Public Rhetoric and Practical Communication How Are Form and
Content Related? Lecture 4: CAT 125 Elizabeth Losh
http://losh.ucsd.edu
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Langdon Winner on Mythinformation Taken as a whole, beliefs of
this kind constitute what I would call mythinformation: the almost
religious conviction that a widespread adoption of computers and
communications systems along with easy access to electronic
information will automatically produce a better world for human
living. (NMR 592) information=knowledge=power=democracy (NMR
595)
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Wikiality and Tripling Elephant Population
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/72347/july-31-2006/the-word---wikiality
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Colberts Rhetoric Truthiness In satire, truthiness is a "truth"
that a person claims to know intuitively "from the gut" without
regard to evidence, logic, intellectual examination, or facts.
Wikiality Reality as decided on by majority rule. Bringing
democracy to knowledge Use of the rhetoric of news graphics
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YI8_DDEuswk
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Virgil Griffith, WikiScanner, and Self- Determination
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/183247/august-21-2007/the-word---self-determination
Of all the computer enthusiasts political ideas, there is none more
poignant than the faith that the computer is destined to become a
potent equalizer in modern society. Support for this belief is
found in the fact that small personal computers are becoming more
and more powerful, less and less expensive, and ever more simple to
use... Using a personal computer makes one no more powerful
vis--vis, say, the National Security Agency than flying a hang
glider establishes a person as a match for the U.S. Air Force. -
Langdon Winner, NMR 595
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Epistemological Hierarchies
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Information in the Ancient World The information culture of the
Roman world was exploding with new libraries and modes for
disseminating written texts, maps, scientific illustrations, art
works, and luxury goods
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Etymology of Information The term itself traces back to the
Latin verb informare, which for the Romans generally meant to
shape, to form an idea of, or to describe. The verb, in turn,
supplied action to the substantive, forma, which took varied,
cognate meanings that depended mostly on context. The historian
Livy used forma as a general term for character, form, nature,
kind, and matter. Horace applied it to a shoelast, Ovid to a mold
or stamp for making coins, while the wily Cicero, among other uses,
extended it to logic as form or species, his rendering of the
Greek.... The practical notion of form as a last, mold, or stamp
remained closely tied to its more abstract, logical meaning, which
paired content and container. Michael Hobart and Zachary Schiffman,
Information Ages: literacy, numeracy, and the computer
revolution
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What informational structures will you bring to your blog?
Chronology Links to primary sources and commentary Photographs and
information graphics Tags A Blogroll
http://losh.ucsd.edu/courses/example_blogs.html
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Is everything really self-determined A Word on Reflection
Reflection is not just about personal reflection
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The Rhetoric of Governments, Universities, Corporations,
Churches, and Organizations We all serve as spokespeople
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Beginning a book with reflection One day, in 1988, the
computers and modems suddenly appeared, as if by magic. They were
second-hand Apple IIe terminals, but in my mind it was a miracle to
have them at all. At the time, I was fresh out of college and
running a chronically underfunded after-school program at a
delinquency prevention center under the auspices of the California
Youth Authority.
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Ending a book with reflection
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Reflection Does Not Need to Be About the distant past A
negative appraisal
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Edward Tufte
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Visual Explanations
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The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint These costs result from the
cognitive style characteristic of the standard default PP
presentation: foreshortening of evidence and thought, low spatial
resolution, a deeply hierarchical single-path structure as the
model for organizing every type of content, breaking up narrative
and data into slides and minimal fragments, rapid temporal
sequencing of thin information rather than focused spatial
analysis, conspicuous decoration and Phluff, a preoccupation with
formal not content, an attitude of commercialism that turns
everything into a sales pitch. (4)
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Chart Junk in the Shuttle Disaster
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Colin Powells Evidence Presented to the United Nations
Slide 20
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Strategic Thinking and PowerPoint http://lay-uh.ytmnd.com/
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Does PowerPoint Oversimplify?
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Professor Oreskes point about editability
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The Lincoln PowerPoint
http://norvig.com/Gettysburg/sld001.htm
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Default Templates
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The Yes Men http://theyesmenfixtheworld.com/trailer_hd.htm
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PowerPoint as a Lecturing Tool
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Jill Bolte Taylor
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html
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Bolte Taylors Rhetoric of Personal and Professional Expertise I
grew up to study the brain because I have a brother who has been
diagnosed with a brain disorder, schizophrenia Speaking as a sister
and later as a scientist Family photo I can make my dreams come
true Lab of Dr. Francine Benes at Harvard Dept. of Psychiatry
Question about biological differences: research question Mapping
microcircuitry Advocate for NAMI, National Alliance on Mental
Illness Morning of December 10, 1996 Medical scan of hemorrhage
Show and tell moment with human brain
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Bolte Taylors Rhetoric of Disempowerment I could not walk,
talk, read, write, or recall An infant in a womans body Humor of
personifying right and left brains Humor of how language sounds to
her A long tradition of captivity narratives and conversion
narratives
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Bolte Taylors Rhetoric of Empowerment Peace of choosing to
leaving left hemispheres Who are we? The lifeforce power of the
universe Power to choose how and who we want to be in the world the
we inside of me Rhetorical questions: Which would you choose? Which
do you choose? And when?
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Testimony vs. Evidence
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A Thesis from Lecture Three Although TED talks seem to
represent a new form of what Henry Jenkins has called spreadable
media, the most popular online videos are often those with
conventional messages that follow traditional narrative structures.
For example, the TED talk by Jill Bolte Taylor borrows from much
older popular American rhetorics of captivity and conversion.
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Ideas worth spreading
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Spreadable Media not Viral Media
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlfKdbWwruY
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Going shorter The pecha kucha format
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NZOt6BkhUg Associated with
architects, designers, game designers, etc. Image driven not text
driven
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The Status Update Format
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Going even shorter to 40 characters
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An Experiment for Class Sign up for Twitter before January 25
Enable its mobile functionality Bring your mobile device to class
on January 25 Use the #cat125 hashtag for the first twenty minutes
of class, while we are viewing the disability videos and learning
about Joseph Weizenbaums argument about computers Think about
decorum Turn off your mobile device while I introduce professor
Humphries
Slide 40
For Next Time Thinking about Old Media and New Media with
Vannevar Bush and Lev Manovich
