Abstract:
ABSTRACT
THE POSSIBILITIES OF PUBLICS: NEW MEDIA
AND GENRE IN THE FIRST-YEAR
COMPOSITION
COURSE
By
© Lauren Michele Alpert 2011
Master of Arts in English
California State University, Chico
Spring 2011
This thesis analyzes work produced by students in my First Year Composition
courses, after implementing a syllabus focused genre study and new media technologies
in order to promote public participation through writing. To analyze the work of my
course, I review the public sphere theory of Jürgen Habermas and other modern public
sphere theory, particularly that related to FYC instruction, which suggests that the
internet has brought about a need for a re-examination of how the formation and practices
of publics occur. In the following chapters I examine the relevance of public sphere
theory, genre theory, multimodal and new media practices to illustrate and review the
work done by my students in two sections of FYC courses I designed and taught. The
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first chapter reviews not only Habermas, but also more recent theorists who use public
sphere theory and use of new media in inquiry-based FYC classes. The second chapter
describes how inquiry is taught in my syllabus and summarizes my research methods.
The third chapter examines students’ public participation through the use of Google sites
as e-portfolios (digital portfolios of student work) and introduces definitions of new
media genres and the genre mashing done by students in the final productions of their
inquiry projects. Throughout, I examine issues of responsible agency and engagement in
order to assess possibilities for student learning.
