Over the past 25 years or so, celebrities have appeared on American late night talk shows to respond to social issue crises that threaten their reputations and careers. This study examines 10 celebrity appearances in this comedy genre to better understand how the late night talk show functions discursively in crisis communication with respect to humour messaging strategy. The analysis finds that, rather than using humorous messaging strategies to deal with their crises, TV show hosts and guests downplay humour to project sincerity—even in response to less serious situations. Furthermore, the live studio audience faces scolding for the typical reactions expected of live studio audiences—cheering, clapping, laughing—that may reduce the celebrity’s sincerity. This study argues that these behaviours suggest that humour should be avoided even in less serious reputational crises. Finally, the article speculates why a celebrity would choose a funny television talk show—an unusual venue for crisis communication—to respond to a reputational crisis that is no laughing matter.
This study examines the affordances of Facebook and Twitter as knowledge translation tools in pediatric rehabilitation and potentially other fields of research. Findings from content and discourse analyses of a private Facebook group and public Twitter account suggest that social media facilitates engagement and collaboration with stakeholders. Implementation of dialogic communication principles on Twitter increases the exposure, reach, and engagement of a network. Establishing an online community on Facebook develops a common understanding of issues, builds relationships and the promotes stakeholder involvement in research. By acknowledging the affordances of the two social media platforms, researchers can consider using Twitter for end-of-grant KT and Facebook groups for integrated knowledge translation. ©Journal of Professional Communication, all rights reserved.
The increasing numbers of trade articles about the almost trademark “Columbo Method” evidences a growing phenomenon. As demonstrated by the fictional television detective of Columbo 1968-2003, the method is an approach to investigation characterized by rhetorical inquiry (system of questions and timing), an antipotent persona (nonauthoritative, unassuming Everyman), and tenacity in overcoming a responder’s resistance to collaboration or influence. The essay provides a theoretical analysis of Columbo’s informed but indirect questioning, pretense of ignorance, solicitation of help, folksy congeniality, and the false exit. A literature review presents applications of the Columbo Method by professionals to describe effective workplace interaction with resistant responders (conflicting values or allegiances, lifestyle and demographic differences, shyness, anxiety, fear of change, etc.). Third, the theory is applied in an in-depth rhetorical analysis of cases of communication in academia. Most importantly, the work strives to make an impact in ethical approaches to communication with implications for developing rhetorical pedagogy. ©Journal of Professional Communication, all rights reserved.
This study examines the influencers with the specific interest of parenting during a specific period in early 2017 when what were then called ‘Mommy Bloggers’ were charging public relations firms and the brands they represent upwards of $2,000 per blog post to write favourable product reviews. Findings revealed their business model and ability to continue selling their audience as a commodity was in jeopardy as audience trust in bloggers was on the decline compared to any other information source about brands; new, albeit vague, regulations (not laws) required the blogger to disclose any commercial relationship; and qualitative studies revealed audience negative opinion of the takeover of commercial content and resulting lost sense of community. Using determinants of authenticity as a measure of a blogger’s ability to maintain her audience with a personal narrative, a quantitative content analysis of 290 blog posts published by 30 of the top parenting bloggers in Canada was used to demonstrate with correlations that paid content was threatening authenticity and that a blogger’s legitimacy as an influencer was being weakened by commercial content. ©Journal of Professional Communication, all rights reserved.
Current literature shows that poor and unclear writing is a significant barrier for non-academic audiences. Readability research is a growing interest among STEM and health science fields; however, the humanities and social science disciplines are neglected. To address this gap, articles from the humanities and social science disciplines were analyzed using the Flesch Reading Ease (FRE) and the Gunning FOG Index (GFI) readability tests. Results show that the FRE mean score for all analyzed articles is 29.04, and the total GFI mean score is 18.02, meaning they are extremely difficult to read and often require a post-secondary education for adequate comprehension. Empirically driven, quantitative articles had no significant difference in readability than sense-making, qualitive articles. Results also show that the humanities and social sciences have readability similar or equivalent to STEM and health science fields. ©Journal of Professional Communication, all rights reserved.
