Technical Communication Quarterly Sep 1998

Toward a critical rhetoric of risk communication: Producing citizens and the role of technical communicators

Jeffrey T. Grabill Georgia State University ; W. Michele Simmons Brazilian National Association of Graduate Programs in Communication

Abstract

In this article, we build on arguments in risk communication that the predominant linear risk communication models are problematic for their failure to consider audience and additional contextual issues. The “failure”; of these risk communication models has led, some scholars argue, to a number of ethical and communicative problems. We seek to extend the critique, arguing that “risk”; is socially constructed. The claim for the social construction of risk has significant implications for both risk communication and the roles of technical communicators in risk situations. We frame these implications as a “critical rhetoric”; of risk communication that (1) dissolves the separation of risk assessment from risk communication to locate epistemology within communicative processes; (2) foregrounds power in risk communication as a way to frame ethical audience involvement; (3) argues for the technical communicator as one possessing the research and writing skills necessary for the complex processes of constructing and communicating risk.

Journal
Technical Communication Quarterly
Published
1998-09-01
DOI
10.1080/10572259809364640
CompPile
Search in CompPile ↗
Open Access
Closed
Topics
rhetorical criticism writing pedagogy assessment technical communication
Export
BibTeX RIS

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (88)

  1. Halley et al. (2026)
    Lessons in Security Logics from Cold-War Guatemala
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  2. Kong (2025)
    Visualizing Flint Lead Contamination Risks: Building a Critical Rhetorical Risk…
    Communication Design Quarterly
  3. Littlefield (2025)
    Social Mediations: Writing for Digital Public Spheres: by Donna LeCourt, Pittsb…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  4. Bay et al. (2025)
    A History of DEI: How Regulatory and Compliance Rhetorics Influence Organizations
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  5. Baniya (2025)
    Intersectional Disaster Response in the Globalized World Via Equitable Crisis C…
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
Show all 88 →
  1. Lambrecht (2025)
    Risk Revisited: The Role of Technical Communication in Negotiating Barriers to …
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  2. Littlefield (2025)
    Stochastic Publics: The Emergence and Ethics of AI-Generated Publics in Technic…
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  3. Gordon (2024)
    Celebritizing Dr. Fauci: Risk, Public Affection, and the “Total Package” of Sci…
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  4. Reamer (2024)
    Review of "Embodied Environmental Risk in Technical Communication by Samuel Sti…
    Communication Design Quarterly
  5. Madson (2024)
    Cannabis Risk Communication: A Scoping Review with a Research Agenda
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  6. Tham (2024)
    The CCCC Outstanding Dissertation Award in Technical Communication, 2004–2022: …
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  7. Reamer (2024)
    Review of "Embodied Environmental Risk in Technical Communication by Samuel Sti…
    Communication Design Quarterly
  8. Commer et al. (2024)
    (Re)Locating the Rhetorical Commonplaces of Failure and Risk-Taking
    Rhetoric Review
  9. Cosgrove (2023)
    Improving Technical and Risk Communication: An Organizational Study of North Ca…
    IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
  10. Pflugfelder et al. (2023)
    Expanding the Scope and Scale of Risk in TPC: Water Access and the Colorado Riv…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  11. Welhausen (2023)
    Wicked Problems in Risk Assessment: Mapping Yellow Fever and Constructing Risk …
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  12. Swacha (2023)
    The Coping with COVID Project: Participatory Public Health Communication
    Communication Design Quarterly
  13. Steiner et al. (2022)
    From Awareness to Advocacy: Using Intimate Partner Violence Awareness Campaigns…
    Reflections: A Journal of Community-Engaged Writing and Rhetoric
  14. Richards et al. (2022)
    How Real Is Too Real? User-Testing the Effects of Realism as a Risk Communicati…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  15. Altamirano et al. (2022)
    Experience report streamlining complex website design using a content audit sel…
    Communication Design Quarterly
  16. Sparby et al. (2022)
    Investigating disembodied university crisis communications during COVID-19
    Communication Design Quarterly
  17. Williams (2022)
    Gun Control and Gun Rights: A Conceptual Framework for Analyzing Public Policy …
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  18. Gonzales (2022)
    (Re) Framing Multilingual Technical Communication with Indigenous Language Inte…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  19. Itchuaqiyaq et al. (2022)
    Sex Work and Professional Risk Communication: Keeping Safe on the Streets
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  20. Agboka et al. (2022)
    Curricular Efforts in Technical Communication After the Social Justice Turn
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  21. Green (2021)
    Risking Disclosure: Unruly Rhetorics and Queer(ing) HIV Risk Communication on Grindr
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  22. Butts et al. (2021)
    Rhetorical hedonism and gray genres
    Communication Design Quarterly
  23. Walwema (2021)
    Rhetoric and Cape Town’s Campaign to Defeat Day Zero
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  24. Butts et al. (2021)
    Deep mapping for environmental communication design
    Communication Design Quarterly
  25. Frost (2021)
    Ultrasound, Gender, and Consent: An Apparent Feminist Analysis of Medical Imagi…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  26. Amidon et al. (2021)
    Visual Risk Literacy in “Flatten the Curve” COVID-19 Visualizations
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  27. Batova (2021)
    “Picturing” Xenophobia: Visual Framing of Masks During COVID-19 and Its Implica…
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  28. Baniya et al. (2021)
    Valuing Expertise During the Pandemic
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  29. Olman et al. (2020)
    Hybrid collectivity: hacking environmental risk visualization for the anthropocene
    Communication Design Quarterly
  30. Cheek (2020)
    Zombie Ent(r)ailments in Risk Communication: A Rhetorical Analysis of the CDC’s…
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  31. Applen (2020)
    Using Bayesian induction methods in risk assessment and communication
    Communication Design Quarterly
  32. Sánchez (2020)
    Examining Methectic Technical Communication in an Urban Planning Comic Book
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  33. Stephens et al. (2020)
    Story mapping and sea level rise: listening to global risks at street level
    Communication Design Quarterly
  34. Ding (2020)
    Crowdsourcing, Social Media, and Intercultural Communication About Zika: Use Co…
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  35. Card (2020)
    Off-Target Impacts: Tracing Public Participation in Policy Making for Agricultu…
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  36. Bates (2020)
    Activist Archival Research, Environmental Intervention, and the Flint Water Crisis
    Reflections: A Journal of Community-Engaged Writing and Rhetoric
  37. Sullivan (2019)
    Troubling Structures: A Material-Embodied Pedagogy of Technical Difficulty
    Computers and Composition
  38. Richards (2019)
    An Ethic of Constraint: Citizens, Sea-Level Rise Viewers, and the Limits of Agency
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  39. Ballentine (2019)
    Rhetoric, risk, and hydraulic fracturing: one landowner's perspective
    Communication Design Quarterly
  40. Pflugfelder (2019)
    Risk selfies and nonrational environmental communication
    Communication Design Quarterly
  41. George (2019)
    Communicating activist roles and tools in complex energy deliberation
    Communication Design Quarterly
  42. Randazzo (2019)
    About Face: Reflexively Considering “Audience” in Hiring Situations
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  43. Cox (2019)
    Working Closets: Mapping Queer Professional Discourses and Why Professional Com…
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  44. Melonçon et al. (2018)
    Advocating for Sustainability: A Report on and Critique of the Undergraduate Ca…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  45. Cosgrove (2018)
    Exploring usability and user-centered design through emergency management websi…
    Communication Design Quarterly
  46. Walkup (2018)
    Connect with your patients, not the screen: usability claims in electronic heal…
    Communication Design Quarterly
  47. Richards (2018)
    Not a cape, but a life preserver: the importance of designer localization in in…
    Communication Design Quarterly
  48. Wheeler (2018)
    Harry Potter and the First Order of Business: Using Simulation to Teach Social …
    Business and Professional Communication Quarterly
  49. Walkup et al. (2018)
    Health Ecologies in Addiction Treatment: Rhetoric of Health and Medicine and Co…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  50. Colton et al. (2018)
    A Social Justice Theory of Active Equality for Technical Communication
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  51. Faris (2017)
    Book Review: Vulnerability in Technological Cultures: New Directions in Researc…
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  52. Lam et al. (2017)
    The social help desk: examining how Twitter is used as a technical support tool
    Communication Design Quarterly
  53. Colton et al. (2017)
    From NoobGuides to #OpKKK: Ethics of Anonymous’ Tactical Technical Communication
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  54. Belinsky et al. (2016)
    Throwing a Change-Up, Pitching a Strike: An Autoethnography of Frame Acquisitio…
    IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
  55. Jones et al. (2016)
    Disrupting the Past to Disrupt the Future: An Antenarrative of Technical Commun…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  56. Moore (2016)
    Public Engagement in Environmental Impact Studies: A Case Study of Professional…
    IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
  57. Walsh et al. (2016)
    Perspectives on Uncertainty for Technical Communication Scholars
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  58. Walker (2016)
    Mapping the Contours of Translation: Visualized Un/Certainties in the Ozone Hol…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  59. Moore et al. (2016)
    From Participatory Design to a Listening Infrastructure: A Case of Urban Planni…
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  60. Colombini (2015)
    Communicating Popular Science: From Deficit to Democracy, by Sarah Tinker Perra…
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  61. Reamer (2015)
    “Risk = Probability × Consequences”: Probability, Uncertainty, and the Nuclear …
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  62. Novotny (2015)
    reVITALize gynecology: reimagining apparent feminism's methodology in participa…
    Communication Design Quarterly
  63. Stephens et al. (2015)
    Evaluating the Utility and Communicative Effectiveness of an Interactive Sea-Le…
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  64. Richards (2015)
    Testing the waters: local users, sea level rise, and the productive usability o…
    Communication Design Quarterly
  65. Cagle et al. (2015)
    Climate Change Research Across Disciplines: The Value and Uses of Multidiscipli…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  66. Colombini (2015)
    Speaking Confidence: Bubble Denial as Market Authoritative Rhetorical Decorum
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  67. Schuster et al. (2015)
    Expanding Our Understanding of Kairos: Tracing Moral Panic and Risk Perception …
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  68. Bowdon (2014)
    Tweeting an Ethos: Emergency Messaging, Social Media, and Teaching Technical Co…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  69. Ding (2013)
    Transcultural Risk Communication and Viral Discourses: Grassroots Movements to …
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  70. Kain et al. (2013)
    Visualizing complexity and uncertainty about climate change and sea level rise
    Communication Design Quarterly
  71. Frost (2013)
    Transcultural Risk Communication on Dauphin Island: An Analysis of Ironically L…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  72. Agboka (2013)
    Participatory Localization: A Social Justice Approach to Navigating Unenfranchi…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  73. Evia et al. (2012)
    Beyond Compliance: Participatory Translation of Safety Communication for Latino…
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  74. Youngblood (2012)
    Balancing the Rhetorical Tension Between Right to Know and Security in Risk Com…
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  75. Herrington (2010)
    Copyright, Free Speech, and Democracy: Eldred v. Ashcroft and Its Implications …
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  76. Johnson (2010)
    The Ubiquity Paradox: Further Thinking on the Concept of User Centeredness
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  77. Danisch (2010)
    Political Rhetoric in a World Risk Society
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  78. Ding (2009)
    Rhetorics of Alternative Media in an Emerging Epidemic: SARS, Censorship, and E…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  79. Nagelhout et al. (2009)
    Risk Communication, Space, and Findability in the Public Sphere: A Case Study o…
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  80. Spilka (2009)
    Practitioner Research Instruction: A Neglected Curricular Area in Technical Com…
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  81. Tutt (2009)
    Frames in Reports and in Reporting: How Framing Affects Global Warming Informat…
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  82. Williams et al. (2008)
    Embracing New Policies, Technologies, and Community Partnerships: A Case Study …
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  83. Long (2008)
    Educating Future Public Workers: Can We Make Inquiry Professional?
    Reflections: A Journal of Community-Engaged Writing and Rhetoric

References (46) · 8 in this index

  1. Adams William C. (1992)
    Public Relations Quarterly
  2. Belsten Laura (1996)
    Earthtalk
  3. Blyler (1994)
    Habermas, empowerment, and professional discourse
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  4. Carson Rachel (1962)
    Silent Spring
  5. Castelli J (1990)
    Safety and Health
Show all 46 →
  1. Corvello Vincent (1988)
    Risk Communi‐cation, Risk Statistics, and Risk Comparison: AManualfor Plant Managers
  2. Doheny‐Farina Stephen (1992)
    Rhetoric, Innovation, Technology: Case Studies of Technical Communicationsin Technology T…
  3. Ehn Pelle (1988)
    Work‐Oriented Design of Computer Artifacts
  4. 10.1177/016224399001500204
     ↗
  5. Foucault Michel (1982)
    Michel Foucault: Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics
  6. Habermas Jürgen (1990)
    Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action
  7. Hance B. J. (1990)
    Industry Risk Communication Manual: Improving Dialogue with Communities
  8. Heath Robert (1990)
    Public Relations Quarterly
  9. Johnson Robert R.
    User Centered Technology: A Rhetorical Theoryof Computers and Other Mundane Artifacts
  10. Johnson-Eilola (1996)
    Relocating the Value of Work: Technical Communication in a Post-Industrial Age
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  11. Jones Dan (1995)
    Technical Communication
  12. Juanillo Napoleon K. (1994)
    Communication Yearbook
  13. 10.2307/378062
     ↗
  14. Katz Steven (1996)
    Green Culture: Environmental Rhetoric in Contemporary America
  15. Kuhn Thomas (1970)
    The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
  16. Latour Bruno (1996)
    Aramis or the Love of Technology
  17. Mirel (1994)
    Debating nuclear energy: Theories of risk and purposes of communication
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  18. (1983)
    Risk Assessmentin the Federal Government: Managing the Process
  19. Patterson et al. (1997)
    The Environmental Rhetoric of "Balance": A Case Study of Regulatory Discourse a…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  20. Plough Alonzo (1988)
    Environmental Hazards: Communicating Risks as a Social Process
  21. Porter James E. (1992)
    Audience and Rhetoric: AnArchaeological Composition of the Discourse Community
  22. _____ (1998)
    Rhetorical Ethics and Internetworked Writing
  23. Porter, James E. “(Re)writing Institutions: Spatial Analysis and Institutional Critique.”. Unpublished.
  24. Ross Susan M. (1996)
    Earthtalk
  25. 10.1080/00909889109365311
     ↗
  26. _____ (1994)
    Communication Yearbook
  27. Rowan (1994)
    The technical and democratic approaches to risk situations: Their appeal, limit…
    Argumentation
  28. Rubin D. M. (1973)
    Mass Media and the Environment
  29. Russell Milton (1986)
    EPA Journal
  30. Sandman Peter (1990)
    Readings in Risk
  31. Savage (1996)
    Redefining the ResponsibiIities of Teachers and the Social Position of the Tech…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  32. SLACK et al. (1993)
    The Technical Communicator as Author: Meaning, Power, Authority
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  33. 10.1111/j.1539-6924.1986.tb00953.x
     ↗
  34. STRATMAN et al. (1995)
    Risk Communication, Metacommunication, and Rhetorical Stases in the Aspen-EPA S…
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  35. Sullivan Patricia (1997)
    Opening Spaces: Writing Technologies and Critical Research Practices
  36. Sullivan Dale L. (1990)
    Journal of Advanced Composition
  37. Waddell Craig (1996)
    Green Culture: Environmental Rhetoric in Contemporary America
  38. _____ (1997)
    TechnicalCommunication Quarterly
  39. _____ (1994)
    Risk Communication Course Syllabus
  40. Winner Langdon (1995)
    Technology and the Politics of Knowledge
  41. Young Iris Marion (1990)
    Justice and the Politics of Difference
CrossRef global citation count: 148 View in citation network → Build reading path →

Related Articles

  1. Pedagogy Apr 2024
    Contributors ↗
    modern rhetorical theory rhetorical criticism feminist rhetorics first-year composition writing pedagogy creative writing teacher development collaborative writing assessment technical communication professional writing grammar and mechanics literacy studies gender and writing literary studies book reviews editorial matter
  2. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication Dec 2023
    The State of UX Pedagogy ↗
    Philip B. Gallagher; Guiseppe Getto
    modern rhetorical theory rhetorical criticism discourse analysis writing pedagogy teacher development argument assessment technical communication book reviews
  3. Pedagogy Oct 2022
    Contributors ↗
    rhetorical criticism first-year composition writing pedagogy teacher development argument assessment technical communication archival research multimodality gender and writing literary studies book reviews editorial matter
  4. Pedagogy Apr 2022
    Contributors ↗
    rhetorical criticism writing pedagogy creative writing writing across the curriculum teacher development collaborative writing assessment writing program administration technical communication professional writing digital rhetoric literacy studies gender and writing disability studies literary studies book reviews editorial matter
  5. Pedagogy Jan 2022
    Contributors ↗
    modern rhetorical theory rhetorical criticism genre theory discourse analysis african american rhetorics decolonial rhetorics first-year composition writing pedagogy basic writing writing across the curriculum graduate education teacher development argument collaborative writing transfer assessment portfolios writing program administration writing centers peer tutoring technical communication professional writing archival research digital rhetoric social media grammar and mechanics literacy studies race and writing gender and writing disability studies public rhetoric community literacy literary studies editorial matter