Interactivity Online

Interactivity and Agency on the Internet was my bachelor thesis in Rhetoric written in 2009.

Here is a short abstract of the thesis - If you would like to read it all (IN DANISH), please contact me.

The Internet is still in many ways a new media and a complex format with almost too many possibilities to grasp. But we need to handle this new media, because in it lays great possibilities for persuasion.

It is the focus of this thesis to examine how Internet communication differs from other media-formats, what type of persuasion the Internet is especially suited for and how the potential for persuasion is best utilized through media specific elements.

I will analyze how two websites linked to the climate debate uses these media specific elements and utilize the persuasive potential of the Internet.

Through this examination and analysis I conclude that the potential of the Internet lies in the instant activation and mobilization of the users, and that a website with a persuasive goal must be founded upon a analysis of the situation and of the agency in its users. That way it can be decided what interactive elements suits the cause and the website will become a powerful, rhetoric instrument for action.