Shelton Weech
ABSTRACT
Climate science communicators actively use rhetorical strategies as they network online, but such strategies are often tacit and difficult to articulate. This paper offers a mixed-methods approach by which researchers can identify actors in a network and uncover tacit strategies used when communicators expand their networks and communicate across them. Drawing from actor-network theory and assemblage theory, I suggest that pairing snowball sampling and discourse-based interviews provides insight into these tacit knowledges. I describe a study in which I interviewed climate science communicators using these methods, and I offer one result that emerged: participants engaged in a form of identification as they communicated with their audiences. I conclude by offering two takeaways: first, that communicators should make conscious decisions about the building of their networks; and second, that even as they communicate publicly, they should focus on directing messages to specific groups or individuals.
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Index Terms
- Climate Change, Snowball Sampling, and Discourse-based Interviews: A Mixed Method for Studying Networked Rhetorics
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