I dig Johnson. For many reasons, but specifically because he writes in a way that is easy for me to understand for…and because he’s so audience-centered in his approach.
In the preface of Johnson’s work, we get a brief overview of other fields’ contributions to the question Johnson initially poses: What …

Today, I went to a second workshop on closed-captioning, which I enjoyed just as much as the first…if not more. My second play at CCing may go live soon so you can check it out. Still have to work on it.
We played around on the software MAGpie [hope this is …

…Rhetoric can never be reduced to symbology. Logic is increasingly becoming “symbolic logic”; that is its tendency. But rhetoric always comes to us in well-fleshed words, and that is because it must deal with the world, the thickness, stubbornness, and power of it.
Richard Weaver, “Language is Sermonic”

About two weeks ago, I went to a workshop where we learned a bit about closed-captioning. Each participant selected a video and we spent about an hour adding captions to the video.
I started with baby steps, a short 40-second piece from the FOX show, The Cleveland Show.
Wanted to share. It’s …

I won’t even get into the huge idea I initially had for this paper. It was a topic better suited for a dissertation.
After weeks, months, I finally came to looking at the importance of using social media within the workplace.  Right now, I’m in the process of defining social media …

Today is National Day on Writing.
On October 8, the U.S. Senate passed a resolution declaring October 20 as the National Day on Writing.
So, with that being said, HAPPY NATIONAL DAY ON WRITING.
More information on the day and the awesome National Gallery of Writing can be found by visiting the National …

Chapter 55 ~ “Democratic Rationalization: Technology, Power, and Freedom” by Andrew Feenberg (revised – 1992)
Reading chapter 55 was like reading a Who’s Who in the Philosophy of Technology. Many guest stars, to include Ellul, Heidegger, Marcuse, even hackers, make an appearance in this piece; I will say that it feels appropriate to …

Chapter 37 ~ “A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century” by Donna Haraway
Haraway argues for a connection amongst feminism, socialism, and materialism through the image of the cyborg, a blend of machine and organism, both a creature of social reality and of fiction.
Through this image …

Finally nailed down a topic for Kemp’s 20th Century Rhetoric. Found an African American orator/feminist from the 19th century that interested me: Maria W. Stewart; I’m always interested in “the firsts” – those people who seem to be a voice for a generation of others to come along and promote …

Chapter 35 ~ “The New Forms of Control” by Herbert Marcuse (1964)
“A comfortable, smooth, reasonable, democratic unfreedom prevails in advanced industrial civilization, a token of technical progress” (405).
In the earlier stages of industrial society, according to Marcuse, rights and liberties were an extreme importance; but now, they are losing their …

Chapter 34 ~ “Do Machines Make History?” by Robert L. Heilbroner (1967)
Heilbroner’s goal in this piece is to answer the question, “Does the effect of technology determine the nature of the socioeconomic order?”
This, he rightly notes, is a large task to handle, so he focuses on two stages:
1- Can we …

Chapter 54 ~ “Technology: The Opiate of the Intellectuals, with the Author’s 2000 Perspective” by John McDermott
McDermott doesn’t waste much time attacking Mesthene for his middle of the road approach in discussing technology and society. Although McDermott does believe Mesthene “is anti-capitalist in spirit” (a spirit shared by McDermott), he …

Chapter 53 ~ “The Social Impact of Technological Change” by Emmanuel G. Mesthene (1967)
In our age (age being 1967), Mesthene saw two major differences from any other age:
1- We dispose of a lot of physical power
2- We are beginning to think and act upon the realization of #1
Because of these two …