Authors: Mark Longaker, Kevin Psonak, Noël Clare Radley, Justin Tremel, Lydia Wilmeth
Date: 1 August 2008
PDF: 080801-1.pdf (120K, 7 pages, no images)
Series Number: 080801-1
Keywords: ejournal, Currents, digital publishing
Abstract: To create a working definition of the ejournal, the CWRL’s Currents in Electronic Literacy (Currents) workgroup has spent the past year surveying electronic journals. This white paper analyzes the existing identity of Currents through a context study and makes proposals for Currents becoming a more prominent ejournal.
Introduction
If you type the word ‘ejournal’ into a Microsoft Word document, a red underscore will alert you have misspelled it. If you type ejournal into Wikipedia, you will not be able to find an entry (March 2008), suggesting both the relative novelty of the medium as well as the need for a working definition for our ejournal, Currents in Electronic Literacy. In our effort to create a working definition of the ejournal, the CWRL’s Currents workgroup has spent the past year surveying electronic journals, analyzing the existing identity of Currents through a study of context. In the first section, ‘Reviewing the Field of Ejournals,’ we analyze Kairos and Postmodern Culture (PMC) as exemplary models. Since Kairos and PMC elicit prestigious contributors and seem to have a wide audience, these two publications provide a litmus test for our relative success as well as a model for how Currents might achieve similar success. Kairos seems to maintain its successes through a vibrant community of editors and contributors, while PMC provides a great example of how ejournals facilitate topics and articles that do not fit traditional print format; indeed, both Kairos and PMC not only print multimodal digital articles, but also publish pieces that interrogate and advance the theory and practice of digital composition and digital literacy—practices Currents seeks to better accomplish. In the second section, ‘Features and Format,’ we compare Currents to other ejournals in terms of features, such as connected blogs and podcasts. Finally, our conclusions outline a plan for the 2008–2009 issue of the journal. We propose forthcoming issues in sound and accessibility and make recommendations for the 2008–2009 Currents editorial board.
Reviewing the Field of Ejournals
This semester, the Currents workgroup at the CWRL began a preliminary examination of the field of ejournals with reviews of Inventio, Lore, Kenneth Burke, Postmodern Culture, Computers and Composition, First Monday, Ejournalist, and Kairos. We believe this surveying work is important for monitoring significant developments and shifts in the field, and that the Currents workgroup should continue to collect information in order to chart the journal’s precise role in the digital landscape. Working towards an understanding of the ecology of ejournals, we will be able to envision larger ways in which Currents can contribute to the field.
Exemplary Computers and Writing Journal
The electronic journal Kairos, though officially published by Texas Tech University, is truly a multi-university production attending to the intersections of rhetoric, technology, and pedagogy. Established in 1995 by a group of graduate students spread across a web of North American universities, the journal was envisioned as a space in which innovative work in computers and writing could be presented to a wide, diverse audience through the very media being theorized. Thirteen years later, the journal remains among the foremost in electronic journals as it maintains a sense of community among theorists and practitioners in the field and continuously expands the possibilities for electronic publication as well as the opportunities for grad-student authored publications.
Kairos only publishes web-based texts that illustrate and perform the often collaborative, non-linear models of pedagogy and scholarship that define the journal’s subject-matter. For each of its six sections, Topoi, Praxis, Reviews, Interviews, Disputatio, and News, submissions incorporate and explain new pedagogical tools, web-based writing utilities, and responses to new technologies.
The network of people contributing to Kairos lends to its tremendous popularity and success. For example, in the most recent issue (12:2, Spring 2008) Kairos draws on its past engagements with the Computers and Writing conference, focusing on works presented in Detroit in May, 2007. Acquiring contacts and working relationships with people in our field is something that Currents has recently begun to do as well.
Developer Noël Radley attended the 2008 Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) to gather information about possible topics, as well as to make connections with possible contributors. Three of the contacts that Noël met serve Kairos in an editorial capacity: Cheryl Ball of Illinois State University serves as Editor, Doug Eyman of George Mason University is a Senior Editor, and Michael Salvo of Purdue University is on the Editorial Board. Each of these representatives offers possibilities for interview, collaboration, and advising for future issues of Currents. If we want to continue to analyze our place on the digital publishing spectrum, we may, for example, draw on Ball’s interest in digital scholarship and, especially, online journals. Likewise, Salvo’s advanced work in sound and composition as well as his work in accessibility with Purdue’s OWL, seem in line with many of our ideas. Salvo indicated special interest in writing up an article on Purdue’s work on accessibility. Radley recommended that we continue to develop relationships across the discipline of Computers and Writing and follow up with the contributors to Kairos.
Kairos is not only a model for how Currents could better form community; it is itself an important community to enter and within which Currents workgroup members can begin to share and collaborate. This collaboration could enhance our own content and readership, but, moreover, will provide for the individuals in our workgroup, and for the CWRL more generally, connections with scholars outside our university as well as opportunities for CWRL staffers to publish articles highlighting their own pedagogical and CWRL-related work.
Exemplary Use of Multi-media
While we emphasized the ways that Kairos models a community to support superior research, with Postmodern Culture, we considered how the content of the ejournal related to the ejournal as a medium. PMC is published by Johns Hopkins University Press with support from the University of California, Irvine, and the University of Virginia. Like Kairos, PMC fits form to content, suggesting the permeability of traditional print text’s boundaries as its articles/submissions interrogate the theoretical and critical frameworks that undergird postmodernity. As one example, Joseph Tate’s 2002 PMC article, “Radiohead's Antivideos: Works of Art in the Age of Electronic Reproduction” makes good use of the e-journal format considering the topic at hand, as the piece fluidly integrates text, sound, images, and video, all essential elements for a good treatment of the multi-media artistry of this band.
On its website, PMC describes itself this way:
Founded in 1990 as an experiment in scholarly publishing on the Internet, Postmodern Culture has become the leading electronic journal of interdisciplinary thought on contemporary cultures, publishing the work of such noted authors and critics as Kathy Acker, Charles Bernstein, Bruce Robbins, bell hooks, and Susan Howe. PMC combines high scholarly standards with broad appeal for non-academic readers. As an entirely web-based journal, PMC can publish still images, sound, animation, and full-motion video as well as text.
From our experience, it seems that PMC has been able to attract a readership and level of respect greater than almost any other electronic journal. While we might be far from attracting the large readership and renowned contributors that PMC boasts, it is a positive step that we have begun to move in that direction. We believe we can, on a more immediate level, see in PMC a structural and formal model of how to present our texts with multi-media functionality. Remember, the title of the journal is Currents in Electronic Literacy, and we would do well to highlight this fact by taking full advantage of the electronic format, especially if we publish a future issue dealing with visual rhetoric or some other specifically multi-media topic. PMC does not do anything in terms of formatting and presentation of which we are not capable. If we should decide to do a more multi-media centered publication in the future, we could crib PMC’s formatting instructions for submissions with only minor tweaks to fit into our drupal-based model. Also, it should be noted that several PMC articles have no multi-media elements or very little (for example, just a hyperlink or two in the bibliography). Our focus need not be exclusively on multi-media texts or foregrounding the electronic format; instead, the focus should be on using the electronic format more effectively and substantially where appropriate.
Format and Features
Ejournals offer unique features not possible for print publications. In our survey, we have considered effective practices and formats of current online publications. Here, we document the technical changes we have made to our own site, such as the new podcast feature, and, as well, we determine potential formats we might consider with sections on bibliography, comments feature, and a connected blog. We also have a section on software reviews; since reviews are absent from the spring 2008 issue, we need to decide whether the reviews of software will be re-integrated in the upcoming year.
Podcasts
After reviewing the podcast feature in the ejournal First Monday, we decided this was a feature we could incorporate immediately for the Spring 2008 issue. Justin Tremel secured a phone interview with Lawrence Lessig, initiator of the Creative Commons and author of Free Culture. We believe having such a central figure related to our theme of The Commons will make our issue very relevant. In the future, the podcast could allow us to feature prominent scholars in the field, who might not publish an article in Currents but would be willing to participate in a less formal, less time-intensive discussion. While Justin interviewed Lessig by phone, we might consider conducting these interviews on campus by watching for visiting speakers whose work focuses on digital literacy. In this way, we might better draw on opportunities and resources that UT affords, such as the Distinguished Speakers Series or the Humanities Institute’s Distinguished Visiting Lecturer Series.
Blogs
Ejournals are read and supported by those who are highly participatory in online writing. Blogging, twittering, and listserv participation seem to be highly valued and formative for the sub-cultures surrounding ejournals. Kairos, again, is an example of this with KairosNews and the number of Kairos editors who participate on the techrhet listserv. An eventual development of Currents might be our own connected blog. However, our concern is that unless we have more workgroup members, more inter-university connections, and more developers to support the blog, we face the possibility of this project being unsustainable. So perhaps a more immediate goal for the workgroup is asking members to create content for blogs related to digital literacy. The Currents workgroup should participate in existing online communities, while eventually working to create entirely new community forums. Also, members could report key information from their selected Members could, for example, contribute to The Blogora, KairosNews, and viz., creating a presence for our journal outside of the CWRL. The Currents workgroup should participate in existing online communities, while eventually working to create entirely new community forums. Also, members could report key information from their selected blog at meetings, supporting members gaining knowledge in Computers and Writing.
Comments
One structural element from PMC that might work well for Currents is a “Talk Back” link featured prominently on each page. This feature takes advantage of the electronic forum by allowing readers to quickly engage with the particular articles that they read. When you click on the link, you fill out a form with boxes for your name, email, and comments, but the journal places the caveat: “Comments submitted through this form may be selected for publication in future issues of Postmodern Culture, and published letters may be edited.” It seems this might be a good function to add to Currents and may lead to greater continuity between issues, in addition to generating new material in the form of reader responses.
Bibliographies
The Kenneth Burke Journal hosts a bibliography and a premium bibliography available to members of the Kenneth Burke Society. We also noticed that this was a plus in Bedford St. Martin’s Lore ejournal and could be a plus for Currents. Adding the bibliography feature might get more readers circulating through the journal site. Workgroup members can take an area and review materials for an annotated bibliography that, presumably, will grow as we and others contribute. Also, in Kenneth Burke, the reviews section allows for reviews of articles and books. We are not sure we should go this route, especially since we invite reviews of other sorts of material, such as software and conferences. In fact, we think that one of Currents’s strengths is its emphasis on ROBRs (reviews other than book-reviews).
Reviews
In order to respond to problems with lack of quality and quantity of article submissions, the 2006–2007 workgroup decided Currents might be more effective if the journal exclusively solicited reviews. In their CWRL white paper, James Brown and Thomas Nelson recommended that Currents switch to a review format, where the primary content of the journal would be reviews of software and practical applications of technology for pedagogy. In contrast, this year we do not have any reviews. We feel this inconsistency in terms of content is potentially problematic and should be addressed next year, since we are attempting to coalesce the journal’s identity and gain a steady audience.
Conclusions
Our recommendations are part of a wider vision for the culture of the ejournal. We propose better orientation for 2008–2009 Currents workgroup members and growing the editorial board. Further, our suggestions for future issues in sound and accessibility have the potential to unite the scholarly community, as well as the people of the CWRL.
As noted in multiple white papers (Avery and Rose, Brown and Nelson), the workgroup annually faces staff turnover and lack of Computers and Writing expertise among its members. These circumstances make for a lengthy learning curve, which, we feel, could be shortened by orientation at the beginning of the year. We propose that there be a page added to the Currents webpage before the year starts, accessible by group members, linking to orientation materials that explain the role, research, and mission of the journal. In addition to having an orientation module, we believe past editors and advisory board members would willingly stay on as a service to the journal, presenting on the journal during orientation, as well as attending the first workgroup meetings. Indeed, part of the stakes for the formal and institutional changes we are suggesting involves our ability to recruit and retain members of the editorial committee. This would promote continuity and sharing from year-to-year.
To further develop and support the community around the journal, we need a larger editorial board. This proposal is another recurrent theme from past white papers (Avery and Rose, Brown and Nelson) that similarly call for a revamping or growing of the editorial board. In the May 2005 white paper, Audra Rouse and Lisa Avery suggest that this turnover problem might be alleviated by assistant directors taking an editorial position, a proposal that we, the existing workgroup, would agree with. Also, the journal needs at least two full-time developers to continue the upward trajectory we gained this year. As well as having more graduate student appointments, we also need more support from faculty to review, support, and back up our work. Under the current editorship with Dr. Mark Longaker, the journal has already been able to solicit much higher quality submissions, a trend we hope to continue. As well as adding to the number of contributors, both student and faculty, we propose that there might be better use of the existing members of the advisory board. For example, we could have several additional editor positions, such as editor of podcasts and editor of reviews, distributing more responsibility to workgroup members and drawing upon the talents of our members.
During our year of research and discussion, we deliberated two topics that could be appropriate for the next themed issue. The first potential topic is accessibility, a topic that has not been addressed in the journal since 2001. This topic would allow the CWRL to honor colleague, professor, and former editor of Currents, Dr. John Slatin. Drawing attention to the very important work Dr. Slatin did in accessibility could be a meaningful use of our forum. This might be published as a special edition of the journal with a temporary volunteer editorial board of faculty and graduate students. As well as this possible special issue, we have found potential for another upcoming issue on “sound.” CWRL instructors excel in incorporating work in sound in the classroom, and, moreover, we could solicit manuscripts from Jenny Edbauer-Rice, whose recent talk on campus referred to her projects in sound, and Michael Salvo, whose presentation at the CCCC’s was on sound and composition. Lydia Wilmeth, a current workgroup member, is studying the interplay of musicality, orality, and text in American prose and the effects of such interplay on compositional practices. Lydia has submitted a proposal to the October 2008 Thomas R. Watson conference; we anticipate that the Watson conference will be a good place to solicit articles as well as research in the field on sound. Therefore, we feel that both of our proposed topics offer ways to respond to imperatives of digital literacy, draw upon the work of our community, and engage our audience.
In summation, as CWRL’s outlet to digital publics, Currents provides opportunities to recruit graduate students to the Department of Rhetoric and Writing and to connect to scholars with similar interests at other universities. The journal could also coalesce the community of the CWRL. Finally, as the chorus of voices for online writing becomes louder, the field demands more comprehensive theory and practical applications of digital literacy. Currents could become increasingly vocal in digital scholarship, New Media, and Computers and English. We think Currents’s influence as a scholarly journal will only be increased by continuing to try to promote a more integrated culture within the workgroup, as well as trying to branch out and find connections outside our university.
References
Avery, Lisa, and Audra Rose. “The Current State of Currents.” Computer Writing and Research Lab White Paper. 5 May 2005. CWRL The University of Texas at Austin. 1 April 2008. http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/node/128
Brown, James, and Thomas Nelson. “A New Direction for Currents.” Computer Writing and Research Lab White Paper. 8 March 2006. CWRL The University of Texas at Austin. 1 April 2008. http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/node/689
“Computers and Writing 2007: Virtual Urbanism.” Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy. 12.2 (2007). 1 April 2008. http://kairos.technorhetoric.net/12.2/index.html
Currents in Electronic Literacy. Computer Writing and Research Lab at the University of Texas at Austin. 1 April 2008. http://currents.cwrl.utexas.edu/
First Monday. University of Illinois at Chicago. 1 April 2008. http://www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/
Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy. Texas Tech University. 1 April 2008. http://kairos.technorhetoric.net/
Kenneth Burke Journal. Purdue University. 1 April 2008. http://www.kbjournal.org/
Lessig, Lawrence. Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Creativity. New York: Penguin, 2004.
Lore: An Ejournal for Teachers of Writing. Bedford St. Martin’s. 1 April. http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/lore/
OWL: The Purdue Online Writing Lab. Purdue University. 1 April 2008. http://owl.english.purdue.edu/
Postmodern Culture: An Electronic Journal of Interdisciplinary Criticism. University of Virginia. 1 April 2008. http://www.iath.virginia.edu/pmc/
Tate, Joseph. “Radiohead's Antivideos: Works of Art in the Age of Electronic Reproduction.” Postmodern Culture: An Electronic Journal of Interdisciplinary Criticism, 2002 May; 12.3 (2002). 37 pars. 1 April 2008. http://www.iath.virginia.edu/pmc/issue.502/12.3tate.html
Viz. Computer Writing and Research Lab at the University of Texas at Austin. 1 April 2008. http://viz.cwrl.utexas.edu/