I have been following the health care reform bill for months. I have been using google reader to share and read stories on it, usually from a very liberal (although I'm not sure what that word means anymore) perspective with my brother.
I also went on an internet search to find out what is in the bill straight from the source (but failed, not being able to read the bill's dense language, and ended up using summary documents provided by the government and the Congressional Budget Office online) which culminated in me creating a YouTube video that asserted provisions as stated by the government, financial results/consequences as estimated by the Congressional Budget Office, and also engaged a little with divergent opinions on interpreting certain aspects of the bill, once aligning myself with the Wall Street Journal's assesment of the impact the health care bill would have on large companies as being overstated, and once merely mentioning in passing that some politicians intend to challenge the constitutionality of the bill based on the 10th ammendment which asserts states rights.
I have used facebook's share feature twice: once to share an article, and once to share the YouTube video I made that was the culmination of months of following and many hours researching the topic. Interestingly, I have no way of knowing who is actually receiving my links, as with facebook, anyone who disagrees with me or dislikes all my sharing could have blocked me ages ago. I don't know who I'm reaching. Here are the links and a summary of the responses I received on facebook:
YouTube video I made outlining some of the stuff in the bill and responding to some debates: On facebook, I had several friends say thank you and say they were grateful they didn't have to watch the news to figure out what was going on with the bill. They said I made it simple and told me I did a good job. On YouTube itself I have had about 100 views (probably mostly family and friends) on my video and 3 comments, one of which was a message of support by a friend and subscriber, and the other two from strangers, one which was a message of support and also an expression of anger toward conservatives who watch Fox News, and the other a comment saying "good information" and then a warning that the health care bill will create financial chaos in the future.
Obstructionism article from Politico: I was upset with both democrats and republicans for playing political games instead of doing what's best for the people. My brother and I engaged in comment, one friend made a humorous comment, and another said she understands my take on things better than the news'.
My links can be seen on my facebook page by anyone who is my friend. I frequently use my links to share stories on political or social problems that bother me or that I feel are not being handled well. I also share a number of just humorous links that have nothing to do with politics.
In addition to me creating a space for discussion (which never really happened) and a space for expression (which did happen, a bit) I also reacted to one of my friend's status updates that eventually got about 20 comments (some comments were deleted by someone after a day or so) in order to ask why they disagree with the health care bill (this was actually the impetus for my creation of the YouTube video) and to show a couple of poll analysis that contradict some other poll analysis that showed only minority support for the health care reform bill. Here's what I said:
"I hope you don't mind me hijacking your comment thread here, but I am interested in having a civil discussion about this (as I support the bill and don't really talk to anyone who doesn't). I have to say that the idea of being forced to buy insurance is a bit troublesome to me. People have been saying it's unconstitutional, though, and I'm wondering why? But I do think you should look at these analysis of poll data that indicate that if poll questions were phrased differently people actually do support most of the health care bill.
http://www.fivethirtyeight
http://www.fivethirtyeight
http://www.fivethirtyeight
The rhetorical moves I made pretty clearly indicate that I am not trying to agitate, and that I'm not operating entirely alone: I have information that I'm using to make a claim, not any original research or thoughts (at this point). By stating my concern that I am "hijacking" the thread, I position myself as someone who is aware of the heightened emotions and unusual levels of engagement and debate on facebook among those with disparate views following the several days where the house voted on the bill and Obama signed it into law. However, I do clearly state my support for the bill, even before I link to polls showing that I am perhaps not in the minority (which would thereby perhaps preclude me from being an "edgeworker").
With my YouTube video, I actually waited until the end of the video, after all of my research and discussion (some of which I did not engage in or assert opinion on) to say "and that's why I think overall I support the health care bill." I did not make mention of polls or popular opinion in the video, as I wanted to focus on the text, and not the context of the Health Care Reform Bill. By pointing out my rhetorical moves, I am not suggesting that my actions online have been cleverly intentional. Rather, I am intending to employ a retrospective rhetorical analysis that informs whether or not I am an edgeworker.
So, am I an edgeworker? According to Welch, edgeworkers are a form of political agitation that shares a distrust of mass democratic participation with bourgeois liberalism (p 484). Edgeworkers are anarchic, solitary, and anonymous. On the same page, Welch seems to dismiss the internet as a site for democratization, leaving me to believe that my impersonal contact with others on the vast, faceless internet would perhaps fit her description of an ineffective, solitary edgeworker. However, I think what I've done could be perhaps seen as a solitary worker acting freely on behalf of a nebulous group of people who are concerned about health care and social justice: a more hopeful yet less effective version of an edgeworker.
First of all, I wasn't as anonymous as Katie with her anonymous postering was. Although critics like to decry the internet as faceless, in face, you can find out a great deal about me through my facebook page, and furthermore, I posted it to people I already know. In my YouTube video, although it is not connected to much personal information about me, they can see me--see my face. That's not very faceless to me.
I struggled with the idea of an audience for my youtube video and the link I posted on facebook to my followers. I was acting alone, speaking into a dark room that may or may not have had any people in it. It turns out, there were a few people in the room willing to chat with me a bit about it. This remains one of the biggest problems with the public sphere in the classroom: finding an audience for students can take away the benefits of a student having to search for and create a rhetorical space for themselves. I sought to create a rhetorical space made of my friends and family: I knew if I posted the youTube video on my facebook page, that at least a handful of people who regularly engage with me would see it and probably give me positive feedback. That was enough to justify spending about 7 hours writing a script, performing, editing, citing sources and making it interactive. In addition to this, I was able to use the opportunity to organize and compile thoughts, facts, and opinions about the issue for my own benefit--very similar to how I am using this blog. And my struggle to find an audience for this blog informs what I choose to do (or not do) with it--and the audience I imagine for it but have not created still plays a part in the form it has taken.
So, I have, in Mathieu's words, taken advantage of an opportunity afforded to me by social media and social networking to try to create a rhetorical space for me and my friends and family to think about and be informed about the Health Care Reform Bill. Although so far I haven't gone viral and reached "the" public sphere, I have sought to create a liminal public/private sphere defined by multiple and overlapping networks, always with the possibility and hope that what I do could go viral--could change the world.
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