Transmediating argumentation : Students composing across written essays and digital videos in higher education

Abstract

This comparative study examined how university students built an argument in written essays and multimodal digital videos, and how their argumentation transmediated across these two mediums. Data analysis involved 1) analysis of content in both written essays and digital videos; 2) the development of transmediation visualizations to elucidate how ideas were transformed from essays into videos; and 3) multimodal analysis to understand the communicative affordances and constrains for argumentation with each medium. The findings revealed that the most common type of content in both essays and videos was supportive argumentation; however, the videos did not include any counter-argumentation. Students transformed different amounts of ideas in different ways when transmediating their argumentation from essays into videos. Both assignments offered unique affordances for building an argument based on their modes of communication.