Now Presenting: The Search for Alternative Voices

In our attempts to respond to nature's signals, we clearly need the help of new voices, and I recently gave a presentation on how critical rhetoric allows us to identify these alternative perspectives.

Much of my research in environmental communication focuses on rhetoric, especially one approach to rhetorical criticism called critical rhetoric. When I was asked to deliver a presentation for the Humanities Research Forum Series at the University of South Dakota, I brought together several papers in which I had employed critical rhetoric. Below, you can view the Prezi I used to present my presentation aids for the talk:

Critical rhetoric challenges power by deconstructing meaning and identifying and advocating for marginalized voices. That focus makes it particularly useful as environmental communication scholars pursue new ways of articulating the relationship between humans and nature.

The Prezi above addresses several key aspects of the presentation I gave on critical rhetoric's potential. First, it explains the value of laying out environmental discourse about the human-nature relationship on a continuum. Part of the continuum addresses discourses found in newspaper coverage of global warming. These discourses include nature-as-out-of reach, nature-as-antagonist, and nature-as-co-present, the latter of which represents an important alternative perspective that challenges its more dominant counterparts. Next, the continuum adds components through an analysis of the Web site, The Featured Creature. Together, the discourses from the newspaper coverage and The Featured Creature provide a fuller picture of the human-nature relationship. 

The presentation also discusses how an analysis of The Nature Conservancy's Liquid Courage Web site suggests that elements of physical distance can be added to a public participation model to enhance research into environmental communication. Liquid Courage demonstrates the value of physical-distance elements in our relationship with nature.

As our environmental issues grow more complex and the urgency to address them increases, critical rhetoric presents us with an important tool in finding the voices that can help us respond to environmental signals.

Knowing the Unknowns

In the animal world, for every star species, many exist that receive little or no attention.

We love animals like whales, penguins, and big cats, and when we consider how environmental issues impact nature, we tend to do so by focusing on these charismatic species. While this provides an important connection with nature, it limits our understanding of the environment and neglects many species.

Carly Brooke works to widen our scope of understanding by drawing attention to unusual, unnoticed, unpopular, and ignored species on her Web site, The Featured Creature. Species by species, the site gives the spotlight to animals that ordinarily wouldn't have it. To check out Carly's great work, click here. You can also watch her encounter with and discussion of a giant sea hare below:



Beyond highlighting species that we don't know much about, The Featured Creature lets us fill in the pieces of the bigger picture. We can only learn so much about the environment if we concentrate on charismatic species. By becoming more familiar with the entire world of animals, we better understand how all species, including humans, interact with each other.

Nature has no bit roles, so we should get to know all its actors.