What’s in a Name (Lauer) Pt 1 (Dani):
● The labeling and defining of new/multi/modal/digital/media texts is what this discussion is all about.
● Investigate the terms “digital media” & “new media”
● Sparked by a presentation by Cheryl Ball, in which “multimodal”, “new media”, and “multimedia” were used interchangeably inexplicably
● Started with interview with Jonathan Alexander
● Focused on 4 terms: new media, multimedia, multimodal, and digital media
● New media
○ Cheryl Ball & Anne Wysocki
● Multimodal
○ Cynthia Selfe & Gunther Kress
● Digital
○ Scott DeWitt
● Multimedia
○ No one came to mind
● “The name of this webtext is a reference to Juliet's famous question in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet about whether or not it matters what we call something”
○ What's in a name? That which we call a rose
○ By any other name would smell as sweet.
● “what we call something does not dictate what that thing actually is”
A Technological Journey:
>Describes it as an Odyssey.
>Alot of new things to decide on when working with a webtext rather than a printed or written one.
>Author becomes more of a composer
Aurality and the art of conversation:
>“speech conveys a great deal of meaning through pace, volume, rhythm, emphasis, and tone of voice as well as through words themselves”(Selfe 2009)
>The ability to play, pause, and rewind each clip can assist a user in their listening experience so that they can reflect on and absorb the words being spoken at whatever pace they prefer.
Developing Definitions:
>Audience-Oriented: Definitions are neither static nor consistent, but can change depending on the audience to whom a term is being directed.
>Contextual: A term's definition originates from and cannot exist outside of the social, historical, political, and technological context in which it is developed.
>Historically Situated: Terms do not exist in a vacuum but carry with them the multitude of past understandings, practices, and uses. Terms can, in their very names, call attention to or move away from their histories.
>Limited: Terms are necessarily limited in scope and what they can represent.
>Multiple: Terms can be appropriated and defined differently to suit the purposes of members of different discourse communities.
>Precise: Terms are often defined using precise language.
>Relative: Terms are often defined in relation to other terms and what is similar or different about each.