Digital Rhetoric: Doing things with words online

Todays technology is already over. Media evolves. Social media channels change. Yet rhetoric remains the same (Hocks). Professional writers, marketers, and business people interested in new media marketing are riding the wave of the latest trend. Yet, the anchor that controls mass communication is rhetoric or digital rhetoric. Digital rhetoric is as difficult to define as the term rhetoric. Defining digital rhetoric is like nailing Jell-O to a tree. In the simplest terms, like rhetoric, the purpose of digital rhetoric is to persuade, inform, and move readers. Digital rhetoric is both exciting and troublesome: It is exciting because it holds promise of opening new vistas of opportunity for rhetorical studies and troublesome because it reveals the difficulties and the challenges of adapting a rhetorical tradition more than 2,000 years old to the conditions and constraints of the new digital media (Zappen). Technology is always changing, but the rhetorical tradition can be what gives digital media credibility and strength. It is through rhetorical principles applied to digital writing that online writers can be heard above the din confronting weary online browsers.

As a college instructor and writer,Lisa M. Russell teaches her students to make their works work online. She is a digital rhetorician targeting the right audience at the right time. Her other book, "Lost Towns of North Georgia" is published by History Press.