From DigitalRhetoricCollaborative

According to Ball, new media is defined “as texts that juxtapose semiotic modes in new and aesthetically pleasing ways and, in doing so, break away from print traditions so that written text is not the primary rhetorical means” (405).^[1] Ball goes on to further clarify that new media scholarship, specifically, is not referring to any digitized, online scholarship and is not just discussing new media elements. This is because such a use of the term then defines new media too broadly. The Spring 2003 issue of Kairos, "Issues of New Media," raised a similar concern of definitions being too braod and too open.^[2] Instead, the editors grouped new media texts into three categories: online scholarship, scholarship about new media, and new media scholarship. As Ball emphasized that new media scholarship was not referring to any digitized scholarship, Wysocki similarly is arguing that not "any computer-screen text counts as 'new media'" (19).^[3] When defining new media, Wysocki forgrounds the materiality rather than the digitality.

When defining "new media," it is often specifically defining "new media texts." Selfe explains that when using the term "new media texts" these texts are "created primarily in digital environments, composed in multiple media…and designed for presentation and exchange in digital venues. These texts generally place a heavy emphasis on visual elements… and sound, and they often involve some level of interactivity" (43). ^[4] Wysocki further complicates this by emphasizing the composer's awareness. According to Wysocki, it is not new media to have a text that simply "incorporates text and sound and graphics and animation and photographs or illustrations in some combinatorial ratio other than that of a traditional academic or literary text" (19). ^[3] Instead, Wysocki wants a definition "that encourages us to stay alert to how and why we make these combinations of materials, not simply that we do it” (p. 19)^[3]

[edit] References

1. ↑ Ball, C. E. (2004). Show, not tell: The value of new media scholarship. Computers and Composition, 21(4), 403-425.
2. ↑ Ball, C. E. & Hewett, B. L. (Eds.). (2003, Spring). What is new media? Kairos, 8(1). Retrieved from http://kairos.technorhetoric.net/8.1/binder2.html?coverweb/index.html
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2} Wysocki, A. F. (2004). Opening new media to writing: Openings and justifications. In A. F. Wysocki, J. Johnson–Eilola, C. L. Selfe, & G. Sirc (Eds.), Writing new media: Theory and applications for expanding the teaching of composition (pp. 1–42). Logan, UT: Utah State University Press.
4. ↑ Selfe, C. L. (2004). Students who teach us: A case study of a new media text designer. In A. F. Wysocki, J. Johnson–Eilola, C. L. Selfe, & G. Sirc (Eds.), Writing new media: Theory and applications for expanding the teaching of composition (pp. 43-110). Logan, UT: Utah State University Press.