Please Sign Here (And Share It To Your Facebook and Twitter Feeds): Online Petitions and Inventing for Circulation

摘要

The continued use of digital platforms to foster civic engagement efforts offers us the opportunity to examine the complexities of invention, circulation, and genre in a networked world. Online petitions, with a rich history and widespread usage, are a sustained and valuable mode of citizen engagement that deserves closer examination. This article delves into the creation and distribution process of online petitions by examining the creation interface for MoveOn Petitions in order to better understand how users might compose civic texts subject to high levels of circulation. Since petitions are designed for (and depend on) high levels of distribution and subsequently, circulation, they offer us the opportunity to identify markers of circulation (signatures, likes, comments, etc.) and audience reception. Additionally, MoveOn Petitions' creation templates forward issues of genre, audience, and circulation, illustrating a clear linkage between invention and delivery in digital arenas. Online petitions are a unique genre that we, along with our students, can examine more closely to better understand the nuances of digital, public, participatory writing.