional literacy, critical literacy, and rhetorical literacy in the eyes of a teacher. This is especially for english classes because computers are so helpful when it comes to writing and researching. For me, I know that when I have to write a paper I use Word because it helps correct my grammar. Some students may not have been introduced to Word and have no idea how it operates and can help a person's writings.

While reading the article Primary Care Clinic as Writing Space I quickly realized how important their writing is in their everyday task at work. There’s an electrical medical record system created called charting, charting is where staff can save information and data on a patient.  This is when chronic illness becomes important when charting because they need the patients health background, hospital charts, doctors notes from prior visits, test results and many other things. In the Jonas Salk Laboratory study there were 2 divided up spaces within the lab, one was the “bench” and the other was the “office”. To be expected the office area was where all the piles of paper work were done as well as where scientific papers are written and revised. The bench side was described as the “manic” side where the anthropologist spend their day correcting, altering, coding as well as writing. There was a study done by Schryer in 1993, this study was conducted in a veterinary medicine clinic. Schryer used problem-oriented veterinary medical records when interviewing the students and instructors, this lead to the use of decision making which ended up serving a bigger purpose. She found that using other types of writing helped the veterinary clinicians to be able to communicate better with their clients. I thought this was a very important study because I was thinking about past experiences with doctors I have gone to. I have been to a handful of doctors and there were always one or two doctors who would speak to us as if we are doctors as well. I would get so frustrated because they should know that I wouldn’t understand all the technical terms.

After reading Spaces for Writing , I have to admit that my mind was racing. We were presented with a lot of important information but I did love the fact that it was a comic. I’m now experiencing what the comic had said, when writers have so many thoughts flooding out all at once they don’t know what information to write down. This comic made me realize that writing is everywhere, even something as simple as a text message. When creating a text message you have to formulate a message that will get your point across in a way that others will also understand. This is where visual literacy comes in, when sending a text message and adding a picture to serve as importance to get your point across. I think a picture has the power to tell a story and help the readers to understand the significance of a situation by what picture is being shown. Also within the comic they discuss Ethos, Pathos and Logos. This was a concept used by Aristotle in order to persuade people's views and opinions because he didn’t like the use of rhetoric. In the comic there's an example of when Ethos, Pathos and Logos are used, within an online profile. From an online profile a person's Ethos can be questioned because of what they post. From my experience I see Pathos all the time on Facebook, people with start an argument with one another.

My name is Alyssa Corkum and I am a senior here at East Stroudsburg University. I am a Rehabilitation and Human Services major with a minor in psychology. After graduating, I hope to go on to earn a Masters degree in Occupational Therapy. In my free time I enjoy going on new adventures, hanging out with friends and family and reading. I am looking forward to see how I improve with my Tumblr posts throughout the semester!