Introduction
As noted on the front page, this course investigates the relationship between computers and writing, and media in general. Since the appearance of electronic media in the middle of the nineteenth century (the telegraph), writing’s place as the most significant form of discourse has been continually challenged. Today computers are used to write, and also to produce music, film, and many other forms of expression. Some forms of expression, like video games, email discussion lists, and weblogs, are not possible without computers. How do long-established beliefs about writing influence these forms? How do computers, and new and older forms created with them, affect writing?
We’ll examine these and other questions by reading and discussing the history of writing and media studies theory, producing computer-based works like hypertext, and communicating using computers.
Two formalities:
- The course has two prerequisites: ENG 180 and ENG 280. If you have not earned credit for both those courses, you may not be able to take this course. Please speak with me immediately if this is the case.
- This is a Writing in the Disciplines (WID) course which requires a substantial amount of original writing.
Course objectives
- Learn skills required to produce Web pages and other forms of online communication and writing—or extend existing skills—by completing course assignments in a workshop or studio environment.
- Investigate the interactions of media, culture, and society by considering the course readings, your opinions about computers and writing, and by creating written and electronic works.
- Consider the relationships between different forms of media, and the ways “new” media affect existing forms—for new media of both yesterday and today.
- Analyze predictions about the behavior of media made in the course readings, and make predictions of your own, demonstrated through the production of media in different forms.
Required texts and supplies
In addition to these texts, I will supply several essays and handouts.
- Lev Manovich, The Language of New Media.
- Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man.
- Walter Ong, Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word.
- Gail Hawisher and Cynthia Selfe, eds. Passions, Pedagogies, and Twenty-First Century Technologies (for graduate students only).
- A Zip cartridge (100 or 250 MB) or USB flash drive (64 MB minimum).