Papers by Damien Smith Pfister
This article argues for closer dialogue between the work of Kenneth Burke and contemporary posthu... more This article argues for closer dialogue between the work of Kenneth Burke and contemporary posthumanist philosophers, especially in the context of the small technologies of ubiquitous computing. A Burkean critique of commercial advertisements for the Motorola Droid phone demonstrates the potency of rhetorical criticism in unpacking the tropes of what I call “corporate posthumanism.” Informed by contemporary posthumanist philosophers and critical theorists of technology, I depart from Burke’s too-sweeping claims about technology to identify a “critical posthumanist” practice that can be found in the “check-in.” By analogizing “checking
in” through mobile phone technologies to canine marking strategies, I show
how critical theories of technology ought to account for both the instrumentalizing and animalizing tendencies of digital media. The conclusion emphasizes the need for critical posthumanism to embrace a Burkean critique of efficiency, dramatistic analysis, and for a “definition of the animal (in a posthumanist spirit).”
This essay theorizes the unnaturalistic enthymeme, an emergent argument formation surrounding ana... more This essay theorizes the unnaturalistic enthymeme, an emergent argument formation surrounding analogico-digital photography. Instead of presuming the naturalism of images, we contend that contemporary audiences have a heightened awareness of the ways that digital photography is altered. Drawing on the quadripartita ratio, or four categories of change associated with rhetorical figuration, we explore a series of image controversies that denaturalize assumptions about photographic realism. We examine how contemporary protesters respond to this shift in interpretive conventions by making the unnaturalistic enthymeme visible through culture jamming commercial billboards. The unnaturalistic enthymeme does not supplant the naturalistic enthymeme, but instead enables a “hypersophistic” attitude in visual culture—one that decides the veridicality of photographs through argument instead of assumptions about technological objectivity.
This study examines the presence and distribution of George Lakoff's Strict Father and Nurturant ... more This study examines the presence and distribution of George Lakoff's Strict Father and Nurturant Parent paradigms of moral reasoning in presidential campaign advertisements between 1952 and 2012. Results show that Republicans outpace Democrats in the general use of moral reasoning and that Republicans are far more likely to use Strict Father language than Democrats. The study found no difference in the use of Strict Father= Nurturant Parent morality throughout history, during times of war and recession, or if the candidate was an incumbent. The Strict Father and Nurturant Parent models of moral reasoning were also evaluated based on their relationship to political issues. Findings reveal that Democrats actively avoid Nurturant Parent reasoning when discussing specific social programs.
Part 1 of this manuscript is a dramatization of five rhetorical scenes that take the Occupy pheno... more 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 Occupy Movement. The footnotes throughout the dramatization anchor scholarly observations in Part 2 of the manuscript, a "footnote essay" which develops the concept of "networked public screens."
Rhetoric Review, 2014
Oral history projects about rhetorical studies contribute to transdisciplinary histories by creat... more Oral history projects about rhetorical studies contribute to transdisciplinary histories by creating living texts that reflect the dynamism of scholarly cultures. Through interviews conducted at the twentieth anniversary of the founding of the Association for the Rhetoric of Science and Technology (ARST), we chart the organizational and intellectual history of a field, its contributions to science studies, and its potential future directions. These digitized, archived oral histories serve as an articulation point for transdisciplinary reflection, but they also represent an important strand of digital humanities work that creates living texts and keeps them open for future articulations.
Environmental Communication, 2015
This essay uses the concept of “avian consciousness” to reconsider assumptions about human commun... more This essay uses the concept of “avian consciousness” to reconsider assumptions about human communication and theorize networked rhetorics. By adopting an ornithomorphic frame, I critically read Don DeLillo’s The Body Artist as an exploration of overlaps between human and avian consciousness. I then argue that avian consciousness provides a richer metaphor for understanding networked rhetorics than autistic consciousness, which is an increasingly dominant trope for explaining interaction with digitally networked media. I explore how Twitter, explicitly modeled on avian communication, can be understood as circulating information in ways analogous to the contact and assembly calls of birds. The essay concludes by noting that seeing avian features in human communication diminishes the perceived gap between human and nonhuman animal, holding out hope for a more bioegalitarian relationship between species.
Cultural Studies <=> Critical Methodologies, 2013
"Part 1 of this manuscript is a dramatization of five rhetorical scenes that take the Occupy phen... more "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 Occupy Movement. The footnotes throughout the dramatization anchor scholarly observations in Part 2 of the manuscript, a “footnote essay” which develops the concept of “networked public screens.”"
In this Introduction to the Symposium, we articulate a reframing of Larry Diamond's (2010) progra... more In this Introduction to the Symposium, we articulate a reframing of Larry Diamond's (2010) program of "liberation technology" around the idea of "deliberation technology." Although the liberation technology program has been useful in supplying dissidents with a basic communication infrastructure during the various revolutions of the 2011 Arab Spring, we briefly examine the cases of Tunisia and Egypt in order to show how deliberative vacuums have arisen after regime change. We then introduce each of the four Symposium submissions with the hopes that a program of deliberation technology might contribute to the strengthening of democratic practice around the world.
Title page for ETD etd-04082009-135559. ( Browse | Search ) All Available ETDs. Type of Document,... more Title page for ETD etd-04082009-135559. ( Browse | Search ) All Available ETDs. Type of Document, Dissertation. Author, Pfister, Damien Smith. URN, etd-04082009-135559. Title, Toward a Grammar of the Blogosphere: Rhetoric and Attention in the Networked Imaginary. ...
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We offer four theses about how intercultural communication is altered in a digitally networked... more "
We offer four theses about how intercultural communication is altered in a digitally networked era. Digital media shape intercultural communication by (1) producing new public fora capable of (2) hosting rich, multimodal “spaces” of contact on (3) a scale of many-to-many communication that (4) challenges traditional modes of representation."
Can student-driven public debate depolarize fragmented societies by cultivating democratic ethos ... more Can student-driven public debate depolarize fragmented societies by cultivating democratic ethos and promoting political accountability? Post-communist transitions in Southeast Europe are rich sites to study the political impact of student-driven public deliberation. Public debate pedagogy conducted under the auspices of the Southeast European Youth Leadership Institute (SEEYLI) presents a useful case study to explore this issue. From 2001-2005, SEEYLI taught hundreds of young people about debate and civil society. SEEYLI participants, in conjunction with local social movements, then fueled public debate projects as vehicles of political transformation in Albania, Bulgaria, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Romania. By recounting these unique deployments of public debate in broader spheres of public deliberation, this essay considers the possibilities and limits of applied public debate praxis as a driver of democratic change and response to the social phenomenon of "balkanization."
This essay extends the observations made in E. Johanna Hartelius’ The Rhetoric of Expertise about... more 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 traditionally tranquil encyclopedia culture.
This essay examines the significance of a particular metaphor, flooding the zone, which gained pr... more 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 theorizes how the networked public sphere facilitates invention with speed, agonism, and copiousness. The essay then identifies how flooding the zone has been adopted by corporations and the state in order to blunt spontaneous argumentation emerging from the periphery of communication networks. Key Words: networked public sphere, blogging, invention, Habermas, astroturfing
This introductory essay to the special issue of Argumentation and Advocacy on Public Argument/Dig... more This introductory essay to the special issue of Argumentation and Advocacy on Public Argument/Digital Media makes the case for a sustained interrogation of digitally-networked argumentation practices. To complement current scholarship on how new forms of digital mediation produce group polarization and truthiness, I suggest that argumentation scholars look at digital media as a rich source for the production and criticism of argument. Each of the essays in the special issue is then introduced by examining five cross-cutting themes that argumentation scholars may consider when examining how digital media produce networked argument practices: interactivity, instantaneity, scale, archiving, and search. Key Words: digital media, networked argument practices, polarization, truthiness
Syllabi by Damien Smith Pfister
" Contentious " is a doubly valenced word: it connotes both " strifing " and " striving. " Those ... more " Contentious " is a doubly valenced word: it connotes both " strifing " and " striving. " Those practicing rhetorical arts have historically been seen as contentious in the first sense: sowing strife through agonism, play, and dissoi logoi—especially around the terms that we see as central to our activity. Rhetorical theorists draw on this heritage to make contentions in the second sense, striving to sharpen our conceptual vocabulary for apprehending communication in all the weirdly diverse ways that it manifests. This graduate course focuses on contentious terms in rhetorical theory past and present: terms that animate fiery scholarly conversations, stimulate competition among different schools of thought, demand clarification and complication of founding assumptions, stretch the boundaries of rhetorical knowledge in new directions, and spark new theoretical insights that help us see the world differently. Rhetoric's history is populated with terms that are essentially contested and essentially contestable; the task of the course is to help students enter this broader contest of rhetorical theory with their own unique contributions.
What are the implications of our “always on” culture? What will advances in
robotics and artifici... more What are the implications of our “always on” culture? What will advances in
robotics and artificial intelligence mean for humans? How will increasingly
immersive media environments shape human relations with other humans and non-humans? What impact does hyperpublicity have on reputation,
interpersonal relationships, and civic affairs? How is the internet changing
patterns of surveillance and voyeurism? Is “digital immortality” something to strive for or resist? How will new technologies help us love and hate better? These questions—and many more like them—are (or are soon to be) pressing issues that demand thoughtful responses. Technology and Digital Culture will explore these questions in the context of Black Mirror, a BBC/Netflix series about the near future.
Ancient and Medieval Rhetorical Theory aims to revive broad interest in the ancients as a source ... more Ancient and Medieval Rhetorical Theory aims to revive broad interest in the ancients as a source of wisdom for contemporary communication and culture. We will take ancient rhetoricians (and their critics) on their own terms, trying to situate their work historically and culturally. We will also investigate how insights from ancient rhetoric might serve as a surprising guide to navigating our contemporary, digital media ecology. In the tradition of ancient pedagogies, this seminar-style course relies heavily on student participation and culminates in a final research project that demonstrates rhetorical acumen.
What hopes and fears did early theorists of mass communication media have about radio, film, and ... more What hopes and fears did early theorists of mass communication media have about radio, film, and television? How were those hopes and fears refracted through the rise of fascism and World War II? How did postwar thinking about communication technology reflect a continued concern for the intersections of mass culture and propaganda, and what new directions did media research take in the late 20 th century? Is there a resonance between early thinking about mass communication and more contemporary digital media technologies? In what ways might contemporary theories of digital media ecologies overlap with and depart from early mass media theory? Despite the early celebration of digitality as an enhancement of democracy, might new media technologies actually be abetting a revival of fascism?
These are the questions that Media, Technology, and Culture will explore. Of course, the backdrop of this course is the 2016 election of Donald J. Trump as President of the United States, which has revived interest in the influence and confluence of culture industries, propaganda and fake news, fascist rhetorics and movements, the role of media technology in standardizing and controlling behavior, and messaging that manipulates affects.
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Papers by Damien Smith Pfister
in” through mobile phone technologies to canine marking strategies, I show
how critical theories of technology ought to account for both the instrumentalizing and animalizing tendencies of digital media. The conclusion emphasizes the need for critical posthumanism to embrace a Burkean critique of efficiency, dramatistic analysis, and for a “definition of the animal (in a posthumanist spirit).”
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 Occupy Movement. The footnotes throughout the dramatization anchor scholarly observations in Part 2 of the manuscript, a “footnote essay” which develops the concept of “networked public screens.”"
We offer four theses about how intercultural communication is altered in a digitally networked era. Digital media shape intercultural communication by (1) producing new public fora capable of (2) hosting rich, multimodal “spaces” of contact on (3) a scale of many-to-many communication that (4) challenges traditional modes of representation."
Syllabi by Damien Smith Pfister
robotics and artificial intelligence mean for humans? How will increasingly
immersive media environments shape human relations with other humans and non-humans? What impact does hyperpublicity have on reputation,
interpersonal relationships, and civic affairs? How is the internet changing
patterns of surveillance and voyeurism? Is “digital immortality” something to strive for or resist? How will new technologies help us love and hate better? These questions—and many more like them—are (or are soon to be) pressing issues that demand thoughtful responses. Technology and Digital Culture will explore these questions in the context of Black Mirror, a BBC/Netflix series about the near future.
These are the questions that Media, Technology, and Culture will explore. Of course, the backdrop of this course is the 2016 election of Donald J. Trump as President of the United States, which has revived interest in the influence and confluence of culture industries, propaganda and fake news, fascist rhetorics and movements, the role of media technology in standardizing and controlling behavior, and messaging that manipulates affects.
in” through mobile phone technologies to canine marking strategies, I show
how critical theories of technology ought to account for both the instrumentalizing and animalizing tendencies of digital media. The conclusion emphasizes the need for critical posthumanism to embrace a Burkean critique of efficiency, dramatistic analysis, and for a “definition of the animal (in a posthumanist spirit).”
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 Occupy Movement. The footnotes throughout the dramatization anchor scholarly observations in Part 2 of the manuscript, a “footnote essay” which develops the concept of “networked public screens.”"
We offer four theses about how intercultural communication is altered in a digitally networked era. Digital media shape intercultural communication by (1) producing new public fora capable of (2) hosting rich, multimodal “spaces” of contact on (3) a scale of many-to-many communication that (4) challenges traditional modes of representation."
robotics and artificial intelligence mean for humans? How will increasingly
immersive media environments shape human relations with other humans and non-humans? What impact does hyperpublicity have on reputation,
interpersonal relationships, and civic affairs? How is the internet changing
patterns of surveillance and voyeurism? Is “digital immortality” something to strive for or resist? How will new technologies help us love and hate better? These questions—and many more like them—are (or are soon to be) pressing issues that demand thoughtful responses. Technology and Digital Culture will explore these questions in the context of Black Mirror, a BBC/Netflix series about the near future.
These are the questions that Media, Technology, and Culture will explore. Of course, the backdrop of this course is the 2016 election of Donald J. Trump as President of the United States, which has revived interest in the influence and confluence of culture industries, propaganda and fake news, fascist rhetorics and movements, the role of media technology in standardizing and controlling behavior, and messaging that manipulates affects.
Consequently, we now live in information abundant times: by 2020, 40 zettabytes (that’s 40 trillion gigabytes) of information will be created each year. Information is all around us—what we need are some tools to make sense of it all.
One of the oldest tools to make sense of information is the art of rhetoric. Rhetoric developed as a systematized art when humans realized the centrality of persuasion to collective affairs. While some principles like magnetism or water displacement can be demonstrated, other principles, like the values that should guide our decision-making, are not manifested so easily. They are, instead, argued over. This is the realm of rhetoric. Rhetoric straddles logic and poetics, relying on artful symbol use to craft the attention patterns of audiences in order to move them toward specific ways of thinking, feeling, being, and acting.
Questions of rhetorical effectiveness are inevitably bound up with mediation. Different media allow for different kinds of expressivity. A speech differs from a book differs from a blog differs from a movie. But what impact do those differences have on communication? Understanding the history of media technologies, from the voice to the internet, can help answer that question.
Both rhetoric and media shape civic life. Although the dominant view of civic life is associated with voting, legislation, and community associations, we might instead see civic life as unfolding in informal networks of interaction as well. In this view, newspapers and blogs, bowling leagues and discussion forums, the family dinner table and even the latest app are sites of civic life. Civic life is forged through communication—which means that it is strengthened or weakened based on the quality of communication.
To apprehend the contours of cosmopolitan public argument and the global public sphere requires careful study of national public spheres and contemporary argumentation theory. This course begins with a close reading of Jürgen Habermas’ The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere. Habermas’ prolific engagement with the idea of publicity continues to resonate with contemporary conversations about the nature of publics and their problems in a global era. Indeed, the core concept of the “public sphere” continues to animate communication scholarship, especially late 20th century argumentation theory, featured in the second third of the course. Our engagement with historical and contemporary scholarship on public argument and deliberation will prepare us to consider the possibilities and characteristics of cosmopolitan public argument and a global public sphere in the last part of the course.
studies, rhetoric of technology, digital humanities, and critical animal/insect studies.
Students will increase their ability to interpret visual information by (1) increasing understanding of how images shape contemporary culture; (2) enhancing appreciation of how images select and deflect rather than merely reflect reality; and (3) expanding the analytical vocabulary for understanding and criticizing images. Students will increase their ability to create visual information by (4) learning the basics of digital image production and circulation; and (5) producing images to influence others’ attitudes.
“In Networked Media, Networked Rhetorics, Damien Pfister tells a compelling and consequential story of the rise of the blogosphere from an obscure technology to a powerful mode of communication capable of unseating senators and revealing the horrors of war. Pfister focuses on key moments in the early blogosphere to explain how it has remade public discourse, reframed emotion, and reconfigured expertise. He adroitly blends contemporary analyses of public discourse with innovative interpretations of classical rhetorical terminology. Pfister’s book offers important lessons for scholars in rhetoric, deliberation, and technology studies, as well as anyone interested in learning how the blogosphere has produced a powerful connection between deliberation in public squares and personal computer keyboards.”
—Robert Asen, University of Wisconsin–Madison