Institutional Rhetoric

Authorized Persuasion from HUAC to Present
Erscheinungsjahr 2027
ISBN: 978-3-032-45257-3
Verlag: Palgrave Macmillan

Buch, Englisch, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 235 mm

This book shows how people in institutions and organizations use rhetorical strategies based in power differences between institutions and the public to present, justify, and maintain controversial policies. More specifically, this book focuses on how institutional rhetoric is used to discursively construct and defend particular versions of reality required to achieve institutional goals in the face of missing or contradictory evidence. Drawing on deliberative power asymmetries between institutions and the publics they engage with, dives into the House Committee on Un-American Activities, the 2016 Presidential Commission on Election Integrity, and governmental agencies adopting tech like facial-recognition cameras and LLM-based AI tools to show how rhetoric, institutional rules, and institutional power combine to strengthen weak institutional arguments while seeking to minimize public pushback to controversial agendas.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Thompson, Mark

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaften Medienwissenschaften
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Betriebswirtschaft Unternehmenskommunikation
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Regierungspolitik
• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Sprachwissenschaften
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Systeme
• Sozialwissenschaften Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaften Kommunikationswissenschaften

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. Institutional Rhetoric: An Overview.- 2. Institutional Asymmetry and Its Critics.- 3. Asymmetry in Decline: HUAC vs. Values Hierarchies, the Institutional Archive, and Falling Interinstitutional Support.- 4. Manufacturing Context: “Election Integrity” and Institutional Formations.- 5. Public Arguments for the Adoption of Problematic Policing Technologies.- 6. Technical Solutions: Institutional Decision Making and Strategic Tech Messaging.- 7. Conclusion.

Über Autor(innen)

Mark Thompson is Associate Professor of English and Director of Professional & Technical Writing at San Jose State University, the largest public university in Silicon Valley. He is also a 30-year veteran of the tech industry, having worked and consulted for Microsoft, Viacom, and over a dozen smaller tech start-ups. He has been teaching technical communication and UX design at San Jose State University for 13 years.