Reading [Digital] Rhetoric

It was the first weekend of the new school term, and I spent that Saturday depressed. Usually, the first break after a busy week comes as a welcome relief. For me, it started that way. Then, I decided to get ahead on some reading so I opened up the link for “Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek.” I was not mentally prepared for the deep level on which “Snow Fall” would affect me. I was so caught off guard that it took hours of processing before I even realized that I was still thinking about the article. The rhetoric of the piece was, in large part, so impactful because it was digital.

The story itself was compelling. Any natural tragedy stirs our common humanity with the thought, “that could happen to me.” We’ve seen the effects of natural tragedy this week as Hurricane Harvey flooded Houston. The pictures of strangers helping strangers survive as everything around them is changed inspires. Reading about a natural tragedy sparks in us that same drive that causes our heads to turn to look at the car accident on the side of the road. With just the words on the screen, the story about the snow-skiers caught in an avalanche would have moved me. Their rhetoric was strong; John Branch established ethos well showing his expertise on the individuals and the area, he absolutely appealed to pathos with the backstories of the families of the skiers, and his appeals to logos were sound. However, I’ve read about natural tragedies like this in the past. I’ve thought about them maybe for an hour or two, but they haven’t effected my mood and thoughts for such a long time like “Snow Fall” did.

I listened to these skier’s 911 calls minutes before they unburied their dismembered friends. I felt their panic because I was connected to their images. Similarly, I felt the weight of the sorrow and guilt of the ones left behind because I’d smiled at the pictures of their once joyful lives. For the hours I read through the piece, from beginning to end, I was in Tunnel Creek. Videos of interviews, like the one about Saugstad, provided a convincing foreshadowing of who survived and who might not. The videos with scientific diagrams had me mentally screaming at the skiers to turn around, to change their minds and not ski, not there, not then.

I’m learning, like most terms in this field that focuses on words and understanding, the definition of “digital rhetoric” is not always straightforward. Liz Losh explains it well: “I’ve always thought that “digital rhetoric” means both rhetoric about the digital and rhetoric conveyed by digital platforms, interfaces, and code.” As with most definitions, this broad umbrella shelters many other definitions that Losh also describes. In “Snow Fall,” Branch exemplifies how “computational media could be used to mourn, celebrate, commemorate, and recognize events without the coercive force of needing to ‘win’ in argumentative discourse” (Losh). Digital rhetoric makes the subject feel closer by introducing the ability to engage with multiple senses.

Though I’ve never actually visited the Roaring Twenties of New York City, I’ve heard it thanks to Emily Thompson’s digital rhetoric. Having listened to the sounds of the streets, having read documents that were archived from that time, having scrolled through the map, and having flipped through the timelines, I felt like I was there. I laughed at the noise complaints about church bells before I realized the rhetorical dilemma that this presents and how it translates to situations of today. I thought of the times I’ve listened to the sounds of the city as I read through the city noise by sources. At the same time, I thought of all of the noises I’ve learned to stop listening for: automobiles, horns, rattling, sirens, building operation, etc. Listening and reading only by sound, I pictured Atlanta. Looking at the pictures reminded me that this was, in fact, a different world. Many of these sounds were new. The rhetoric of listening was changing just as quickly then as it shifts and changes today as we try to understand what digital rhetoric means on every level. Digital rhetoric is like going to a museum about a subject rather than simply reading the book.

#ENGL8121 #DigitalRhetoric #Losh