newmediadictionaryenc

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Affordances and constraints are the benefits and limitations to a specific medium. All mediums have material properties that directly influence the work being presented. John Walter further explains these influences by stating, “These (material) properties determine a multitude of factors including how portable it is, how malleable it is, how transferable it is, how durable or fragile it is, how transmittable it is, as well as issues such as the ways in which we can transmit, transport, copy, manipulate, preserve, and share it” (Walter). These factors that Walter listed create a personal influence on an individual’s work, directly impacting them. For example, paper is a common medium, making it easily accessible - an affordance. However, it can be easily destroyed by liquid, fire, age, etc. - a constraint. In comparison, text messaging has the affordance of using emojis. Yumna Samie explains that emojis helps to convey emotions over text, illustrating how the individual feels about the conversation, which mimics the acts of infliction, facial expression, and body language that people normally use in person (04:10 - 04:30). As writers and authors in new media, it is beneficial to understand the affordances and constraints of specific mediums because it can help us to choose the best fit for our audience. This ensures that the message we want to send is being delivered correctly, and that our audience is not accidentally confusing the information given to them.

However, affordances and constraints go beyond this individual approach, as they reach the societal level as well. Gunther Kress states, “Societies and their cultures select ‘materials’ – sound, clay, movement (of parts) of the body, surfaces, wood, stone – which seem useful or necessary for meaning-work in that culture to be done. Selections from the potentials for making meaning which these materials offer, are constantly made in the social shaping of modes” (“Mode” 82). Depending on the societal and cultural factors of a place or situation, different ‘materials’ are utilized where they are deemed necessary. These typically impact the area in a deeply meaningful way, proving that affordances and constraints have universal effects as well as individualistic. The example Kress uses is sign-language. He explains, “In communities of humans who are speech-impaired, the affordances of the body – the positioning and the movement of limbs, of facial expression – are developed into fully articulated modes, so-called sign-languages. In communities where speech is available, only a narrow selection of these affordances is used, in gesture” (“Mode” 82-83). The concept of affordances and constraints further develops society by creating social and cultural opportunities and consequences. These are responsible for improving or implicating their citizens and their lives, likely without them even realizing. In English, the way we pronounce our words and the pitch of our tone can easily alter the way we communicate. However, most people do not consider this to be an affordance nor a constraint of our society’s modes, and this concept does not always apply to all languages and cultures, again impacting the way people live. Conceptualizing affordances and constraints in this context can help us as individuals to live and succeed in life, as we become more socially and culturally aware.

Affordances & Constraints are a set of paired terms that when applied in the context of communications and rhetoric, signify the strengths of weaknesses that a particular medium has, respectfully. When the term medium is used, it refers to a catalyst for a writer’s message, and how that message gets to the audience. Usually, within the terms of various types of media such as television, video, film, or written documentation, which are all considered popular mediums for writers. Affordances narrows in on the benefits a particular medium can bring when writing a message or expressing information. Writers tend to write with the intention of throwing a message out to the public. There are usually mediums that better display their message than others depending on the nature of it. for instance, if a writer wants to implement visuals, film and video can reliably display visual information in a format that written documentation is not able to. Constraints makes direct reference to the shortcomings a medium carries with it. Writers must consider these weaknesses as they craft their work. To return to the earlier example: while visual mediums like film and video are great in displaying visual information, they are lacking when compared to written medium’s use as a means for long-distance communication. Both of the aforementioned visual mediums can display a good amount of imagery in a short amount of time. With written works such as emails or letters, the recipient of your information is given more time to react and reflect on what is being said to them. Which is optimal for conversation.

John Walter is a writer and professor of all matters of subjects pertaining to media and technology’s influence on culture, who extensively comments on the impact of affordances & constraints in his article “Cyber-Rhetoric: Literature, Theory, Technology.” The article goes on to state that “All media, physical or digital, have material properties, and those material properties help define the affordances and constraints of their respective media,” (Walter). Thus, when creating a message for an audience, you must acknowledge the particular strengths and weaknesses attached to the medium chosen. Otherwise, as a direct result of your lack of analysis on the nature of your message, it’s original meaning can be unintentionally changed depending on the medium it was translated onto. If you’re attempting to ask someone a question and hold conversation, perhaps film shouldn���t be your first choice. Asking a question in a film can be interpretated differently than in a simple email.

Affordances & Constraints also operate under the idea of materiality. Which is the concept of one’s material when crafting a message has an impact as to how we, as a society, engage with the media as a whole. “Or, let’s say that we’ve not made an error and we want to send our message to a friend. If we’ve written the message out on paper with a pencil or a pen, we can send that piece of paper to our friend with relative ease. If we’ve written the message on a stone wall, however, we have real challenges to overcome if we’re going to send the message anywhere,” (Walter). In essence, as technologies evolve, writers must adapt to these changes and come to a logical conclusion as to which medium is best fit for their situation. Which medium is able to provide the most amounts of affordances and the least amount of constraints proportional to their message.

“Mode.” Multimodality: A Social Semiotic Approach to Contemporary Communication, by Gunther Kress, Routledge, 2009, pp. 79–102.

Samie, Yumna. “Remediation! Context Part 2: Study Hall Writing Composition #13: ASU + Crash Course.” YouTube, uploaded by Arizona State University, 24 June 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T169ogVcN9Q&feature=youtu.be&ab_channel=ArizonaStateUniversity.

Walter, John. “Lecture: Of Mediums, Media, and Materiality.” Cyber-Rhetoric: Literature, Theory, Technology, 2 Sept. 2014, www.jpwalter.com/cyber-rhetoric/archives/222.

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Essentially, authorship is the state an individual is in when creating a text. In other words, when an individual has ownership to a certain text or novel, they are the author of that subject. The way we write, or our authorship, is unique to our experiences and environments. As the Yugoslav-born British linguist, Roz Ivanic, states in his book, Writing and Identity: The Discoursal Construction of Identity in Academic Writing, “each word we write represents an encounter, possibly a struggle, between our multiple past experiences and the demands of a new context. Writing is not some neutral activity which we just learn like a physical skill, but it implicates every fiber of the writer’s multifaceted being,” (Ivanic, 181). Depending on factors like who taught us to write and our interests in the subject our authorship is formed. The artform is very personal and intrusive, no matter the message we communicate through it.

In a more physical sense of authorship, one’s written identity or handwriting has been used to give insight on personality traits which display an important connection to their work. Following this idea that one’s authorship is insightful when pen is put to paper, a field of study known as Graphology is dedicated to understanding different handwriting. According to the Institute of British Graphology, “... handwriting is the pattern of our psychology expressed in symbols on the page and these symbols are as unique as our own DNA,” (The British Institute of Graphologists). Using research and following patterns, graphologists can make assumptions on one’s personality.

Marshall McLuhan, noted for his success in philosophy, states how the system was part of a “humble service organization” in his novel The Medium is The Massage (McLuhan, 66). The writing and publishing system did not support dishonesty and as a result, many authors were not taken advantage of for their work by outside parties. With written text, stealing of each other's work was not a concern due to how tedious the process was which established this strong sense of morality. Centuries ago, having authorship of a piece of text wasn’t highly prioritized which is evident through lack of signatures found in texts. After popularity rose concerning xerography, much like a photocopier today, authorship became connected with copyright infringement claims as many publishers and authors attempted to steal work.

McLuhan’s novel states that “in the sense we know it today, individual intellectual effort related to the book as an economic opportunity,” (66). Before authorship became a concerning topic, many writers, especially in the medieval times, did not write their own signatures in their own text which is an action commonly attached to authors today. As mentioned previously, print technology was met with opposition from users and this feeling of resistance grew even stronger when stripping an individual of their authorship became a wide concern. This is because print technology like the xerography, allowed for copying text and pasting it on a customized book making it completely different from its original version. Today, there is an extensive legal process attached to authorship as copyright infringement claims grew since print technology rose in popularity. On a lighter note, it is much easier and quicker today to accomplish a sense.

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A blog is an online platform used to entertain, educate, or persuade an audience. Blogs allow users to document their ideas, emotions, experiences, and knowledge to share with the world. Blogs are informal digital writings that can reach a vast readership. In their origin, they were primarily used as published diaries; they were very personal and showcased the writer’s identity and interests. In contemporary society, blogs serve a different purpose to a variety of subjects. For example, most universities own a blog that is separate from their official web page. University blogs serve many purposes such as promoting internal organizations, informing readers of the university’s social calendar, or providing assistance to students for various subjects like writing or science. The design or presentation options for a blog are endless; this decision is influenced by the intended audience. For instance, a blog for health professionals is going to greatly differ in design, style, and diction compared to a blog written for culinary chefs.

Moreover, blogs have few limitations and several benefits for users. Caroline Forsey, Staff Writer for HubSpot, points out,” At its most basic, blogs can help you develop an online presence, prove yourself an expert in an industry, and attract more quality leads to all pages of your site.” In fact, blogs are often written in an informal conversational style. The informal tone allows for a greater chance at connecting with a wider audience. Furthermore, blogs paved the way for self-expression and created countless opportunities for a new category of jobs. Similar blog-like platforms such as Instagram are an excellent example of h0w people can create and engage a large following of readers based on informal blog posts. Dennis Baron adds, “blog posts are brief, typically a few paragraphs focused on a single theme, arranged in reverse chronological order, with the most recent appearing first; Blogs are updated regularly” (Baron, 165). Blogs have proven to be effective mediums for transferring and replicating information because of their multimodal nature.

Blogging is the act or actions involved with documenting ideas, feelings, experiences, or advice and publishing them for others to access this information across all forms of media. In their beginning in the early stages of 1990, blogs acted as personal publicized diaries until it came to be seen as a new form of effective communication. Nowadays blogs don’t early serve as personal websites, but they are used by companies and for several other purposes. Their uniqueness is “Weblog entries [are] short, usually containing links to the larger Web and appearing together on one long page” (Blood, 54), in comparison to journals or articles to be just concrete bodies of texts. Blogs have consistently risen in popularity throughout the years with “more than nine million currently active blogs, with some forty thousand new ones appearing every day” (Baron, 165). Structurally the defining features like mentioned above are “posts are brief, typically a few paragraphs focused on a single theme, arranged in reverse chronological order, with the most recent appearing first; Blogs are updated regularly” (Baron, 165). Blogs have proven to be effective mediums for transferring and replicating information because of their multimodal nature.

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Design thinking is a process used to “understand users, challenge assumptions, redefine problems and create innovative solutions to prototype and test” (Siang). Ultimately, it is a means of gathering feedback to better a project, product or service. It is unlike any other method though, as it involves the customers or audience, getting them involved in the process, and making them loyal to the company or creators.

Design thinking is used in all disciplines and subject matters, as it is a multipurpose and universal way of problem solving. Due to this, there is no single, correct way to apply design thinking. There are multiple processes, stages, and modes that are used, which can be rearranged and organized to best suit the work at hand. In fact, these phases “do not have to follow any specific order and can often occur in parallel and repeat repetitively. Given that, you should not understand the phases as a ranked or step-by-step process” (Dam and Siang). They should be looked at as discontinuous and fluid. This quality of design thinking makes it much more valuable than other processes that are used to gain insight because it makes the process personal and individualistic to the project. It can be customary, as each phase can be used whenever and however the creators desire and as many times as they want.

The phases referenced include the following: (1) empathize, (2) define, (3) ideate, (4) prototype, and (5) test. Empathizing with your users “allows you to set aside your own assumptions about the world and gain real insight into users and their needs” (Siang). This is especially useful because oftentimes, as creators, we are too close and too consumed by our work to see the point of view that our audience has on it. Using this step to gain their perspective enables us to make changes that are worthwhile. The “define” stage is where analysis and synthesis occur in order to determine what problems the project upholds (Siang). Defining the issues leads to solving them, in turn, making the creation better. These solutions usually are found in the ideating stage. Ideating challenges the issues at hand to create innovative concepts that later become legendary results. This stage is ultimately considered the brainstorming stage. These ideas are then put into the world through the prototype phase, where the solutions found are tested on a small scale to identify if they are valuable moves to enact (Siang). This is where the final solutions are found, which are then taken to the final stage, testing. The testing stage is similar to the prototype phase, just on a much larger scale, as it thoroughly tests the prototypes.

The goal of design thinking is to better understand the target audience and user, or “to gain the deepest understanding of the users and what their ideal solution/product would be” (Dam and Siang). Design thinking is used by some of the largest, most credible universities, as well as global businesses such as Google, Apple, and Airbnb. This is simply because “with design thinking, teams have the freedom to generate ground-breaking solutions. Using it, your team can get behind hard-to-access insights and apply a collection of hands-on methods to help find innovative answers” (Siang).

Design thinking is when a writer or content creator thinks about the user or reader experience before creating or writing content. This type of thinking involves empathizing with an intended audience when selecting the design, tone, style, medium, and mode. Design thinking involves critical thinking, preventive thinking, and visualizing various responses from the intended readers. For example, when design thinking, writers must consider how the delivery of a message could affect its meaning. Based on the intended product, is there a moment where a reader could feel attacked, threatening, offended, misunderstood? Writers Rikke Friis Dam and Teo Yu Siang inform writers of the various phases of design thinking: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test. Dam and Siang clarify that these phases are not always sequential, yet they are important for the development of a message through mode and medium. Design thinking is synonymous with ‘thinking outside the box” because it requires that writers “challenge assumptions” (Dam and Siang), think ahead at possible complications, and “uncover new ways of improving the product, service, or design”. Design thinking is a useful tool to predict the outcome of the success of a piece of work. Thinking preemptively also helps strengthen the trust and understanding between a consumer (reader) and a producer (a writer). Design thinking benefits the producer on a long-term scale, and it creates a sense of trust for the consumer.

Furthermore, Farhad Manjoo makes an excellent point to consider when writing content for an audience, “When people land on a story, they very rarely make it all the way down the page. A lot of people don’t even make it halfway. Even more dispiriting is the relationship between scrolling and sharing” (Manjoo). Design thinking expands to consider the reading trends going on at the moment. If writers want their audience to be engaged, they must make the page visually pleasing and support the current statistics such as attention span, and reader engagement such as scrolling records. Design thinking requires all writers to access their creative thinking and extend empathy towards their desired audience. In summary, design thinking is a great tool to use as a digital creator, especially in this digital age where messages could easily get lost in translation.

Dam, Rikke Friis, and Teo Yu Siang. “What Is Design Thinking and Why Is It So Popular?” The Interaction Design Foundation, 2020, www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/what-is-design-thinking-and-why-is-it-so-popular.

Siang, Teo Yu. “What Is Design Thinking?” The Interaction Design Foundation, www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/design-thinking.

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The term, "digital rhetoric" was first coined by Richard Lanham in his essay, “Digital Rhetoric and the Digital Arts” (1992), and later reintroduced by Elizabeth Losh in Virtualpolitik (2009) (Eyman 8). As Douglas Eyman describes it, however, digital rhetoric is an "interdisciplinary field" constituting a mesh of subjects, such as rhetoric and writing, composition, digital game studies, literacy studies, new media studies, and Internet studies (Eyman 11). "Digital      rhetoric” has been applied in "social media, online discussion forums, website design, and multimodal composition", to name a few (Eyman 9). One example is the way websites incorporate big and bold fonts to catch your attention. Another example of digital rhetoric in action are music videos such as "This is America" by Childish Gambino, which was first uploaded on YouTube. It mostly targeted educated, young people. Through the use of visuals and sound effects, as well as song lyrics, the video was loaded with a lot of political and social commentary. The Black Lives Matter Movement protests were spurred because      of viral videos that dominated media outlets like Social Media (Facebook, Instagram, etc.).

Rhetoric is the art of writing and speaking persuasively and effectively. Therefore, digital rhetoric can be defined as the application of rhetoric through digital media. Douglas Eyman who is the Director of the PhD in Writing and Rhetoric, used the term digital rhetoric to describe a medium that can intertwine various interdisciplinary departments of communications. In his text we read more of his understanding to this term and that even though digital rhetoric is better known in departments of communication studies or English studies it is also being applied in other fields of studies (Eyman 2). Digital rhetoric has been applied to rhetoric's technology such as social media use, network rhetorics, website design and the study of new media. This refers through the use of documentaries or news channels which are used to inform the public. As we are seeing the vast growth of technology, we can also see its use and the scope of digital rhetoric. It can be observed through online schooling, scholarly journals, podcasts, and social media sites like Facebook and LinkedIn. These different platforms and modes allow millions of people to connect through digital rhetoric. The connection is just the first step of what technology now offers. From that connection they are able to communicate, influence, alter each other’s viewpoints on various subjects. Individuals participate in digital rhetoric by updating a simple Facebook post or by creating a limited 280 character Tweet (Crossfield). Digital rhetoric does have some downsides such as misinformation. Since anyone can create and participate in digital rhetoric, it leaves rooms for misleading information and/or inaccurate information (Fleitz). Buzzfeed, which is a popular information site, determined that between the months of August through November of 2016 had the largest engagement in inaccurate news via social media. Another 2016 poll showed that 64% of Americans believe that fake news is becoming a problem. They state that it is causing a great deal of confusion on what news is real and what is fake. It is such an issue that there are many website and blogs dedicated to assisting users in identifying fake information. Some suggestions include identifying the site’s domain, the about page, contact us link and when the site was last updated (Fleitz). A variety of professionals implement digital rhetoric in the workplace as well. For example activists, political leaders and entertainers can make use of digital rhetoric to communicate and influence their opinions to others. For example, news is now digitalized. News sources now have the ability to influence and persuade through online platforms, which allows worldwide access. According to Eyman’s text “if we see digital rhetoric as a productive art, then all texts can be seen as objects of study for analysis and as products of digital rhetoric practices” (Eyman 10). Digital Rhetoric has been highly implemented in the classroom. In the education system you will find the use of technology common for completing assignments to taking exams on electronic devices. Both educators and students are encouraged to utilize laptops, tablets, computers, ebooks and smart boards. These tools further encourage digital rhetoric.

Crossfield, Jonathan. “Social Media: Is Your Content All Rhetoric?” Cntent Marketing Institutue. 14, December 2016. https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2016/12/social-media-content-rhetoric/

Eyman, Douglas. “Eyman - Introduction.pdf.” Google Drive, University of Michigan Press; Digital Culture Books, 12 June 2020, 18:47, drive.google.com/file/d/1XgoO l3RIe6tbL2lPho5LITl_9NT8n4C/view.

Fleitz, Elizabeth. Teaching Digital Rhetoric in the Age of Fake News: Media Literacy and Source Evaluation in the First-Year Writing Classroom. 15, March 2017. http://www.digitalrhetoriccollaborative.org/2017/03/15/teaching-digital-rhetoric-in-the-age-of-fakenews-media-literacy-and-source-evaluation-in-the-first-year-writing-classroom/.

[newmediadictionaryenc]

According to Margaret Rouse, digitization is the process of converting information into a digital format. Text, audio and images can all be uploaded digitally. An example of digitization is scanning a physical copy of your essay, that way you now have access to your resume online. “The Electronic World: Literacy Study and Revolution” suggests that digitalization created radical changes to the world (Lanham). Digitalization has made programs widely available and perhaps most importantly cheap. Lanham expresses how these technological advancements including digitalization have revolutionized communication and self-expression. These instant communications have allowed individuals to save time and make money. For example, companies no longer have to pay for expensive television commercials and billboards. With today’s technology they can create their own websites, videos or apps that can be shared instantly to millions of consumers. The time consuming option of a black and white printed advertisement in a newspaper is a thing of the past. Technology has evolved an abundance of platforms to allow creativity when creating any digitized communication (O’Brien). Digital text is dynamic, interactive and able to mix words with image and sound. Digitalization has significantly impacted education. It has allowed educators access to sources to better educate their students. We have advanced from projectors to computers where we can now access information by the click of a mouse thanks to digitalization. Schools now offer online classes with online exams and online textbooks (Ainslee). This is digitalization!

Digitalization makes information easier to preserve and share with the world. For example, a historical document such as the Declaration of Independence is physically located in the National Archives museum. Thanks to digitalization people are able to view this historical document all around the world without ever physically going to Washington D.C. (Rouse). Digitalization is not simply taking physical objects and converting them into digital. It is a complex process attendant upon the creation, use, management, accessibility and preservation of digital work (Hanssson). This process is so complex that mistakes do happen. According to Manovich, digitization naturally involves the loss of information. An example of a loss of information due to digitalization is a study of digital photographs conducted by William Mitchell. It was determined that a standard photograph allows for enlargements, while a digital image has spatial limitations, which only allow a fixed amount of information to be observed (Manovich 30). More often than not, a digital image only contains a fixed amount of information since they often consist of a finite number of pixels that contains a distinct color or tonal value and this is what encompasses the image full reproduction. Nonetheless, an image that is transmitted and copied various times from the original tends to lose its information and its quality later becomes degraded causing the viewer a loss of interest. It is also important to keep in mind that digitization helps keep the memory of the past given that no information is truly deleted online. Given that we are so dependent on technology, a new era where we live to use technology, we are straying away from the “physical” world. From the way we communicate, and online shop, digitization is a bridge between the physical and the online world.

Ainslee, J., 2020. Digitization Of Education In The 21St Century - Elearning Industry. [online] eLearning Industry. Available at: [Accessed 18 October 2020].

Hansson, Joasim. 2010. Digitalization: Libraries, identity and change. ScienceDirect, https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/computer-science/digitization

Lanham, Richard. “The_Electronic_Word_Democracy,_Technology,_and_the..._---- _(1._The_Electronic_Word_Literary_Study_and_the_Digital_Revolution).Pdf.” Google Drive, Google, drive.google.com/file/d/18vCNSfFX0lFIQ6Oqcik-BVd9CGivIX4-/view.

O’Brien, Sam. “4 Ways Technology Has Revolutionized Communication”. Business 2 Community, 2020. https://www.business2community.com/communications/4-ways-technology-has-revolutionizedcommunication-02348837.

Rouse, Margaret. “What Is Digitalization.” TechTarget Network, Google, www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1GCEA_enUS856US864%2Cdigitization

Manovich, Lev. “Manovich-Lev_The_Language_of_the_New_Media.Pdf.” Google Drive, The MIT Press, 2001, drive.google.com/file/d/1SDud2S7nK6fM2lbGeomZDheiFtpMZs27/view.

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A discourse community is a group of people who talk about a specific topic and have a set of common public goals around that topic (Fritch). “Discourse” in this term just refers to the communication between each group, and “community” just refers to the group of people involved. Each discourse community has their own set of rules and values about the topic, and a way of communicating about these ideals. Members within the community are expected to have some mastery on the topic, and communicating with other members of the discourse community about information and feedback is key to achieving their goals (Fritch). Each discourse community also has its own genres and slang that community members use (“What is a Discourse Community?”). John Swales defined these characteristics for discourse community, and they’re listed as:

● A broadly agreed set of common public goals

● Mechanisms of intercommunication among their members

● It uses these mechanisms to provide information and feedback

● Possesses one or more genres

● In additions to genres, it has some specific jargon/slang

● It has a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and expertise

These are the components of a discourse community (“A Simple Explanation”). An important idea to consider is the skill level of members. For a discourse community to evolve and grow, there needs to be a good ratio between new members or beginners, and the experts on the topic - and if there isn’t, the community can eventually die out (“What is a Discourse Community?”). Another important aspect of the criteria for discourse communities is the specific terms or language used. A discourse community of musicians might have their own terms describing instruments, music, or other aspects that others outside of the community might not grasp. Each group is fitted with their own understanding and slang around the topic, and this is utilized in community between discourse members.

People working together for a company, study groups, book clubs, subreddits - all of these are examples of discourse communities. They are connected by a goal or purpose and communicate with one another to reach those goals. It is a broad term that can help define any topic and any group of people as long as they have the right expertise to contribute to the discussions being had and fit the other criteria for discourse communities.

Discourse communities are an important part of society and writing. It gives people a platform to discuss a topic with other like-minded people to figure out a solution or goals they can reach with that topic. It also gives people outside of the discourse community a chance to understand that topic better, because they can read and talk with the people within that community to understand their problems, goals, and aspirations. Discourse communities are also useful for niche or unpopular discussions that are still important to groups of people. If someone wants to talk about a specific author and their writings, a specific social problem, or any other topic that others might ignore, a discourse community about that topic would be a perfect place to have those talks. The communities talking about these subjects are often “fans” with similar opinions, but it is still open for discussion even if it is a negative opinion or value (Fritch).

“A Simple Explanation of Discourse Community With Examples.” Social Mettle, 2 Feb. 2015, socialmettle.com/explanation-of-discourse-community-with-examples.

Fritch, John. “Purdue Discourse Communities and Organizations--ENGL 106: Home.” Discourse Community, Purdue University, guides.lib.purdue.edu/c.php?g=353142.

“What Is a Discourse Community?” What Is a Discourse Community?: ENC1102-13Fall 0027, UCF Web Courses, Fall, webcourses.ucf.edu/courses/984277/pages/what-is-a-discourse-community.

[newmediadictionaryenc]

Marshall McLuhan, new media theorist and philosopher, used his book, “The Medium and the Massage,” to separate the subject of media into two concepts, hot and cold. He writes, “Whenever hot wars are necessary these days, we conduct them in the backyards of the world with the old technologies. These wars are happenings, tragic games. It is no longer convenient, or suitable, to use the latest technologies for fighting our wars, because the latest technologies have rendered war meaningless” (McLuhan and Fiore 74). Now, many who read this may find McLuhan’s way with words describing hot and cold media a bit complex. However, understanding the concepts of hot and cold media is in fact quite easy. Further, hot and cold media are things we use daily. For example, “A photograph is, visually, "high definition." A cartoon is "low definition," simply because very little visual information is provided. Telephone is a cool medium, or one of low definition, because the ear is given a small amount of information. Speech is similarly a cool medium or low definition because so little is given and so much has to be filled in by the listener. On the other hand, hot mediums do not leave so much to be filled in or completed by the audience. Hot media are, therefore, low in participation, and cool media are high in participation or completion by the audience (McLuhan “Media Hot and Cold”). In essence, McLuhan was illustrating that hot media gives the viewer everything. The viewer does not need to question, guess or assume because the information is given to them. Cold media requires the user to think. The information is given to them with gaps to encourage more viewer participation and intellect. Consequently, hot and cold media is not without controversy. In fact, many view McLuhan’s point of view written in the twentieth century outdated and inaccurate. The Oxford Dictionary reads, “Arguably, in McLuhan's terms, television has grown hotter since the 1960s as its technical picture quality has improved, so these terms are relative. Critics of McLuhan's concept have argued that it reifies the medium, underestimating differences within the same medium; the degree of audience engagement does not depend primarily on the medium itself (although its affordances may play a part), but on its content and the ways in which the medium is used on specific occasions within specific contexts” (“Hot and Cool Media”). So as you can see, McLuhan’s point of views are a reflection of the times he lived in and the technology that was available. “PBS Idea Channel” emphasizes this point by stating, “In the 1960s, radio, television, and film were, arguably, much more monolithic” (“PBS Idea Channel”). He could never have imagined that television, radios, and other mediums would have become so advanced that his definitions of hot and cold have become interchangeable depending on the audience. This is exemplified with this quote, “We always bring ourselves, our experiences and expectations, to the media we interact with. To determine participation by a medium or its quality is to ignore, I think, the state of the self, the media ecosystem, and the relationship between those two things. Media is not hot or cold, but to put it McLuhan's terms - people hot up and cool down in response to the media they consume” (“PBS Idea Channel”).

The terms hot and cold media were coined by Marshall McLuhan in his 1964 book, Understanding Media. The term is a distinction made by McLuhan between media such as print, photographs, radio, and movies (hot media) and media such as speech, cartoons, the telephone, and television (cool media). Hot media are ‘high definition’ because they are rich in sensory data (Oxford Reference). Two examples of hot media include radio and film because “they both engage with one sense of the user to the extent that the user’s attention is only focused on the content and their participation is minimal almost secondary” (The Media Students Blog, 2018). “Cold Media” on the contrary uses a form of low definition media that engages several senses less completely that it demands a great deal of interaction from the audience. That is, the “audience must participate more because they are the ones that must fill in the gaps for the content themselves” (The Media Students Blog, 2018). This type of media is found in examples such as the television, our own phone conversations and comic books because oftentimes it requires a lot more hands on interaction with the viewer. Cool media are ‘low definition’ because they provide less sensory data and demand more participation by the audience. Radio focuses on the sense of hearing and communicates the whole message via sound. There is no means of back and forth communication between sender and receiver. Cold media means the audience may have to fill in the blanks. A speech is an example of cold media because more participation is required. Speech requires supporting information and even interpretation in order to fully relay the message to the audience. A good example of cold media is the Internet, because it requires lots of interaction by the audience (you need to know exactly how to use it and your engagement is necessary). According to Mike Rugnetta video “But Wait: Are You Hot, Or Is It Your Media?”, the strict divide between hot and cold media is false. This is because technology is constantly evolving and in reality, some technologies are not just hot or cold. Maybe, they’re warm. McLuhan labels speech and telephone as cool media, but the phone today is much ‘hotter’ than speaking face to face. Therefore, should the telephone really be in the same category as speech? Hot media is direct, while cold media is indirect.

Baron, Dennis E. A Better Pencil: Readers, Writers, and the Digital Revolution. Oxford University Press, 2009.

"Hot and Cool Media." Oxford Reference, www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110810105107935. Accessed 19 Sept. 2020

TweetingRawr. “Marshall McLuhan's Hot and Cool.” Themediastudentsblog, 3 Feb. 2018, themediastudentsblog.wordpress.com/2018/02/03/marshall-mcluhans-hot-and-cool/.

McLuhan, Marshall, and Quentin Fiore. The Medium Is The Massage. Random House, 1967.

McLuhan, Marshall. “Media Hot and Cold.” Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2001. 22-32.

"PBS Idea Channel" But Wait: Are You Hot, Or Is Your Media? (TV Episode 2016) - Imdb". Imdb, 2020, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11365560/.

[newmediadictionaryenc]

Instant messaging is a type of synchronous communication. This is where you send text messages to people, it can even be in group chats with a group of people. Dennis Baron in his book “A Better Pencil” states that instant messaging is text based communication between two or more individuals on their phones or computers. Instant messaging (IM) exploded on the Internet in November 1996. It became popular since it was faster than sending emails and much better at holding conversations. With instant messaging IM users have real time conversations with buddies, and the users can switch tasks quickly on a computer. Nowadays with instant messaging you can send files, pictures, videos, and even voice recordings. As technology progresses there are new things that people can do with instant messaging. Instant messaging is an online chat room to communicate with people.

That's when Mirabilis (Israeli company) introduced ICQ (I Seek You), a free instant-messaging platform that anyone could use (Tyson & Cooper). AOL (American Online) bought ICQ and then AOL created AIM (AOL Instant Messenger), becoming the IM leader. Today, IM platforms include those like eBuddy and Pidgin (Cooper). Instant Messaging is considered the best way to communicate with others quickly. Messages are sent instantly, having the receiver get a notification once your message is sent. This notification is displayed on the person’s phone so once they turn on their phone they can easily read your message. However, Baron states that it is a distraction while bosses and parents monitor employees and children. Unfortunately instant messaging is a blessing and a curse, it can hinder productivity in the workplace and school setting because we have become so dependent on this new technology. Therefore, in schools teachers will confiscate student’s phones because they just want to talk with their friends instead of paying attention in class. After all, how many of us have left our phone at home and drove all the way home to get it? Not only have we become dependent on our phones for the GPS but also our way to socialize with people. In the past it was normal to have a meeting spot for your group of friends at a certain time, now we have group chats. On the other hand Baron believes a benefit would be instant communication equals instant access to information. Baron states that instant messaging may be interrupted by everyday life, but the written exchanges are able to be saved for later making it easy to continue conversation hours after the last message. So, if your parents told you the groceries to pick up later at Publix in the morning, and it is already the end of the day you would most likely forget the whole list. But with instant messaging you can simply text them to send you the list and you will have quick access to it. According to John McWhorter’s Ted Talk “Txtng is killing language. JK!!!”, instant messaging is a new language with a new structure. A perfect example is LOL, which is an abbreviation for “laughing out loud” and is used in response to something funny. Over time LOL has turned into a pragmatic particle because it is an expression that is simply used to fill gaps in conversation (McWhorter). Through instant messaging, the English language is being transformed. “G2g” or “gtg” stands for got to go, “lol” stands for laughing out loud, “idk” for I don’t know, and “imu/imy” for I miss you. These abbreviations are called chatspeaks or netspeak, and they have been around for a while but are commonly used through social media platforms and instant messaging. Like the email, many critics point out that the use of IM is endangering the English language, referring to it as “mindless communication” (Baron). And the reason for this is that you do not necessarily have to be laughing out loud to send the abbreviation “lol”, most likely the person who sent “lol” was not laughing and just being kind to respond. Although these new forms of languages are continuously changing with the development of technology, it does help with responding to messages quickly.

Baron, Dennis. “The Instant Message Genre.” A Better Pencil: Readers, Writers, and the Digital Revolution, , Oxford University Press, 2009, pp. 150–155.

Cooper, Alison, and Jeff Tyson. "How Instant Messaging Works." HowStuffWorks, 28 Mar. 2001, computer.howstuffworks.com/e-mail-messaging/instant-messaging.htm.

McWhorter, John. “Txtng Is Killing Language. JK!!!” TED, www.ted.com/talks/john_mcwhorter_txtng_is_killing_language_jk?language=en.

[newmediadictionaryenc]

Materiality, "that which is the matter of something, material substance," from Modern Latin materialitas, from materialis "of or belonging to matter," from Latin materia "matter, stuff" (n.). rom 1560s as "state or quality of being material;" 1640s as "quality of being important to matters at hand” (www.etymonline.com). Materiality are “properties that determine how portable, durable, fragile, transferable, or transmittable a certain type of medium is” (Walter, John. Cyber-Rhetoric: Literature, Theory, Technology, 2014). All mediums and medias have different properties that make up their materiality (Merriam-Webster, Mediums, 2020). Materiality is the concept that every medium or platform used for literacy has its own limits and benefits. Upon comparison of materiality between two mediums like clay and paper, comes the realization that both have affordances (advantages) as well as constraints(disadvantages). From Clay writing to Writing on Paper to Keyboard-Typing— all used for the same purpose—to put our thoughts into words you can see. 

Think of it like pros and cons: you can easily erase a pencil-written mistake with an eraser (pro of using a pencil); but if the mistake was written on clay, the whole piece would have to be remade if the clay had already hardened into stone (con of using clay). The materiality of every media encompasses many factors that might lead the writer to choose one medium over another. For example, how well can someone edit their writing, is it transferable, portable, easy to share among others, and much more (Walter, 2014). The number of affordances over the number of constraints that it has might influence their choice of their medium. Paper and tablets are two types of media so their materiality is different. A tablet would not fit the necessary commitment for a narrative story that is going to be printed to be published. Paper would be the adequate medium to use because paper is easily handled and sold for people to buy and read. A tablet would not be able to multiply itself for publication and for it to be distributed and read as a paperback. However, “we can also discuss materiality in terms of what it fosters and encourages” (Walter, 2014). Although the tablet might not be appropriate for the printing press, it is convenient for accessibility on the go. Its materiality allows access to any documents or revision of your work with any internet connection. This enforces the idea that every medium possesses their own resources.

Materiality stems from the simple idea that all writing mediums have varying levels of worth and usefulness. This concept is still being argued and discussed “McLuhan underscores the materiality of this seemingly contentless as well as the formless medium that shapes and controls the scale and form of human association and action,” (Hong). Materiality ideals with how effective a medium or form of new media is to convey a message. More specifically, materiality is the means in which a message is affected whether by affordances or constraints due to the limitations of the medium’s material effectiveness. An example of this concept is, if one had to choose between a dry erase board and a sticky note to write a to do list for the next day, what would one choose that is easiest to write on and transport throughout the day? The choice based on its affordances would be the sticky note. However, the sticky note is small and can get lost. The materiality affects the decision for media and mode when communicating a message.

According to Yumma Sammie and ASU, materiality can also be defined as the “affordances” and “limitations” one assigns to any given medium. Whether it be a computer, a notebook, a cell phone. The affordances designate the benefits one receives from using that medium. The limitations of any specific medium, when weighed against the affordances allow the user to select the one that works the best for them. When designating the importance of materiality and how people use writing mediums, it is important to understand that materiality is a concept that is relative to the user. The affordances cell phones provide when texting might be the limitations for another user. As well, the materiality of a medium takes into consideration that the medium being used must both be user friendly, but one must also have a pre-existing idea of what one intends to produce with whichever media one is discussing, (one must already have a message on is planning on communicating to their audience).

This term at its core is drawn from the simple idea that all forms of media have varying material properties with varying levels of usefulness. This is a concept is frequently being argued and discussed, “McLuhan underscores the materiality of this seemingly contentless as well as the formless medium that shapes and controls the scale and form of human association and action”(Hong) .Arguably the most important aspect of the definition is that “all media, physical or digital, have material properties, and those material properties help define the affordances and constraints of their respective media”(Watson). These different elements that determine the affordance of new media guide the choices one makes regarding a singular medium a writer might use. It is the basic principle behind the deliberation process when assessing what medium is the best option to achieve any desired effect. 

Dennis Baron the author of “A Better Pencil” expresses an avid appreciation for writing in clay, regardless of how effective this form of writing is today, or how he finds a pen easier to use than computers (regardless of how popular or useful they might be), this definition defines materiality from the perspective of the user. “It’s not surprising that those of us that grew up with ink-stained fingers think of computers as harder to master,” (Baron 71). Though certain technologies, mediums, and forms of communication (cellphones, social media, laptops), have more utilitarian significance and are globally appreciated, materiality from the perspective of the user is based on personal preference and how useful, or beneficial that medium might be at conveying their authorial intent. 

[newmediadictionaryenc]

Media, "extensions of some human faculty – psychic or physical. (McLuhan, 26)

Mediums/Media- is a material or technology that is used as a means of communication. For example, when we use the term “social media” we are referring to the many mediums that allow society communicate with each other (Dennis, Baron. A Better Pencil, 2009). Medium is referring to one singular material or technology. For example, we use a pencil as a medium for our writing in English class. In contrast, Media is used to refer to more than one medium (Nordquist, Richard. Media, Medium, and Mediums: How to Choose the Right Word, 2019). I decided to lump these terms together in one so people can understand that they are used interchangeably to refer to singular (medium) and plural (media) means of communication.

The term news Media refers to the groups that communicate information and news to people. Most Americans get their information about government from the news media because it would be impossible to gather all the news themselves. Media outlets have responded to the increasing reliance of Americans on television and the Internet by making the news even more readily available to people. There are three main types of news media: print media, broadcast media, and the Internet.

The oldest media forms are newspapers, magazines, journals, newsletters, and other printed material. These publications are collectively known as the Print Media. Although print media readership has declined in the last few decades, many Americans still read a newspaper every day or a newsmagazine on a regular basis. The influence of print media is therefore significant. Regular readers of print media tend to be more likely to be politically active. Broadcast Media are news reports broadcast via radio and television. Television news is hugely important in the United States because more Americans get their news from television broadcasts than from any other source.

The Internet is slowly transforming the news media because more Americans are relying on online sources of news instead of traditional print and broadcast media. Americans surf the sites of more traditional media outlets, such as NBC and CNN, but also turn to unique online news sources such as weblogs. Websites can provide text, audio, and video information, all of the ways traditional media are transmitted. The web also allows for a more interactive approach by allowing people to personally tailor the news they receive via personalized web portals, newsgroups, podcasts, and RSS feeds. (www.sparknotes.com )

Electric media: movies, Telstar, flight. (McLuhan, 14) Media that uses electronics or electromechanical audience to access the content. The primary electronic media sources familiar to the general public are video recordings, audio recordings, multimedia presentations, slide presentations, CD-ROM and online content.

“Electronic media refers to all means of sharing information, except the print media, such as radio, television, internet etc. It is media that can be shared on electronic devices for the audience viewing and can be broadcasted to the wider population. It is a powerful version of media that has visual appeal and is more convincing as people can listen to the radio, see live pictures of events on television, can view or read text or images on smart phones etc. Electronic media remains active 24x7. You can watch news channels any time of day to get news updates or can watch live programs or events on televisions, smart phones etc. “[1]

   [1] Excerpt from https://www.javatpoint.com/print-media-vs-electronic-media

[newmediadictionaryenc]

The material used by an artist, composer or writer to create their piece of work. Each medium is different because you can do different things with different mediums. A medium can be format for composing something such as a podcast, blog, or a newspaper and a medium is also the tool the artist uses to compose in their desired format, such as a paintbrush, marble block, pencil, and computer. The medium is also the device the receiver uses to view the media such as a book, television, or radio. After a comparison of the different definitions of Medium in his article Lecture: Of Mediums, Media, and Materiality, John Walter defines a medium as , “...a medium is any intermediary channel or mode through which we convey meaning.” (Walter). 

It is also important to note that different types of mediums have different affordances and constraints due to their materiality, what the media is made of: which determine a lot of things about the piece produced such who can view it and how long it can last like a message written on a stone monument or a web article (Watson). Historically, mediums have changed, and we have arrived in an era where the mediums we have allow us to view many different types of media. Radio allows people to give their own opinions and it is a platform to distribute their rhetoric. Another choice of medium would be Youtube which has a plethora of people aiming to give their rhetoric (persuasive opinions) on all kinds of topics. It is possible that the way information is communicated can be argued to be more important than the information itself. McLuhan’s theory is that the channel that a message is communicated is more important than the meaning or content of the message. “Societies have always been shaped more by the nature of the media by which means communicate than by the content of the communication” says Marshall McLuhan. For example, someone who gets a news story from twitter might not take it as seriously as someone who hears that same story from a news broadcast. People take action using information they saw on social media. The channel in which the message was relayed is important in validating the content. 

The Medium used to send a message may vary from body language to “forms of mass communication such as newspapers, television, and the internet.” (Nordquist, 2020). As Dan says, “This is merely to say that the personal and social consequence of any medium-that is, of any extension of ourselves - result from the new scale that is introduced into our affairs by each extension of ourselves...:” (folding ideas “understanding media” pg.7) Media affect the way people live. Yumna Samie relays this point the best by using a photograph as an example in her Youtube video. An old photo was taken with the intention of passing it down to showcase fond memories. That message might be lost due to the wear and tear of the photo and due to the fact that the memories that photo represented may not be apparent to whoever receives the photograph. The only medium we used to have was sound. The medium is just as important as the message because it can alter how a person perceives it, or it can distort the meaning of the message. The medium also affects how the final piece of work comes out, think of water colors compared to acrylic and pencil compared to computers.

[newmediadictionaryenc]

“The Medium is the Message” is a phrase coined by Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan in his novel, The Medium is the Message, which is commonly referenced when speaking about New Media. The phrase McLuhan creates as both the title and concept for his novel, is used to describe the idea that the medium itself is its own separate entity to the messages, ideas, and narratives that are communicated through them. In the context of writing, a medium is the manner in which a message or writing is communicated through to an individual. Our mediums evolve over generations, from communicating orally only all the way to typing messages and sharing them through the internet. While a message, in the context McLuhan’s book, simply refers to the ideas that the writer of a work has created.

McLuhan’s phrase operates on the belief that ‘messages’, or the ideas a work has, are what influences society but will not surpass the overpowering impact that the medium ultimately has. This is seen clearly with the rapid expansion of the internet dictating the way individuals write and communicate, even causing written communication to reach new territories never before explored. An example of these new communication based territories is speaking with individuals online and at rapid speeds with only the use of pictures and animations.

A problem that McLuan predicted for new mediums like Instagram, Twitter, Gmail, is that these platforms are causing people to be constantly bombarded with information. People’s easy access to information and the ease found in sending this information has contributed to this growing issue. Thus, leading the public to not always read and understand it. “How you convey the information and which social media platform you use will be determined by the audience, so it is important to understand what it is your audience needs to know and why they need to know it,” advice given by the Purdue University website. As a result of this fact, humans are more driven to change their behaviors based on the mediums they use. “Ideas change our interactions; Mediums change the fundamental scale of those interactions,” states Dan Olson states in his video “The Medium Is the Message” in review of McLuhan's novel. Therefore, in order to best communicate with people, we must recognize the mediums that are largely used today and how to adapt so that messages can be successfully delivered. By understanding McLuhan’s concept that the "the medium is the message," individuals will have more control over what the author communicates with these new mediums and the ones yet to be invented.

[newmediadictionaryenc]

As it relates to the subject of new media and writing, the word modality can be defined as the means by which a message is put into the different means of transmission. Modality is part of a conscious choice to determine the best mode of delivery in order to accomplish the main purpose. A mode is a way to communicate a message to an audience. According to the Writing Skills Lab in Lumen Learning, there are five modes of communication: spatial, linguistic, visual, aural, and gestural. For example, if I send my coworker an email, I am communicating through a visual mode and a spatial mode due to the arrangement of the text in the email. Moreover, scholar Gunther Kress suggests that mode is a way to use other forms of representation to convey a message, besides language. The concept of modality is often linked to new media because of their correlation. New media provides different modes of communication or how such messages are transmitted. Modality refers to the process of crafting together a message and deciding the best means of delivery. However, it is important to note that modality is a varied concept and it is not exclusive to a specific medium of new media. One of the affordances of modality is that it is very adaptable and can be merged with other modes of communication creating a blending of mediums and types of media in order to create and transmit a stronger message.  

Multimodality is the integration of many forms of digital technologies or multiple new media to deliver a message in a creative and new way. Jonathan Alexander, an expert in Clair Lauer’s “What’s in a Name?” explains multimodality as “the multiple ways in which information, communication, meaning-making, meaning breaking, actually occurs,” (Alexander 2007).Marshall McLuhan’s re-envisioned “The Medium is the Message,” produced by Jerome Agel is an example of a message produced with modality in mind (McLuhan’s original writing), that was then edited and presented in a new way using mixed media for the purpose of using multimodality to reach a new audience. The terms of Modality, even multimodality, are not new but have otherwise adapted to meet the technology literacy present within today's generation. These concepts also exist in traditional ways of writing as well. If one writes in pen, a quill and ink, or clay, one is using modality to present a message. If one writes with both a pen and a pencil, one is presenting a multimodal message. People have come to know this as ‘media’ and ‘mixed media.” Modality is a term that is also not exclusive to writing mediums. According to Gunther Kress, modality is a concept that translates to all facets of language and communication. The mode, or the modality of new media extends to language as well. If one considers digital and visual recordings to be new media, when in relation to the speech one uses, the mode is the way in which one chooses to speak, one’s body language, one’s intonation, and so forth.

[newmediadictionaryenc]

Multimodal is a description of the way a piece of media is made that says that the media is created using multiple modes. Modes are different ways and tools of creating, such as text and images. Stated by Kettering College, “A multimodal composition is one that uses more than one modality to achieve its intended purpose. The modalities are “visual, audio, gestural, spatial, or linguistic means of creating meaning” (Selfe, 195).” Some examples of multimodal texts are picture books, comics, web articles, and animated tv series. Multimodal texts are highly effective in the classrooms as they keep the students attentive through different media. The University of Illinois lists the benefits of multimodality as “promoting more interactivity, portrays information in multiple ways, adds more creativity to present information and it adapts projects to fit different audiences.” Claire Lauer, a rhetorical theoretician, uses multimodal texts to create a project called “What’s in a Name” where she incorporates audio, visual and textual elements to create an interactive and flexible presentation. 

Multimodal composition is the way in which today’s students, scholars, and artists create media using different modes and platforms. People use multimodal composition to create Youtube videos, podcasts, webpages, sports games, and books. The term has come up because of the birth of new technology and its variety of devices; because of these phenomena, people are forced to use different methods of creating to arrive at their final presentations. Throughout the course of history, people have used different modes of creating to make different texts. The ancient Sumerians used clay tablets to record things (Baron, 73).The ancient Greeks used papyrus parchment to create their texts. After, typewriters came, sound could be transmitted through radio, television arrived, and now people use computers at will. Today, these technologies combine each other in different ways when people create media. The technologies we use today force us to make everything multimodal if we are using computers, because the computers are multimodal tools themselves. 

Multimodal composition is a change of the process in which media is composed, because we now have a variety of tools to manipulate media. Multimodal media and how it is created today, allows us to distinguish between the different technologies that are used to create said media. This is not limited to digital platforms like Instagram or Facebook. It can be a written note that includes magazine clippings and google pictures. This is a form of multimodal writing because it includes different forms of communication. Melanie Gagich talks about how these forms of writing can be achieved by talking about visuals, linguistics, gestures, aural and spatial which are modes of communication. Combining these modes can lead to forming a discourse that is multimodal (Gagich, 67). Multimodal composition can also allow for people to have a broader audience and prepare students for careers. Multimodal media is a product of the variety of tools that technology has gifted us today, and it makes media ever more powerful. As time progresses the mode of choice progresses as well, so as technology changes people will discover new ways to evolve forms of multimodal communication.

[newmediadictionaryenc]

Multimodal Writing is texts that exceed the alphabetical and may include still and moving images, animators, color, words, music, and sound (Gagich, Melanie. An Introduction to and Strategies for Multimodal Composing, Parlor Press LLC, 2020). Put simply, multimodal writing is a daily occurrence in our lives that takes the form of many types of writing that include various modes of communication. For example, posting an image to Instagram using an image that was taken by your phone and then edited by an app that is then posted is a form of multimodal writing. Another example could be a written text that is visually designed and posted on a board (The New London Group, A Pedagogy of Multiliteracies Designing Social Futures, 1996). This means multimodal writing does not need to be online or used with technology. Rather, multimodal writing is a combination of various forms of communication, including visual, audio, spatial, etc, that are combined. A multimodal text combines various modes of communication (hence the combination of the words “multiple” and “mode” in the term “multimodal”). Cheryl E. Ball and Colin Charlton draw from The New London Group in their argument that “[a]ny combination of modes makes a multimodal text, and all text—every piece of communication a human composes—use more than one mode. Thus, all writing is multimodal” (42). 

Multimodality is sometimes associated with technology and/or digital writing spaces. [C]reating a multimodal text does not require the use of digital tools and/or does not need to be shared in online digital spaces to make it “multimodal.” The article “Multimodality” by Kress talks about how terms in literacy can become complex when the word is used in multiple disciplines. It becomes complex as the words can have variations of application to their discourse community and this is what the authors define as a mode. A word can have multiple modes of significance, so it requires constant specific use in each representation. Modes are defined as “socially shaped and culturally given semiotic resource for making meaning” (Kress, 2009). [W]hen you communicate using an essay, you are actually using three modes of communication: linguistic, spatial, and visual. The words represent the linguistic mode (the emphasized mode), the margins and spacing characterize the spatial, and the visual mode includes elements like font, font size, or the use of bold. (Gagich, Melanie). 

[newmediadictionaryenc]

The proper way to behave online, etiquette for the internet. Net stands for the internet and etiquette stands for the right way to behave. This term was coined by the second generation emailers and was used to describe proper usage of email language, format, and style (Baron, 142). Today the set of rules are used to regulate email etiquette, and behavior on the internet at large in all types of online situations: Instant Messaging, Social Media, Blogs, and Games. For example: don’t repost without credit, don’t beg for likes... Some websites even have their own words for this, such as rediquette on reddit, to denote their own special rules. However, web spaces differ in their rules and strictness levels of netiquette, because some places are more tolerant than others of certain things. An example of usage is YouTube, which is notorious for rude or otherwise toxic comments. Due to the number of comments, it’s difficult to track down everyone who would be considered “hateful”, but racist words for example, are banned. In terms of style, Twitter and Tumblr have very different rules for the @ symbol and sharing despite having similar features. Rules generally used on platforms are to remember the words on the screen come from a human, don’t say something you wouldn’t say in the real world, and remember what site you’re on (Core Rules of Netiquette). Essentially, one should act online as they would offline. Proper regulation of netiquette is put in place because it is necessary to place laws on the internet. The internet is home to many debates, arguments, fights, and discussions. There are people who are not afraid to be hateful to each other because they are on the internet and netiquette is used in order to regulate these things. The owners of the internet put these rules into place on their platforms to try to steer clear of hateful and inappropriate content. Netiquette is especially important when it comes to dealing with what children can see on the internet. Some examples for more specific rules and features while it’s expected and encouraged for you to add comments on a post in the reblogs on Tumblr, such a thing would be a faux pas on twitter, as you’re supposed to add comments in the replies instead. The reason this happens is that these are two very different environments. Much like how two eateries can have very different environments despite both being a place to sit down to eat and talk. Another example is YouTube and Reddit. Both have downvotes and upvotes on comments, but you can only see the downvotes on reddit, not YouTube. So on reddit, you’re supposed to save your downvotes for people who are wrong, not just irritating, while on YouTube, no one can see your downvotes, so you can give as many as you want with no consequences. Your behavior online depends on the situation just like in the real world. However, some online environments do have a code of conduct, such as schools and places of work. One example comes from FIU’s netiquette policy page. For example, typing in all caps is frowned upon, as is speaking in slang (FIU policy page). Middle Schoolers had unspoken rules for using the internet in 2018 (Middle School Students’ Social Media Use). They didn’t need to be told to create a netiquette, they just knew it. Unlike those initial email users, who laid out the Core Rules of Netiquette. Netiquette is constantly evolving.