GC: n
S: OEJ (last access: 11 May 2026); JSTOR (last access: 11 May 2026).
N: 1. – digital (adj): mid-15c., “pertaining to numbers below ten;” 1650s, “pertaining to fingers,” from Latin digitalis, from digitus “finger or toe” (see digit). The numerical sense is because numerals under 10 were counted on fingers. Meaning “using numerical digits” is from 1938, especially of computers which run on data in the form of digits (opposed to analogue) after c. 1945. In reference to recording or broadcasting, from 1960.
– rhetoric (n): early 14c., rethorike, “the art of eloquence and persuasiveness in language, the art of using language to influence others,” from Old French retorike, rethorique (Modern French rhétorique) and directly from Latin rhetorice, from Greek rhētorikē tekhnē “art of an orator,” from rhētōr (genitive rhētoros) “speaker, master speaker, orator; artist of discourse; teacher of rhetoric,” especially (in the Attic official language), “orator in public.” This is related to rhesis “speech,” rhema “word, phrase, verb,” literally “that which is spoken” (from PIE *wre-tor-, from root *were- (3) “to speak;” see verb). Since classical times with a derogatory suggestion of “artificial oratory” as opposed to what is natural or unaffected, “ostentatious declamation.”
2. Digital Rhetoric describes the language we use and the practices that have become invisible/normal concerning technology. The basic premise is that the words and techniques we use to monitor and model human behavior have consequences. This chapter answers the questions: which words, phrases, and language choices define the “digital situation” of rhetoric? What techniques or strategies are part of the digital situation? What are its practical and lived effects?
Beyond offering this core definition and answering the questions above, this chapter explains how digital rhetoric also describes the way that words about technology and techniques of measurement are used to model human behavior, the way that digital technologies retain the trace of earlier communication technologies, and the destructive effects of the terminology used to categorize technology and digitally-enabled measurement techniques.
3. Looking into the definition of rhetoric in the digital space, one often encounters the view that rhetoric is too remote or too “ancient” to be used as a conceptual, theoretical or practical framework for researching digital media. However, a substantial body of contemporary media research applies the theory of rhetoric, using a modern conceptual apparatus (e.g. cognitive theories of metaphor). Based on Kenneth Burke’s model of the pentad, the article aims to show that media messages in the digital environment are based on the notion of the rhetorical situation and demonstrate that the rhetorical apparatus has a crucial role in discerning the ways to modify the discourse space in human-computer-human communication. The source of modification in the traditional model of a rhetorical situation is the interactive nature of communication in digital media and the fact that the recipient [agent a] is bestowed with the role of an active participant who can influence the content of the message. Thanks to the use of the rhetorical model of pentad, the argument goes that in contrast to traditional media, modifications in the model act 1 → agent → agency → act 2 are possible and they result from the inclusion of external participants [agent b] and changes in the ontological status of the digital medium from the role of an intermediary to an active participant in the communication process [agent c].
4. Digital rhetoric versus cyber-retoric:
- Digital rhetoric focuses broadly on how persuasion, communication, and meaning-making occur within digital spaces, encompassing multimodal texts like memes, videos, and social media. While often used interchangeably, “cyber-rhetoric” tends to emphasize communication within networked, specifically virtual, or computer-mediated environments.
S: 1. Etymonline – https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=digital, https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=rhetoric (last access: 11 May 2026). 2. UMN (last access: 11 May 2026). 3. CEEOL (last access: 11 May 2026). 4. OEJ (last access: 11 May 2026).
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