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Full-Text Articles in Speech and Rhetorical Studies

Citizen Participation, Metadiscourse And Accountability: A Public Hearing On A Zoning Change For Wal-Mart, Richard Buttny Dec 2010

Citizen Participation, Metadiscourse And Accountability: A Public Hearing On A Zoning Change For Wal-Mart, Richard Buttny

Communication and Rhetorical Studies - All Scholarship

During a contentious public hearing on a zoning change for Wal-Mart, participants at times moved to a metadiscursive level with utterances such as, “expect to be listened to,” “I have a question,” or reading quotes of Town Board members from the newspaper. Such metadiscursive references allow participants to attempt to structure, or depart, from the public hearing format. Metadiscursive references also work to criticize their opponents’ speech or the process. Metadiscourse has the consequence of contextualizing the participation framework of the hearing as to topic, length of presentation, and mode of interaction. From a normative perspective, metadiscourse is used to …


Wal-Mart’S Presentation To The Community: Discursive Practices In Mitigating Risk, Limiting Public Participation, And Developing A Relationship, Richard Buttny Aug 2009

Wal-Mart’S Presentation To The Community: Discursive Practices In Mitigating Risk, Limiting Public Participation, And Developing A Relationship, Richard Buttny

Communication and Rhetorical Studies - All Scholarship

This study examines Wal-Mart representatives’ presentation to the community on their site plan and Draft Environmental Impact Statement. Given the on-going controversy and criticisms from local residents, it is interesting to see Wal-Mart’s strategies in attenuating these risks and negative impacts. The discursive practices found here are: formulating prior citizen complaints by a neutral-sounding, legalistic language which works euphemistically or as a gloss. Citizen concerns are fitted into a problem-solution format where the solutions involve engineering technology. The Wal-Mart representatives display their expertise through describing these technological answers. Scientific documents or tests are presented which point to counter-intuitive results. They …


Accounts Of Violence From Arabs And Israelis On Abc-Tv’S Panel Discussion From Jerusalem, Richard Buttny, Donald G. Ellis Mar 2007

Accounts Of Violence From Arabs And Israelis On Abc-Tv’S Panel Discussion From Jerusalem, Richard Buttny, Donald G. Ellis

Communication and Rhetorical Studies - All Scholarship

The North American network, ABC-Television, broadcast the news-panel program, Nightline, from Jerusalem during the beginning days of the Second Intifada. One of the main themes of this discussion was the violence, pain, and trauma—the civilians killed or wounded, the military’s actions, and how it all started. Even the horrible facts of violence must be told or narrated and discussed for its morality, causes, consequences, responsibility, and political ramifications. In this sense, violence is discursive. How violence gets told, how versions get constructed or contested is our focus. Participants used the communicative practices of invoking membership categories and activity terms and …


Drawing On The Words Of Others At Public Hearings: Zoning, Wal-Mart, And The Threat To The Aquifer, Richard Buttny, Jodi R. Cohen Jan 2007

Drawing On The Words Of Others At Public Hearings: Zoning, Wal-Mart, And The Threat To The Aquifer, Richard Buttny, Jodi R. Cohen

Communication and Rhetorical Studies - All Scholarship

This study examines two public hearings on a zoning proposal that would allow the construction of a Super Wal-Mart Center on a field over the town’s aquifer. Many citizens speak out against the zoning change because of the risk to drinking water, as well as other issues. Citizens face the speaker’s problem of how to make their presentations convincing, given the technical matters involved and the fact that Town Board members have likely already heard about these issues. Some speakers draw on the words of others in their presentations. Using another ’s words allows the speaker to cite an authoritative …