School for Scandal

As I think about how digital rhetoric plays and important role in understanding contemporary American politics and in civic education, it is interesting to see curricula that integrate digital literacy with an analysis of the institutions of government. My older son's AP U.S. Government teacher RoseAnn Salumbides has students contrast the image that they get of policy makers from news wrap-up shows on televisions with data from third party sources like OpenSecrets.org and FactCheck.org.


Of course, as these two screen shots show, these sites have their own visual and verbal rhetorics with logos, stock images, and color schemes that send particular messages about how their authority is constituted.