Liza Potts
Angela Harrison
ABSTRACT
In this paper, we describe the rhetorical construction of two community sites and analyze how these sites support the information sharing practices of these communities. By examining activity on web-based discussion boards reddit and 4chan, we show how these spaces are developed and shaped over time by participants making rhetorical moves in order to share content within these ecologies. During the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings, we show how these spaces can be altered, disregarding the more typical practices on these sites. When community members embrace or reject these uses, it is as much a reaction to the content as it is to the cultural misuse of the community. In the case of reddit and 4hcan, this acceptance and rejection is especially true when the makers and maintainers of the system are participants themselves. Through this examination, we conclude that it is important to understand the rhetorical construction of these systems as reflections of the cultures they support.
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Index Terms
Interfaces as rhetorical constructions
Comments