Pennell, Michael. “The H1N1 Virus and Video Production: New Media Composing in First-Year Composition.” Pedagogy 10.3 (June 2010): 568-73.
Pennell presents the impetus for adding a digital component to his fyc. The H1N1 virus brought a competition for PSAs to his campus and he rearranged the course to have PSAs as the first composition. Rhetorically the analysis of audience and purpose was fairly simple, though the targeted audiences could be diverse. The class watched PSAs and noted consistencies “such as use of emotion, humor, celebrity spokespersons, or short taglines” (269). The students created their own PSAs in teams and the videos were finished within three weeks. Student concerns included technical expertise, the real world competition, time constraints, and participation levels. Pennell cites multiple rhetoricians to argue that composition studies will become marginalized if the rhetorical competencies it encompasses are not expanded.
The article specifically addresses new media in the fyc, which is good. It is limited, though, by the unique rhetorical situation for which the digital presentations were created and the lack of assignment guidelines and an assessment rubric.
For my study, this mostly offers additional sources who specifically speak on digital presentations as part of composition studies and rhetoric in general.