Multimedia Composition

 When I read chapter 11 of Irene Clark's Concepts in Composition, titled "Writing in Multiple Media," I wasn't unfamiliar with the ways that writing has been digitized and changed by the internet. I had taken a course before that played with the concepts of social media, fanfiction, blogs, etc. as the fodder of English Studies, and it had opened my eyes to the ways that writing has changed. What I took away from the chapter was the commentary on how "instructors are asking students to write documents that combine several different modes of communication in place of or alongside traditional print essays" (Clark 420). As a decidedly "print-on-paper" person, I resisted this at first. But then I recalled something I heard in a podcast, and my thoughts started to change.

In one of his podcasts, I heard Jordan Peterson, a professor of psychology, explain his thoughts on how long-form podcasts and YouTube had changed education. He talked about how teachers lament over the shortened attention spans and narrowing interests of their students, but that didn't seem to match up to the data that has been collected by YouTube and podcast researchers. As an example, he talked about the number of downloads tallied by the Joe Rogan podcast. Joe Rogan's interviews can go on for two hours or more. Jocko Willink, of the Jocko Podcast, has some interviews that last three hours. Even Jordan Peterson's own lectures on YouTube go on for multiple hours. And yet people download by sometimes millions. It appears that people are interested in learning and culture, but they are also really pressed for time and choose to learn in a new way. Peterson asserts that while not everyone has time or proficiency in reading, most people can listen and learn, and they can do so while the do other tasks (such as driving, working, cooking, etc.). Peterson's observations made me think about how I might take advantage of this phenomenon in the classroom, and whether or not podcasts, TED Talks, audiobooks, or YouTube lectures are as important as good old written essays and paper books. 

So, is an interview they same as an essay? Well, the mode definitely calls on a different set of skills, but they still both use language to spread ideas or share knowledge. And similar to writing, one must we aware of the rhetorical situation when creating a podcast, TED Talk, or presentation. Many parts of composition studies still come into play when engaging in multimedia composition. And what better way to practice personal voice than in one's own voice? I thought it might be really interesting to step outside my "paper and ink" preference and see what happens when multimedia composition remixes student work. So, I decided to design one of my assignments for my portfolio around a multimedia project. The students would take a paper they previously wrote and remix it into another form, using audio and/or visual media to convey their ideas. This is not a new concept, but for me, it would be new territory. One thing I have found throughout my studies thus far is that I am getting much more comfortable with broader definitions of English Studies, and I am getting a lot more interested in taking risks, pushing the boundaries, and seeing what happens. And maybe that is a sign that I am learning, too.