Swarms, viral writing, and the local : rhetorical dynamics across networked publics / Carl Whithaus.

Author/creator Whithaus, Carl author.
Format Book
PublicationPittsburgh : University of Pittsburgh Press, [2025]
Copyright Date©2025
Descriptionxxvi, 372 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.
Subjects

SeriesPittsburgh series in composition, literacy, and culture
Pittsburgh series in composition, literacy, and culture. ^A299123
Contents Preface: The #PepperSprayCop meme and the Minneapolis airport -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: in situ rhetorical analysis -- Part I. Swarms -- Swarming texts: writing as community building across live streams, blogs, and image boards -- Liquid minds: writing together, NaNoWriMo, and fandoms on discord -- The quick (and the dead): complex relationships across networked communities -- Part II. Viral writing -- Trolls and mobs: when social media writing fuels violence -- Witnesses: resistance and the everyday -- The playful virus: remixing on TikTok and Reddit -- Part III. The local -- What we remember, where we remember: memes, digital archives, and the possibilities of the local -- You are what you eat: local media ecologies around Yelp and food blogs -- Writing neighborhoods: local Wikis, Nextdoor, and social street -- Coda: Questions, categories, and the promise of change -- References -- Index.
Abstract "Swarms, Viral Writing, and the Local examines the social and rhetorical dynamics around emerging writing technologies. Carl Whithaus argues that these dynamics work across networked publics as patterns of behavior and ways of interacting through and with multimodal texts. This rhetorical analysis of the production and reception of born-digital rhetoric shows the ongoing and evolving impacts of online public discourse that can lead to bad restaurant reviews or the subversion of democracy. It is a networked process that gains significance because of the interplay and tensions between the global and the local. As these texts are created, distributed, received, and then recreated and shared again in viral ways, different messages resonate across media ecologies. Whithaus documents how emerging social dynamics shape—and are shaped by—digital writing, reading, and distribution technologies." -- Provided by publisher.
Bibliography noteIncludes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN0822947951
ISBN9780822947950

Availability

Library Location Call Number Status Item Actions
Joyner General Stacks Z286 .E43 W558 2025 ✔ Available Place Hold