Rhetoric Review Jan 2020

Digital Rhetoric on a Damaged Planet: Storying Digital Damage as Inventive Response to the Anthropocene

Dustin W. Edwards

Abstract

This article examines how digital rhetoric in a big data age affects human and more-than-human life (lands, waters, energies, and so forth) in places beyond immediate rhetorical encounters. By putting particular pressure on what the author calls digital damage, the article draws out the material, ecological, and infrastructural dimensions of Facebook’s New Mexico data center. Coupling Donna Haraway’s methodological tactic of “staying with the trouble” with cultural rhetorics perspectives on story, accountability, and relationality, the essay shows how digital damage can be expressed through a series of interruptive stories. Ultimately, the article intervenes in debates on the Anthropocene, arguing that attending to digital damage through story is one way to register the sensitivities, urgencies, and accountabilities needed to respond to worlds of entangled damage.

Journal
Rhetoric Review
Published
2020-01-02
DOI
10.1080/07350198.2019.1690372
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Topics
rhetorical criticism cultural rhetorics digital rhetoric social media editorial matter
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (12)

  1. Hinojosa et al. (2026)
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  4. Hopkins (2025)
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  1. Carlson et al. (2023)
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  3. Chamberlain (2022)
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  7. Buck et al. (2021)
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