Therefore, after some preliminary research on the Web, using sites that you've discovered as well as ones that I suggest on my Links Page, and reading about subcultures and electronic technology, you will choose a zine of interest to write a rhetorical and cultural analysis. This means that you will be writing about not only textual aspects such as purpose, audience, design and layout, and content but you will also be interrogating extra-linguistic features such as reception and consumption of the zine. For example, who reads and participates in the 'culture' of the zine? What values, interests, or ideologies bind the readers together? And, what are the advantages/disadvantages in using electronic media in terms of access, effective communication, and readership? Specifically, I want you to address the community that is constructed in this electronic space. For example, you can explore what its values are by what topics are addressed, analyze how identities are being constructed through visual elements, who is included and excluded, and how extra-linguistic issues such as design, layout, advertisements, and links influence the reader's reception of the text. At this point some of you may be thinking, what is a zine? For more info, check out this site for a brief historical overview--http://www.factsheet5.com/resources.html To contextualize the assignment, we will be reading articles about the history of alternative media in class as well as looking at print-based zines so that you can get a feel for the genre as well as the scope of zines, which is really quite extraordinary. Presentation of your Project Several
options are available for the final presentation of your project. Because
some of you may be adept at writing in an electronic- rather than print-based
environment, you'll have the option of presenting your project as a web
site. Those of you who feel more comfortable with traditional essay formats
should not feel pressured to produce an electronic text. At the same time,
if you want to enter this world, another option would be to group yourselves
around a specific genre of e-zines and develop a group site. Grrrl zines,
fan clubs, gay/lesbian sites are several subcultures that are widespread
on the Web and would make for interesting group projects.
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