RWS 511: Literacy, Rhetoric & Technology
Fall 2008, Tuesdays,
4.00-6.40
Instructor: Chris Werry
CLASS FLYER
RWS 511 examines new media technologies from a rhetorical perspective.
It investigates how web pages, blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other
multimedia texts are used to persuade, build community, tell stories,
entertain, and produce change. The course addresses how literacy
is being defined and redefined in the age of MySpace, Youtube and
wikipedia; what is at stake in competing definitions of new media
literacy; and what strategies are available to us for interpreting,
analyzing and composing digital texts.
The course will examine how
work in rhetoric and literacy studies, and historical research
on prior technologies can help us better
understand new media. The class will explore which tools work best
in specific contexts, for specific audiences and purposes. A central
goal is to help students become more sophisticated, critical analysts
of new media texts. But the course also aims to familiarize students
with some of the more common, widely available tools for producing
and “remixing” digital texts. RWS 511 is thus about
new media literacies, while also aimed at helping students acquire
specific literacy skills.
RWS 511 is open to all students but is intended primarily for
students with backgrounds in the Humanities and Social Sciences.
No previous experience with web design or multimedia software is
required.
This
class is one of the core courses in the Interdisciplinary Minor
in Rhetoric and Writing Studies. For more information, contact
Suzanne Bordelon, RWS Writing Minor Advisor, at 594-7098 or sbordelon2@cox.net,
or Chris Werry at 594 3882, cwerry@mail.sdsu.edu.
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