Major
Writing and Rhetoric
Second Major
Spanish
Advisor
Ledbetter, Lehua
Advisor Department
Writing & Rhetoric
Date
5-2018
Keywords
digital rhetoric; youtube; education; online education; rhetoric; online video
Abstract
Rhetorical Question is a YouTube channel that discusses modern rhetorical theory and practice in an informal educational setting. I designed the channel to be informational/instructional about a topic rarely discussed with any detail in the public sphere in order to experiment with presenting ideas about rhetoric to an audience that might not know much about it (beyond what one occasionally catches in the news about lying and/or politics). In this project I grapple with trying to employ effective practices of digital rhetoric and instruction in my videos as well as their presentation, my thought process in improving videos as I made them and deciding which topics to cover, and how emotion plays into building an ethos and an audience online through these videos. My project discusses the potential of YouTube as an instructional tool, my initial goals as someone interested in nontraditional/online education, and the success of the channel’s first few videos after feedback from a group of advanced students of rhetoric compared to less experienced students. Here I rhetorically analyze my own work and present my findings after reflecting on this process and feedback from my audiences.
Media Format
youtube