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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 …