Welcome to Web Writing & Participatory Culture. My name is Rik Hunter, and I am the instructor for this section of English 201: Intermediate Composition at the University of Wisconsin - Madison.

In this section of English 201 we will focus on both the social, technical, and legal issues involved in the use of digital media technologyin the production of new media texts. We will write mainly on blogs, wikis, and discussion boards; however, you will have the option and the opportunity to compose multimodal texts. One of our goals is to consider how we define writing, in traditional print and new media. In addition, you will be conducting research on how people employ new media -- be it as individuals or collectives.

Therefore, we will look at issues regarding participatory culture, relying heavily on the work of Henry Jenkins (Director of MIT’s Comparative Media Studies graduate program) as a lens for our research, e.g. appropriation, sampling, and intellectual property & copyright; fan production, collective intelligence; transmedia storytelling and contemporary mass media marketing techniques.

Some of our other goals include gaining an awareness of and taking control of the writing and research process in order to find your purpose and the media most appropriate for your projects -- for what you want to say and to whom you want to say it.

While this is a computer-intensive writing course, there is no prerequisite knowledge needed to succeed--just the willingness to be inquisitive and experiment and play with the media you will work with.

Below, you can watch a video that introduces many of the concepts and issues we will consider this semester.