Professor Jodi Cohen, Department of Speech Communication, was recently honored with the National Communication Association's "top paper" award in political communication. The 2008 work is a critical analysis of public meetings about environmental risks.
Entitled "The Rhetoric of Risk: Legitimacy, Authenticity, and Sincerity," Professor Cohen's study examines how people construct the meaning of environmental risk in public discussions. The public meetings she studied took place in nearby Cortland, New York, and focused on a proposal to allow a major retail chain to build onto, and potentially pollute, the town's natural water source.
Citizens at the public meetings questioned the credibility of the retailer, even though the stated rules of discourse did not allow the retail chain to be mentioned by name. According to Professor Cohen, the result was a complex rhetorical dynamic that restrained the democratic process and attempted to narrow the meaning of environmental risk.
https://www.ithaca.edu/intercom/article.php/20081217110402156