Tracing networked writing in an online community through resonance maps

Publication date: Available online 8 March 2019Source: Learning, Culture and Social InteractionAuthor(s): Matthew Hall, Amy StornaiuoloAbstractWriting itself is important to examine in digitally connected spaces because it serves as one of the central ways people communicate and interact with each other. The method we outline in this paper brings together tools and frames from digital ethnography as well as visual arts and rhetoric in order to visually map emergent dimensions of youth's writing practices. We outline the creation of resonance maps that helped to visualize intertextual connections that were less immediately identifiable. Based on analysis of these resonance maps, we identified two patterns of habitual intertextuality in the Write4Change community - a common theme (persistence) and a common rhetorical practice (pairing image/text) - and how these patterns helped young people find common ground for their participation in the online community. Purposefully developing methods to trace both visible and less visible connections in online spaces helped us refocus attention on how writing moves and connects people and ideas – an important orientation in an increasingly divided world, as people must learn to communicate productively across physical, psychological, and ideological distances if they hope to address persistent issues facing the world.

Source: Learning, Culture and Social Interaction - March 8, 2019 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research