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Written Communication
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Nuclear Information

One Rhetorical Moment in the Construction of the Information Age

CHARLES BAZERMAN

University of California, Santa Barbara

Information is humanly created for human purposes in specific historical situations. This study examines how an anti-nuclear test activist group in the Cold War period, to foster public opposition to government policy, asserted an alternative understanding of information against centralized governmental definitions of information. Such citizen information, validated by citizen scientists to serve the needs and concerns of citizens, pervaded the antiwar, environmental, and consumer movements of the second half of the 20th century. An enthymematic analysis of the newsletter of the Greater St. Louis Citizens' Committee for Nuclear Information and successor journals reveals multiple assumptions embodied in beliefs and practices of citizen information. These beliefs and practices concern threats to everyday life, orientation toward threat-reducing action, large interested institutions that limit access to relevant information, science as an independent and objective source of information, and the responsibilities of a citizen to be informed.

Written Communication, Vol. 18, No. 3, 259-295 (2001)
DOI: 10.1177/0741088301018003002
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