On Wednesday, October 23rd, rhetoric and composition students and faculty met at University Pub to discuss Jennifer Sano-Franchini's "Sounding Asian/America: Asian/American Sonic Rhetorics, Multimodal Orientalism, and Digital Composition." The discussion included an interesting conversation about Sano-Franchini's explanation of sounds and their effect on audience reception/perception of implicit biases. Although initially discussed as an article that draws together previously established notions of rhetoric, by the end of the discussion, students and faculty agreed that Sano-Franchini makes explicit a conversation and approach to rhetorical analysis that has been overlooked and/or taken for granted. Specifically, Sano-Franchini argues that sounds frequently used for a particular context or group, such as Asian Americans, form an association that viewers/listeners might not immediately recognize or be aware of. For example, a soundtrack often used during sad scenes in movies, when played, triggers an emotional response from viewers. Similarly, sounds have been used to perpetuate racist stereotypes and assumptions, which Sano-Franchini illuminates as an area of rhetoric that we must consider more critically in our use and analysis of digital media. 

Join us for our final RCRG meeting of the semester on November 13th at 3pm at the University Pub. We will be discussing "Disidentification, Disorientation, and Disruption: Queer Multimodal Rhetoric in Queer Comics" by Rachael Ryerson.