Students in Dr. Nicole Pfannenstiel’s summer 2025 writing seminar crafted blog posts exploring Rhetoric & Composition. Over the next several weeks, we will share their work in this space to bring visibility to their posts and offer a variety of perspectives on pertinent topics within Rhetoric & Composition. These posts are written by graduate students currently in the MA and M.Ed. English programs.
Digital Rhetoric: Modern Information Circles
By: Michaela Wagner
Digital Rhetoric is the circulation of information and human to human communication that takes place within digital spaces. This can take place in social media interactions, online articles, or forum discussions as some examples, but are defined by the exchange of information from one individual to another.
Digital Rhetoric (or rhetoric that takes place in modern digital spaces) carries the same underlying theories and processes as the Ancient iterations of rhetoric in Greece and Rome. However, ancient definitions of rhetoric focus on the construction of a persuasive argument (Eyman 14). The biggest divergence between that ancient idea of rhetoric and modern ideas stems from the process of “circulation” including: production, exchange, consumption, and distribution (LeCourt 62). Where ancient rhetoric occurred largely face to face in speeches and debates between rhetoricians, politicians, and other similar roles, modern rhetoric in the online
era takes place remotely behind screens on either side of the discussion.
Articles, posts, and threads are created and distributed among audiences on apps and websites, and continue to accrue engagement past the moment they were “published” in the form of likes, shares, and comments. The circulation of information has become complexly dependent on the interplay of factors, both human and machine in the form of algorithms (Eyman 92). In this way, modern rhetoric must place more emphasis on its continuing effects than on the initial creation of a text. The informational exchange is not limited to the traditional act of writing out an argument, but can gain momentum just by being viewed, shared, or otherwise interacted with, which in turn encourages algorithmic distribution to more people and more potential interaction.
The internet creates a culture of instant access, and instant interaction. With the number of individuals able to access information simultaneously, the amount of discussion that can happen concurrently is greater than ever before. Individuals of all ideologies and backgrounds are free to tell their own stories in the digital space (Page 16). That being said, there are still fundamental biases in the access and distribution of this information in the form of access to the internet through monetary barriers, algorithmic favoring of certain voices over others, and even the “shadow banning” of some voices entirely.
Rhetoric is the “art of conviction” (Neamtu 61). Convincing someone else of an idea can be done either through demonstration of reason through evidence, or alternatively can be influenced through the manipulation of information and emotion to reach a goal (Neamtu 61). In a digital age of information in multitudes with little concern for accuracy, it is all too easy for information to be manipulated. Rhetorical circulation of ideas and information is at an all time high, but it is far from equal even now because that circulation is still imbalanced and limited in many capacities.
Works Cited
Eyman, Douglas. “One: Defining and Locating Digital Rhetoric.” Digital Rhetoric: Theory,
Method, and Practice, University of Michigan Press, 2015, pp. 12-60.
Eyman, Douglas. “Two: Digital Rhetoric: Theory.” Digital Rhetoric: Theory, Method, and
Practice, University of Michigan Press, 2015, pp. 61-92.
LeCourt, Donna. “Circulating Possibility.” Social Mediations, University of Pittsburgh Press,
2024, pp. 55-85.
Neamtu, Carmen. “Iconic Rhetoric in the Discourse of Advertising.” Media Rhetoric: How
Advertising and Digital Media Influence Us, edited by Samuel Mateus, Cambridge
Scholars Publishing, 2021, pp. 61-75.
Page, Ruth E. “Introduction: Stories and Social Media in Context.” Stories and Social Media:
Identities and Interaction, Taylor & Francis Group, 2011, pp. 16-39.