Rethinking Textuality on the Web: Meanings through Citation

• In Event: Communication Technologies, Media, and Genre

Abstract

This paper sets out to analyze a particular dynamic of web sites, that meanings are often shaped through citation and references to other sites. This concept, developed as web-citation, is crucial as several web sites seek to develop their points by referencing other sites on the web. This requires a fundamentally different idea of textuality, as originally discrete texts are brought together in the form of something new. This change is severe, necessitating a fundamental shift in how “texts” are conceptualized.

Developing this concept through the voice of three connected gaming sites, this paper gives analysts another way to critically engage a new media form. Taking on new tasks in alternate ways ensures the ongoing health of the discipline as critics can continue to engage emergent texts in the newest technological forms. In this case, meaning is looked at differently, shaped by the environment in which texts exist online and the connections that span the gaps among what would be considered discrete entities if they were published offline.

Author

• Christopher A Paul, Univ of Minnesota, Twin Cities