Part II: Virtual Reality, Real Virtuality: Exploring the Multiple Rhetorics of Cyberspace
Part II was the most interesting and overall strongest part of the book. Each of the articles had a clear focus on rhetorical strategies in electronic environments. However, most of the pieces suffer from one of the biggest pitfalls of publishing about the Internet through print venues: by the time the editing and printing processes are complete, much of the research on technology is outdated, or at least need not be argued for the vast majority of the audience already agrees. For example, while I cannot imagine readers disagreeing with Theresa Enos and Shane Borrowman’s analysis or advice, it no longer seems timely. After providing a quick history of classical notions of ethos (ala Aristotle, Cicero, and Quintilian) and analyzing the virtual ethos created by Holocaust deniers, they conclude with a section on pedagogy, advising teachers to lead students in closely examining how web authors construct ethos and (pseudo) credibility.
Best in Show
As I stated before, much of this book is influenced by feminist theory, and the "Virtual Reality, Real Virtuality" section is no exception. In "The Rhetorics of Three Women Activist Groups on the Web," Gruber demonstrates how international women’s groups use the agora of the web as a platform for the rhetoric of peace and collaboration rather than traditional masculinist language that fosters competition, division, and ultimately violence. Although her text remains at the descriptive level for the majority of the piece, she does begin with an interesting gloss of feminist theories of community and end with an implicit call for peace/feminist activism that welds online rhetorical activism with off-line action such as marches. Although Jacqueline Lambiase uses different (from Gruber) theoretical lenses (including Donna Haraway’s work on the figure of the cyborg and novelist Christa Wolf’s essay on women’s silenced voices embodied in the image of the mythical Cassandra) and studies different electronic textual artifacts (a listserv about the Oklahoma bombing), like Gruber she concludes that "[w]ith a more reflective and inclusive structure, however, electronic discursive forms may be able to support localized civic and civil discourse where more participants are included" (124). The theme of "civic and civil" discourse in networked spaces permeates this section, which is not out of date at all—it is in fact one of the most important and exciting discussions in the field of electronic rhetoric. John Killoran extends this discussion in his study of disempowered, young Internet authors and their potential as "citizen-rhetors."
While some of the ideas in Killoran’s "@ home among the .coms" are undercooked, it stretches reader to think about alternative, parodic rhetorics, design theories, and the electronic authorship of individuals in a Web dominated by institutions. Despite some tenuous theoretical connections, his statements that are explicitly about pedagogical application are quite savvy. For example, he states, "Through parody, students may exercise the resources of their discursive environment to gain a franchise in the public forum, without implicitly committing themselves to the ideology sustaining much of that forum" (141).
Drawing on a mix of Robert Hodge and Gunther Kress’s design theory, compelling examples of parodic websites, and revised notions of ethos, pathos, and logos, Killoran provides a rich analysis of how alternative rhetorics function on the web. Although his 1996 data about numbers of personal homepages is now completely outdated, his commentary about how young website authors parody institutional discourse is salient and fresh. He demonstrates how "irreverent texts on personal home pages are, in many cases, low-modality versions of ‘serious’ institutional discourses: discourses of management, marketing, advertising, law, science, and so forth" (129). After giving succinct examples and fairly deep analysis of his examples, Killoran claims that the critical literacy that enables people to author parodic websites—and other alternative electronic rhetorics by extension—"will likely be required for an active literate citizenry" (128).
Unlike most of the essays in this section, Killoran is not explicitly feminist in his theoretical approach; however, if one wanted to use his essay in teaching students about alternative rhetorics (as the editors suggest readers do), and excellent feminist companion reading would be Gail E. Hawisher and Patricia A. Sullivan’s "Fleeting Images: Women Visually Writing the Web" in Passions, Pedagogies, and 21st Century Technologies (Gail E. Hawisher and Cynthia Selfe, eds.). His text inspires this reader to continue to seek out, revel in, and analyze and theorize parodic websites sites from the well-known http://www.theonion.com to obscure personal homepage gems.
