Rhetorica update…
Not to bore you with yet another Rhetorica update, but this one is important. I’ve been thinking about the changes I should make (my hearty thanks to all who gave me suggestions and insight). Here’s what’s happening:
1. Because comment spam is such a time waster, Rhetorica will only accept comments from those readers registered with the TypeKey system. I’m not happy about this. And I promise to stop using TypeKey just as soon as a better solution is found.
2. I will begin cutting back the number of posts over next few weeks. By spring, I will be posting once per day or less.
3. I won’t try to comment on every little thing. Instead, I’ll look for commonality among events and situations.
4. I will begin using Rhetorica more, and more specifically, as public notes on my research. I will give you more details on this research and try to connect it to press-politics issues as they occur.
5. I will do no more than 1 podcast per week.
These are not drastic changes. But they are designed to help Rhetorica help me through the next couple of years as I do the typical academic thing.
These are all good and reasonable changes for an academic blog. Carry on your good work, Prof C!
Sounds like a good tack. One of the things that I like least about blogging in general (and the news, for that matter) is that the context is lost in all the nitpicking over the daily details. The blogosphere could use a dose of Ritalin.
That said, I’d be interested in hearing your take on one of the latest fads, Harry Frankfurt’s 20-year-old treatise, “On Bullshit.” (Also featured in this radio program.)
I found his thesis quite interesting, and it fits with my own amateur theorizing about how we’re becoming a “PR Nation.” I’ve heard some grumbling about whether Frankfurt’s essay is philosophically rigorous (which may be professional jealosy – Frankfurt is scheduled to appear on the Daily Show next month). But I’m more interested if it stands up rhetorically.
Sounds like a good plan, thanks for the info. I look forward to your comments on Hunter S. Thompson in the near future.