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Full-Text Articles in Speech and Rhetorical Studies
Networked Expertise In The Era Of Many-To-Many Communication: On Wikipedia And Invention, Damien S. Pfister
Networked Expertise In The Era Of Many-To-Many Communication: On Wikipedia And Invention, Damien S. Pfister
Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications
This essay extends the observations made in E. Johanna Hartelius’ The Rhetoric of Expertise about the nature of expertise in digital contexts. I argue that digital media introduce a scale of communication—many-to-many—that reshapes how the invention of knowledge occurs. By examining how knowledge production on Wikipedia occurs, I illustrate how many-to-many communication introduces a new model of “participatory expertise.” This model of participatory expertise challenges traditional information routines by elevating procedural expertise over subject matter expertise and opening up knowledge production to the many. Additionally, by hosting multiperspectival conversations on Wikipedia, the participatory model of expertise introduces epistemic turbulence into …
The Logos Of The Blogosphere: Flooding The Zone, Invention, And Attention In The Lott Imbroglio, Damien S. Pfister
The Logos Of The Blogosphere: Flooding The Zone, Invention, And Attention In The Lott Imbroglio, Damien S. Pfister
Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications
This essay examines the significance of a particular metaphor, flooding the zone, which gained prominence as an account of bloggers' argumentative prowess in the wake of Senator Trent Lott's toast at Strom Thurmond's centennial birthday party. I situate the growth of the blogosphere in the context of the political economy of the institutional mass media at the time and argue that the blogosphere is an alternative site for the invention of public argument. By providing an account of how the blogosphere serves as a site of invention by flooding the zone with densely interlinked coverage of a controversy, this essay …