Context in Facebook

"Any rhetorical message is what is because of context; it is a response to the context." (52)

With Facebook, we need to understand the text "as fragments of a larger chain of messages" (53). That is, we need to understand the rhetorical dynamics of the Facebook exchange. A rhetor might post an image, then change the image in response to a comment on The Wall...

The keywords here are relevant and significant. Determining what's relevant and significant takes some close consideration.

Review pp 54 ff for elements that are relevant to describing Facebook messages.

Task

Drawing on your descriptions of the Facebook profiles, describe the context in which Facebook messages operate. Draw, as well, on your knowledge of how rhetors and audiences use Facebook, and the contexts in which they use it. Describe the context until you can soundly characterize it. Balcony view.

You can start a second page off your Facebook Group page (FacebookContext?), or include this description on the same page as your profile description.

Here are some aspects and elements to look at (from Stoner and Perkins)

Specific circumstances (p. 54-5)

• describe the time, place, venue of delivery
• and / or events, issues, previous messages
• describe the broader norms, values, beliefs, expectations of the rhetors and audience members
• describe values of the group

Similar circumstances and messages

We've been looking at this: We're seeing how Facebook profiles resemble each other

• How do they resemble messages from other forums?
• How does Facebook borrow from and build on other forums, genres, and other kinds of communication?

Rhetor and audience

Understanding the rhetor is facilitated on Fbook: f'book gives you some evidence of who's speaking: political leanings, auto biographical info, values, etc

• describe the limited audience: limited audience can respond
• describe the relationship between rhetor/audience, cast as roles
  • entertainer to entertained, student to teacher, etc. But what are they on Facebook?
  • note: on Facebook, the relationship can flip
• describe states of mind of rhetor/audience to understand the relationship - as those states appear in the exchange itself
• Describe any unwritten rules Facebook messages follow.
• Describe any stated and unstated values that seem important to each of the parties.

Additional notes

• describe who creates Facebook profiles and to whom they are addressed. The rhetor is not masked but is the agent presented on the profile page. The audience is masked, until they appear on The Wall . You're looking especially at similarites and differences in rhetors and audiences in Facebook rather than print, email, face to face exchange, and so on.

• describe the relationship between rhetor and audience, those agreements (implicit) between rhetor and audience of their roles. Again, you're ooking especially at similarites and differences in the relations in Facebook rather than print, email, face to face exchange, and so on. Describe how rhetor and audience swap roles.

• Look to the states of mind of rhetor and audience, and to the circumstances in which a reader encounters the message. keep to what you can infer from the message and from your balcony understanding of how people encounter these messages