Choose Your Own Ethics: A Hypertext Adventure

Connectist: Istanbul University Journal of Communication Sciences, 2018

Hypertext as a nonlinear, computer-based or digital text that is now used along with conventional, linear printed text and can be described as a relatively advanced text type. Moreover, hypertextuality is among the characteristics which differentiate online news from printed news. While digital writing has become more advanced with hypertextuality, its impact on users' reading habits has gained importance as an underlying matter. In this context, the present research aims to provide an analysis of users' experiences of reading digital news in the context of hypertextuality. This study begins by summarizing the studies on hypertextuality and news users. Following this, a case study is presented to analyze newspaper users' reading habits in a digital setting to propose empirical evidence for the theoretical ideas of poststructuralist thinkers on hypertextuality. This part focuses on the hypertext reception practices of UMASS/Amherst Department of Communication undergraduate students through analysis of their news consumption patterns via an online survey. Based on the findings, this study contributes to the literature regarding journalism, technology, and digital writing by identifying the advantages and disadvantages of reading digital news. Although hypertextuality invites both writers and users to think in a nonlinear and cooperative way, it also leads to polarized opinions and newly emerging ethical issues.

The relationship between technology and literature extends far back in history, and includes such innovations as the invention of writing which allowed stories to be committed to paper rather than being retold by bards and troubadours, and the inventions of movable type and the printing press, which allowed texts of all kinds to be disseminated throughout the world. The development of the computer, especially the recent growth of the home computer, has given birth to a new relationship between technology and literature, a medium known as hypertext.

2007

When policy issues involve complex technical questions, demonstrations are more likely to marshal charts, graphs, models, and simulations than to mobilize popular movements in the streets. In this paper we analyze PowerPoint demonstrations, the most ubiquitous form of digital demonstrations. Our first set of demonstrations is the PowerPoint presentations made in December 2002 by the seven finalist architectural teams in the Innovative Design competition for rebuilding the World Trade Center. Our second case occurred some blocks away, several months later: Colin Powell's PowerPoint demonstration at the United Nations. We argue that Edward Tufte's denunciation of PowerPoint does not capture the cognitive style made possible by the affordances of this pervasive new technology. On the basis of our case materials, we identify several features of the elementary grammar of a rhetoric that exploits the medium's potential to manipulate text, sound, and image. Our analysis further demonstrates the distinctive morphology of PowerPoint. Its digital character provides affordances 1) that allow heterogeneous materials to be seamlessly represented in a single format that 2) can morph easily from live demonstration to circulating digital documents that 3) can be utilized in counter-demonstrations. A careful examination of this widely used technology is critical for understanding public discourse in a democratic society.

Chapter 4 of the PhD Dissertation in Anthropology, SHARED HERITAGE: AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL THEORY AND METHODOLOGY FOR ASSESSING, ENHANCING, AND COMMUNICATING A FUTURE- ORIENTED SOCIAL ETHIC OF HERITAGE A common narrative in the late twentieth–early twenty-first centuries is that historic rural landscapes and cultural practices are in danger of disappearing in the face of modern development pressures. However, efforts to preserve rural landscapes have dichotomized natural and cultural resources and tended to “freeze” these resources in time. They have essentialized the character of both “rural” and “developed” and ignored the dynamic natural and cultural processes that produce them. In this dissertation I outline an agenda for critical and applied heritage research that reframes heritage as a transformative social practice in order to move beyond the hegemonic treatment of heritage as the objects of cultural property. I propose an anthropological theory of shared heritage: a culturally mediated ethical practice that references the past in order to intervene in alienating processes of the present to secure a recognizable future for practitioners and prospective beneficiaries. More specifically, I develop (1) an ethical framework for shared heritage practice that values social tolerance and future security, (2) a model for the critical assessment of a heritage protection strategy’s potential for supporting a shared heritage ethic, and (3) a methodology for scholars, heritage advocates, and community leaders to realistically enact shared heritage. I document two case studies of rural residents implementing heritage protection strategies in the face of suburban and tourism development in Hadley, Massachusetts, and Eleuthera, Bahamas, respectively. I engage with these case studies at three distinct levels: (1) locating and critiquing the potential for a shared heritage ethics in the attempts to preserve private agricultural land in Hadley; (2) developing and applying a community-based heritage inventory assessment in Hadley; and (3) modeling an internet-based communications system for supporting shared heritage development in Eleuthera. Taken together, this dissertation offers an anthropological model for documenting and analyzing the discursive and material productions of cultural identities and landscapes inherent in heritage resource protection and a set of methods that heritage professionals and practitioners can apply to cultivate shared heritage ethics.

2011

Abstract Teacher-student discourse is increasingly mediated through, by and with information and communication technologies: in-class discussions have found new, textually-rich venues online; chalk and whiteboard lectures are rapidly giving way to PowerPoint presentations. Yet, what does this mean experientially for teachers? This paper reports on a phenomenological study investigating teachers' lived experiences of PowerPoint in post-secondary classrooms.

Final …, 2010

2003

At Pace University there is a growing concern about the need for reinforcing writing' across the disciplines, and about the need for integrating technology into teaching. At Pace a program has been designed in which professors and students working together will be able to take advantage of all that the-university has to offer in technology, channeling their efforts to make a significant impact on curriculum while helping to maintain learning balances. In a National Endowment for the Humanities-funded Writing and Technology Assistants program, Pace will train a core of students to assist professors who wish to use computers to integrate technology and writing into their courses. This booklet, a resource for Pace's professors and students is also funded by NEH. The booklet is divided into the following sections: (1)

2003

Editor's Note: With elearning so widely used in higher education, it is apparent that quality often reflects the relevance of policy, administrative decisions and support. Jeff Ershler, adjunct faculty in the criminal justice program at Lynn University, Baton Rouge, Florida, addresses the need for relevant policies and procedures.

2005

The creation of PowerPoint slides with SAS content using DDE in a Base SAS environment has long been considered impossible. Unlike MS Word and MS Excel, the PowerPoint application does not come with a scripting language like WordBasic or the Excel 4 macro language that would allow DDE to talk to it in a client/server fashion. The job can be done, though, by using DDE to Excel as an intermediate agent to pull the strings of PowerPoint. A set of easy SAS macros is introduced to perform a number of basic PowerPoint operations. As a sample application, a SAS catalog of graphs is exported to a stand-alone PowerPoint presentation. No specific technical knowledge is required from the reader, at least not beyond a basic understanding of the SAS macro language. A slight degree of familiarity with DDE to Excel concepts should prove enlightening, though.