Journal of Business and Technical Communication Jan 2021 OA PDF

Visual Risk Literacy in “Flatten the Curve” COVID-19 Visualizations

Timothy R. Amidon Colorado State University ; Alex C. Nielsen ; Ehren H. Pflugfelder ; Daniel P. Richards Old Dominion University ; Sonia H. Stephens University of Central Florida

Abstract

This article explores how “flatten the curve” (FTC) visualizations have served as a rhetorical anchor for communicating the risk of viral spread during the COVID-19 pandemic. Beginning from the premise that risk visualizations have eclipsed their original role as supplemental to public risk messaging and now function as an organizer of discourse, the authors highlight three rhetorical tensions (epideictic–deliberative, global–local, conceptual metaphors–data representations) with the goal of considering how the field of technical and professional communication might more strongly support visual risk literacy in future crises.

Journal
Journal of Business and Technical Communication
Published
2021-01-01
DOI
10.1177/1050651920963439
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Topics
classical rhetoric rhetorical criticism discourse analysis professional writing literacy studies
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (12)

  1. Gray (2026)
    The Utility of Inclusivity: How Emoji Proposal Writers Navigate Oppositional In…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  2. Brooks et al. (2026)
    Tactical Technical Communication as Expert Communication: Strategic Ethos in Co…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  3. Kong (2025)
    Visualizing Flint Lead Contamination Risks: Building a Critical Rhetorical Risk…
    Communication Design Quarterly
  4. Bauer et al. (2025)
    Teaching Ethics in Communication and Business Courses: The Use of Standard Vers…
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  5. Kenzie et al. (2025)
    Don’t Read the Comments: Discourse About COVID-19 Vaccines in a State Health De…
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Show all 12 →
  1. Lambrecht (2025)
    Risk Revisited: The Role of Technical Communication in Negotiating Barriers to …
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  2. Hartzog (2025)
    ‘Flatten the curve’: rhetorical data visualizations of a global pandemic
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  3. Young (2025)
    Pandemic Communications Beyond Risk and Crisis: A Change of Course for Law Enfo…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  4. Liddle (2024)
    Commemoration and Context: The Death Counter Graphics of COVID-19
    Communication Design Quarterly
  5. Winkle (2024)
    Between the Lines: Visual Euphemism in Technical and Professional Communication…
    Communication Design Quarterly
  6. DeVasto (2024)
    Toward Rhetorically Infused Methods for Relational Network Modeling: The Visual…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  7. Sorapure (2023)
    User Perceptions of Actionability in Data Dashboards
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication

References (10) · 2 in this index

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    Toward a critical rhetoric of risk communication: Producing citizens and the ro…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
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  4. Richards (2019)
    An Ethic of Constraint: Citizens, Sea-Level Rise Viewers, and the Limits of Agency
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    Computer simulation, rhetoric, and the scientific imagination
CrossRef global citation count: 34 View in citation network → Build reading path →

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