41
+ “Introduction: The Double Logic of Remediation” and “Immediacy, Hypermediacy, and Remediation”
+
“Introduction: The Double Logic of Remediation” and
“Immediacy, Hypermediacy, and Remediation”
+Remediation
What is it?
+Remediation
Bolter and Grusin define it simply as
“the representation of one medium in
another” or as a kind of
“refashioning” of a medium (45).
+Remediation
But wait a minute…what
exactly is a “medium”?
+Remediation
Later on, Bolter and Grusin define it as: “a medium
is that which remediates. It is
that which appropriates the
techniques…
+Remediation
…forms, and social
significance of other media and attempts to rival or refashion them
in the name of the real”(65).
+Remediation
Bolter and Grusin note that Marshall
McLuhan once remarked that
“the ‘content’ of any medium is always another medium…”(45)
+Remediation
But if you think about it,
McLuhan seems to be right.
+Remediation
…online…
+Remediation
…and with all sorts of
technology…
+Remediation
So, if “remediation” is
the representation of one media in another, and a
“medium” is that which
remediates…
+Remediation
…then I guess it makes sense
when Bolter and Grusin say that
all media remediates.
+Remediation
Does it?
+Remediation
In other words, the process of
remediation is a part of every kind of media
we can think of.
+Remediation
Thus, as both rhetors and future editors and digital media designers, an awareness of the processes of remediation at work would be
useful.
+Remediation
Wouldn’t it?
+Remediation
Bolter and Grusin also tell us that remediation is
comprised of two “oscillating”
logics: a logic of immediacy and a
logic of hypermediacy.
+Immediacy
Bolter and Grusin define it as the desire to “erase all traces of mediation”(5)
+Immediacy
“[T]he logic of immediacy”, Bolter and Grusin argue, “dictates that the
medium itself should disappear
and leave us in the presence of the
thing represented” (6)
+Immediacy
Immediacy promises an “experience
without mediation”(23)
+Immediacy
Because no matter how hard
media tries to makes itself
invisible, there are always moments in which we are
reminded that we are using media.
+Immediacy
Think about the last time you
saw a 3-D movie…
+Hypermediacy
Bolter and Grusin explain that “the
logic of hypermediacy acknowledges
multiple acts of representation
and makes them visible”(33-34).
+Hypermediacy
They also say that this logic
“multiplies the signs of mediation
and in this way tries to reproduce the rich sensorium
of human experience”(34)
+Hypermediacy
Bolter and Grusin give
the CNN website as an
example…how is this
hypermediacy?
+Hypermediacy
However, hypermediacy
stands in conflict with our desire for immediacy, which brings us right back to…
+Immediacy
. . .immediacy--which Bolter and Grusin define it as the desire to “erase all traces of mediation”(5)
…
+Part I: Theory“Immediacy, Hypermediacy, and Remediation”
Editor’s Notebook
As readers and editors of this book, what feedback do you have on these chapters?
What works? What doesn’t? What needs to be updated? What needs to go? Take a few minutes to write down your thoughts/flip through the chapter again. Then, take a few minutes with your group to each talk a little about your responses.
+Keyword Review
As a group, let’s get a complete list of all the terms we’ve encountered so far. Let’s use the smart board…
+Website AnalysisNow we’re going to see how all these terms apply to rhetorical artifacts in the real world.
Each group has been given a card with a URL. As a group, investigate the site and you’ll have fifteen minutes or so to do three tasks:
1) Uncover how the website employs as many rhetorical strategies (ie keywords) as possible—try to outdo other groups! Ftw! ;
2) Choose a definition of rhetoric (either your own or someone else’s) that your group sees as connecting to your website;
3) Demonstrate how the processes of immediacy, hypermediacy and remediation might be at work (find at least one of each)
When the fifteen minutes are up, elect a new spokesperson and present your findings to the class, using the Smartboard.
+
“Introduction: The Double Logic of Remediation” and
“Immediacy, Hypermediacy, and Remediation”
