A Relational Approach to Shifting Gen Z and Millennial Environmental Beliefs

oai:poroi:id:31088While survey data identifies that most Gen Z and Millennials are anxious about climate change, are supportive of climate activists, and agree that climate change is anthropogenic, that same data fails to nuance these generations\u27 intersectional and relational environmental beliefs. The problem is both methodological and rhetorical, because assumptions built into closed-question public opinion surveys can fail to match younger generations\u27 perceptions on the environment. Additional research methods concerned with capturing these relations, including the cognitive interviews that survey designers already employ, could illuminate these environmental perspectives. We see models for this approach in the preliminary interviews used in large-scale surveys, in the field of climate psychology, and in arguments for ecological rhetoric in communication studies. Building from these fields, we provide example questions that are emblematic of these relational environmental and argue for increasing numbers of smaller, qualitative studies which investigate the many relations that younger generations already experience

Autonomous Vehicles and Gender

Several recent surveys report a gap between how men and women feel about autonomous vehicles. While such binaries may have limited usefulness, female respondents rank autonomous technology as less trustworthy and are less likely than men to report feeling safe in an autonomous car. This comment frames such results within the articles for this special section on autonomous vehicles, showing how reported gender divisions are resultant from discursive formations that frame user experience and individual performed experiences. These discursive-material dynamics generate persuasive configurations of power that thoughtful research and action in autonomous vehicle development could help mitigate. After summarizing survey diff erences, this comment off ers a brief commentary on how they might be addressed, focusing on material rhetoric and vehicle design.</jats:p

Risk selfies and nonrational environmental communication

Risk associated with a Pacific Northwest earthquake was expressed through a moderately successful social media risk communication campaign known as #14gallons. #14gallons encouraged people to collect and store 14 gallons of fresh water per person and take a selfie with their water, tagging others to do the same. This article frames the hashtag campaign within scholarship on the rhetoric of risk, defines the genre of the "risk selfie," and then uses a modified version of Laurie Gries's iconographic tracking method to produce information about the campaign that can be productively employed by risk communication practitioners.</jats:p

In measure of the world: Advancing a kinaesthetic rhetoric

This dissertation grounds the relationship between rhetoric and movement, focusing on how the confluence of the two can be used to address both technical projects and broader social concerns. I answer the questions how is transportation rhetorical? and what might such an understanding mean for both large technical projects and for the fields of rhetoric and professional writing? Specifically, I address how movement is involved in rhetoric and how rhetoric plays a role in regimes of human mobility. This dissertation develops a theory of kinaesthetic rhetoric using classical rhetoric, current critical theory, modern and historical examples, and a lengthy case study of my participation in a postcar mobility project called Electric Purdue on Demand (EPOD). Chapters focus on relationships between Aristotle\u27s definition of movement and posthumanism, interfaces and metaphors, logistics and delivery, design and navigation, and actor-network theory and phenomenology

Evidence Engines: Common Rhetorical Features of Fraudulent Academic Articles

Predatory publishers deliver neither the editorial oversight, nor the peer review of legitimate publishers, and benefit from those whose positions require academic publications. These publishers also provide a home for conspiracy theorists and pseudoscience promoters, as their lack of scrutiny offers fraudulent academic research articles a veneer of scholarly credibility. While most predatory journals were designed to dupe researchers, the fraudulent articles they often publish are designed to be found by members of the public, and their accessibility ensures that unlike legitimate research, they are likely to be employed as evidence by those seeking evidence. While studies have examined the common features of predatory journals, their emails, and their websites, this essay situates fraudulent academic articles in posttruth discourse, offers a taxonomy of illegitimate research articles, and highlights their common rhetorical features, in the hopes that the concepts discovered here can further contribute to pedagogy and public understanding. </jats:p

Big data, big questions

One significant concern I have for the future of technical communication, a concern I often share with my students, involves the impact of "big data." Though the term is frequently used with a sneer, or at least a slightly unsettled laugh, the methods for retrieving information from large data sets are improving as I write this. One significant question the field faces is: "what new relationships will develop and what new work will technical communicators be responsible for in emergent big data projects, in coming years?"</jats:p