An interesting thread (gmail keeps all these messages together for me as one
string), but I'm starting to think there are two kinds of publications being
talked about here. "The Newsletter" as it was in the 2000s wasn't really a
newsletter (of the newsletter genre) at all. People were putting substantial
pieces in it, and it really functioned more as a quasi -journal. The
comments so far argue against using Facebook for that kind of publication,
and I think I would agree with that. Now, news and less formal writing that
I think we would associate with the genre of the newsletter really should be
transmitted via one of the new electronic genres of publication--blog, FB,
something like that. If we were starting a new writing studies organization
in Canada in 2012, would we really create a newsletter to facilitate
exchanges of information? I doubt it.
Part of the problem is generational: when did newsletters proliferate? I
associate it with the advent of desktop publishing in the early 1980s, or
perhaps it is associated with the typewriter and the spread of cheap
photocopying in the 1970s. As a medium of exchange, it is one-way: from the
authors, through the editor, to the readers. There is no liveliness to it,
no flattening of the information hierarchy, no spreading of the author
function. The "news" part of the Newsletter should migrate to a social media
site--no question about that in my mind. The extended discourse part of the
Newsletter should migrate to a publication with a more formal title, a clear
review process/notification, and an online publication format (not paper).
If we want to attract new members and if we want to take advantage of the
affordances of new technologies to support communication and interaction, we
should re-think our traditional methods of exchanging information. Among the
various advantages would be the ability to maintain a link to other
blogs/online resources such as Rachel Cayley's blog on Academic Writing:
http://explorationsofstyle.wordpress.com/author-bio/
and Tania Smith's blog, EduRhetor: http://edurhetor.wordpress.com/
The traditional Newsletter format isn't going to do that well.
Roger
On Wed, Jun 8, 2011 at 6:47 PM, Margaret Procter
<[log in to unmask]>wrote:
> I'm with you on boycotting FB for public purposes too, I'm afraid. When I
> volunteered to be newsletter editor, I was thinking of a simple HTML display
> that could go on the Inkshed website, with a PDF version also given for
> people to print out if they prefer to read that way.
>
> The biggest need of the newsletter is of course content! I am inclined to
> kidnap (but I'll ask nicely) Susan Drain's minutes from the meeting in
> Fredericton as a first item. Anybody else want to write up a note
> summarizing or responding to a topic discussed there? As someone who had to
> miss the afternoon session to catch a plane, I'd be interested in knowing
> more and maybe extending those discussions.
>
> Margaret
>
>
>
>
> On 08/06/2011 8:11 PM, Tyler Evans-Tokaryk wrote:
>
> Add my name to the list of those reluctant to use FB for CASLL
> communication.
>
> Dr. Tyler Evans-Tokaryk
> Lecturer, RGASC
> University of Toronto Mississauga
> --Please excuse the brevity; this message was sent from my BlackBerry.
> ------------------------------
> *From: * Betsy Sargent <[log in to unmask]><[log in to unmask]>
> *Sender: * "casll-l: Canadian Association for the Study of Language and
> Learning (Inkshed)" <[log in to unmask]><[log in to unmask]>
> *Date: *Wed, 8 Jun 2011 14:50:50 -0400
> *To: *[log in to unmask]<[log in to unmask]><[log in to unmask]>
> *ReplyTo: * "casll-l: Canadian Association for the Study of Language and
> Learning (Inkshed)" <[log in to unmask]><[log in to unmask]>
> *Subject: *Re: Facebook Group: Newsletter Site
>
> I'm with Russ and Susan on this one--my privacy settings on Facebook are
> the highest possible and I use it only for family.
> Betsy
>
> At 12:34 PM 6/8/2011, Russ Hunt wrote:
>
> I've drawn a ring of fire around my Facebook site: only my immediate family
> are allowed in. So I'm with Susan. I'm not clear what the advantages of
> using FB for a newsletter would be.-- Russ
>
> Sent wirelessly from my BlackBerry device on the Bell network.Envoyé sans
> fil par mon terminal mobile BlackBerry sur le réseau de Bell.
> *From: *[log in to unmask]
> *Sender: *"casll-l: Canadian Association for the Study of Language and
> Learning (Inkshed)" <[log in to unmask]><[log in to unmask]>
> *Date: *Wed, 8 Jun 2011 18:23:53 +0000
> *To: *<[log in to unmask]> <[log in to unmask]>
> *ReplyTo: *[log in to unmask]
> *Subject: *Re: Facebook Group: Newsletter Site
> I quit Facebook four years ago: if we use it for the newsletter, please
> let's have another medium too.Susan
>
> Sent wirelessly from my BlackBerry device on the Bell network.Envoyé sans
> fil par mon terminal mobile BlackBerry sur le réseau de Bell.
> *From: *Michael Ryan <[log in to unmask]> <[log in to unmask]>
> *Sender: *"casll-l: Canadian Association for the Study of Language and
> Learning (Inkshed)" <[log in to unmask]><[log in to unmask]>
> *Date: *Wed, 8 Jun 2011 13:59:27 -0400
> *To: *<[log in to unmask]> <[log in to unmask]>
> *ReplyTo: *"casll-l: Canadian Association for the Study of Language and
> Learning (Inkshed)" <[log in to unmask]><[log in to unmask]>
> *Subject: *Facebook Group: Newsletter Site
> Dear All:
>
> I mentioned that I have created [June 2009] a "group" on Facebook -
> called - INKSHED. It was meant to hold the name. However, there are some
> imitators. Roger Graves has suggested this could be a site for the
> newsletter.
>
> To all who are members of CASLL and FB, I suggest you join. It is free
> and supposedly painless.
>
> Best regards,
>
>
> Michael J. Ryan
> -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- To leave the list, send a SIGNOFF CASLL-L command to
> [log in to unmask] or, if you experience difficulties, write to Russ
> Hunt at [log in to unmask]
>
> To view or search the list archives, go to
> https://listserv.utoronto.ca/cgi-bin/wa?A0=CASLL-L -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
>
> M. Elizabeth (Betsy) Sargent
> Director of Writing Initiatives and
> Interim Director, Writing Studies (OIS)
> Professor, Department of English and Film Studies
> University of Alberta
> Edmonton, AB T6G 2E5
> CANADA
> (780) 492-0457 (office)
> Humanities Centre 3-79
> [log in to unmask]
> www.dhlsna.com
> http://www.sargent.nelson.com/
> http://www.writing.ualberta.ca
> http://www.writing.ualberta.ca/WAWN.aspx
> http://www.ois.ualberta.ca/nav01.cfm?nav01=89519
> "You've got to jump off cliffs all the time and build your wings on the way
> down."
> --Ray Bradbury
>
> -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- To leave the list, send a SIGNOFF CASLL-L command to
> [log in to unmask] or, if you experience difficulties, write to Russ
> Hunt at [log in to unmask]
>
> To view or search the list archives, go to
> https://listserv.utoronto.ca/cgi-bin/wa?A0=CASLL-L -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
>
> -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- To leave the list, send a SIGNOFF CASLL-L command to
> [log in to unmask] or, if you experience difficulties, write to Russ
> Hunt at [log in to unmask]
>
> To view or search the list archives, go to
> https://listserv.utoronto.ca/cgi-bin/wa?A0=CASLL-L -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
>
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
To leave the list, send a SIGNOFF CASLL-L command to
[log in to unmask] or, if you experience difficulties,
write to Russ Hunt at [log in to unmask]
To view or search the list archives, go to
https://listserv.utoronto.ca/cgi-bin/wa?A0=CASLL-L
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