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Activism, Deliberation, And Networked Public Screens: Rhetorical Scenes From The Occupy Moment In Lincoln, Nebraska (Part 1 & 2), Joshua P. Ewalt, Jessy J. Ohl, Damien S. Pfister

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Part 1 of this manuscript is a dramatization of five rhetorical scenes that take the Occupy phenomenon as a moment to explore features of contemporary social protest and change. Drawing on rhetorical field notes collected over the first two weeks of Occupy Lincoln in Nebraska, we identify how historical tensions between activism and deliberation were both complicated and reasserted as the Occupy moment became a movement. The rhetorical scenes partially replicate actual conversations, though they are remediated through three composite figures: Anda, a longtime social activist; John, an advocate of democratic deliberation; and Dajuan, an undergraduate organizer of the local …