Technorhetoricians and Internet citizens need to reclaim the comment section as a productive space for civic engagement and participation.
"THIS IS WHY WE CAN'T HAVE NICE THINGS": THE PROBLEM OF INTERNET COMMENTS.
"THIS IS WHY WE CAN'T HAVE NICE THINGS": THE PROBLEM OF INTERNET COMMENTS.
The Guardian
70 million comments
1.4 million blocked comments
10 writers with most blocked comments on their work included 8 women and 2 black men
"THIS IS WHY WE CAN'T HAVE NICE THINGS": THE PROBLEM OF INTERNET COMMENTS.
"THIS IS WHY WE CAN'T HAVE NICE THINGS": THE PROBLEM OF INTERNET COMMENTS.
Abusive or disruptive comments include:
Author abuse
Dismissive trolling
Hate speech
“Whatboutery”
"THIS IS WHY WE CAN'T HAVE NICE THINGS": THE PROBLEM OF INTERNET COMMENTS.
"THIS IS WHY WE CAN'T HAVE NICE THINGS": THE PROBLEM OF INTERNET COMMENTS.
THE CIVIC AND RHETORICAL POTENTIAL OF COMMENTS.
THE CIVIC AND RHETORICAL POTENTIAL OF COMMENTS.
A space to collaboratively understand issues.
THE CIVIC AND RHETORICAL POTENTIAL OF COMMENTS.
A space for coalition.
THE CIVIC AND RHETORICAL POTENTIAL OF COMMENTS.
A space for diverse perspectives.
THE CIVIC AND RHETORICAL POTENTIAL OF COMMENTS.
A space to participate in citizenship practices.
CURRENT "SOLUTIONS" TO THE COMMENT PROBLEM.
CURRENT "SOLUTIONS" TO THE COMMENT PROBLEM.
CURRENT "SOLUTIONS" TO THE COMMENT PROBLEM.
CURRENT "SOLUTIONS" TO THE COMMENT PROBLEM.
CURRENT "SOLUTIONS" TO THE COMMENT PROBLEM.
A CALL FOR TECHNORHETORICIAN INTERVENTION.
Technorhetoricians should intervene in the comment section because the presence of comments impacts popular understanding of public issues and civic engagement on these issues.
A CALL FOR TECHNORHETORICIAN INTERVENTION.
“…help our students compose often, compose well, and through these composings, become the citizen writers of our country, the citizen writers of our world, and the writers of our future.” – Kathleen Blake Yancey
A CALL FOR TECHNORHETORICIAN INTERVENTION.
Use pedagogical training to providing feedback on abusive or disruptive comments.
A CALL FOR TECHNORHETORICIAN INTERVENTION.
Use expertise in rhetorical theory, cultural analysis, interface design, and other areas to produce commenting systems that better facilitate rhetorical discourse and civic engagement.
A CALL FOR TECHNORHETORICIAN INTERVENTION.
Online comments are the digital manifestation of a patriarchal, racist, homophobic, nativist, classist, ableist, and otherwise unequal society.
Technorhetoricians can help make these spaces more accessible, equitable, and safe for all by working with users, interfaces, and cultures.
DEVELOPING COLLABORATIVE TAKEAWAYS
A Mini Workshop
Our goal for this panel is to offer pedagogical takeaways, illustrating connections between online communities and the classroom, to help instructors as they prepare students to enter into discourse and civic communities as engaged, digital citizens. We wanted this panel to highlight the interconnectedness among online communities, civic action, and rhetorical engagement, especially as they shape the experiences of digital citizens, both within and beyond the classroom.
We’d like to use the remainder of this session to explore these points of connection and link them back to our classrom practices. As educators and researchers, we value--and a value we share with the computers and writing community--merging theory and praxis. So, we’d like to take time today to find the connections between what we have said today and what we can do to help our students become savvy rhetoricians and writers.
Activity—With our takeaways in mind, or of your own development, make a new friend and come up with some specific ways you might engage these practices in your classroom. We’ll give you a few minutes to develop ideas (and if you like, you can record them in this google doc < http://go.osu.edu/cwa6 > ). We’ll then come together to discuss and share.