Technical Communication & Culture
With the immense use of technology and methods for explaining technical concepts, the election cycle offers fascinating intersections of technical communication and popular culture. Yet, the election cycle is only one of the many areas possible for analyzing these intersections. Consider the recent financial crisis when so many of us have muddled through economic jargon, trying to understand the complex policies proposed.
Proposals for papers and panels on the intersection of technical communication and popular culture are welcome in areas such as the following:
--Collaboration, structure, and culture: how do geographical location, telecommuting, and/or the actual workplace affect these? How do communication methods or ways we document decisions impact these?
--Philosophies and research methods: do we use or document new methods with advances in technology? Do we create new approaches to the collected data by executing traditional methods with new tools? Do those new tools enable new data to be collected
--Visual theory, information design, and usability, especially of online environments, iPhones, and PDAs.
--Genres and rhetoric: websites, television, white papers, reports, instructions, press releases, legal documents.
--Ideology, ethics, and accessibility: who owns what and how is that explained? Are these documents and spaces accessible?
--Pedagogical implications: how do we “teach” these new methods and genres?
--Culture and translation: how do we communicate and bridge cultural gaps in technical information?
--Events: how do we document the technical aspects of elections, financial crisis, wars, 9/11, natural disasters (post-disaster or preparation)?
Share your ideas and join us for the 30th meeting of the Southwest/Texas Popular and American Culture Associations Conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
February 25-28, 2009
Hyatt Regency, Albuquerque
Visit http://www.swtxpca.org for more details.
Please send a 200-word proposal by December 1, 2008 to Lacy Landrum.
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