Technical Communication Quarterly Jan 2025

Misinformation As Genre Function: Insights on the Infodemic from a Genre-Theoretical Perspective

Ashley Rose Mehlenbacher University of Waterloo ; Brad Mehlenbacher University of Waterloo

Abstract

Misinformation has generated much discussion in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and attendant "Infodemic," as the World Health Organization (WHO) dubbed the challenge of disordered information. Rhetorical genre studies can offer important insights about how misinformation functions within informational ecologies by revealing how typification and recurrence provide opportunities for misinformation to take hold. This article develops a genre-based framework to study scientific and technical misinformation as illicit genres through concepts of genre function and abusability.

Journal
Technical Communication Quarterly
Published
2025-01-02
DOI
10.1080/10572252.2024.2367779
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Topics
rhetorical criticism genre theory
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