Power and Agency Play and Possibilities

“The Rhetorical Agency of Algorithms” by Jessica Reyman

 Amanda Hess: “Facebook isn't incentivized to show users the type of content they want to see most. Its incentivized to show users the
type of content that will keep them on Facebook.”
 “Algorithms are points of articulation that present an interaction between user input and machine programming. They are firmly root-
ed in digital cultures and collectives, dependent on collective user input and activity on a massive scale.” (115)
 “I posit that rhetorical agency online must account for both human and technological agents in a dynamic, interactive, and decentral-
ized digital ecology.” (115)
 Rhetorical ecologies allow for an understanding of communicative acts as arising out of dynamic, interactive, and ever-shifting ele-
ments of communicative acts within and across networks.” (116)
 “Recognizing the dynamic and relational nature of rhetorical agency as shared among humans and algorithms allows us to explore
questions of accountability rather than dismiss the unethical rhetoric of glitches as system errors.” (120)
 “By acknowledging that it is a myriad of relationships—human-human and human-machine—that give rise to rhetorical agency, we
see each agent not as individual figures acting based on intentionality and exerting power over outcomes, but as collectively contrib-
uting to what is produced.” (122)
“Messy Rhetoric: Identity Performance as Rhetorical Agency in Online Public Forums” by Jeffery T. Grabill & Stacy Pigg
 Methodological Challenges: “...how to study public engagement in open digital spaces...how identity is leveraged as a form of rhetori-
cal agency.” (100)
 “Ignoring identity may push analyses away from some of the most interesting participants in forums...those who lack status granted
by traditional forms of expertise.” (101)
 “Given the nature of most online interactions, participants often do not build fully formed or coherent portraits of who they are as
people, but rather draw on parts of their identity to accomplish other goals within the conversation.” (102)
 Cheryl Geisler: “agency does not lie in the hands of any one person at the proposed writing table, but rather lies in the interaction
among them. It is a complex interplay.” (104)
 “Questioning acquires rhetorical force in this context [online public forums] through the way they are performed.” (113)
 “The rhetorical agency these identity performances enable is particularly interesting because the performances are not based on
claims to expert status...most often, participants simply ask questions to which they need answers and tell stories of their interactions
with the topic at hand.” (115)
“A Language of Play: New Media’s Possibility Spaces” by Joshua Daniel-Wariya
 Four Implications of Play: 1)all kinds of materials have play; 2)different materials have different potentials and possibilities for play; 3)
play can be dangerous; 4)rules and restrictions are opportunities for creativity and expression (34-35)
 “When humans play, they express ideas, share attitudes, and persuade others through a variety of symbolic play forms.” (36)
 “Play is symbolized when various composers repeatedly customize the same text as they work towards many different rhetorical
goals.” (40)
 “The automation of computerized new media creates a large possibility space for a language of play because, as users navigate virtual
space, feedback systems compose responses that appear to embody the user’s own motivations and beliefs.” (43)