Rhetoric Online 6,7, and 8

Chapter 6: This chapter uses Burke to illustrate how rhetorical theorists can use rhetoric to discuss the credibility of different social media sites, such as ones that are used in political campaigns. It's interesting how websites that are technically "non-political" are strangely political in a hidden way. A politician can relate to their audience through seeing what they "like" on Facebook. For instance, they brought up the idea that a politician talked about "being a farmboy" and I think that they may have gotten that over a lot of comments on an agricultural status.

Chapter 7: Most of the book has been used to discuss how politicians use online media as a way to promote their campaign, while there are also websites that can bash a politician or expose them. For example, the website WikiLeaks has successfully used hacktivism (hacking for the common good) to expose politicians for their hidden agendas. I find it interesting that I did not see them mention the group Anonymous once during this chapter, and yet the majority of the attacks that they mentioned are actually linked to the group.

Chapter 8: Rhetorical theory allows us to discuss the credibility of the online world and then allows us to better understand the physical world around us. If we have no way of critiquing and understanding the hidden agendas of different interest groups, we can easily be manipulated into something that we don't want for ourselves or our society. I think that is what the main idea of the book is about. We need to better illustrate our understanding of digital rhetoric so that we can change the way that we see the world.