Virtual Effects: A Qualitative Research Study on The Influence of Event Context on Genre Use and Genre Knowledge

Megan Rathburn

Advisor: Douglas Eyman, PhD, Department of English

Committee Members: Isidore Dorpenyo, Lourdes Fernandez

Johnson Center, Gold Room, https://gmu.zoom.us/j/92986403798?pwd=eEJSb2FDRityWHZxd1UzZzhva1RSdz09
March 18, 2024, 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM

Abstract:

In the early days of the pandemic, public health protocols cautioned against in-person gatherings to minimize the viral transmission of COVID-19. As a result, the circumstances of business events changed, with many organizers adopting virtual platforms to facilitate executive communication. This dissertation acknowledges that shift and its evolution since, seeking to better understand the practices and perspectives of practitioners routinely engaged with business events today. To do that, it draws from scholarship on assemblage, genre, multimodal rhetorics, and professional writing, conducting a qualitative study focused on six practitioners during the preparation process for two different events, one completely virtual and another largely in person. As the findings of this study suggest, the contexts for an event – specifically the differences between in-person and virtual environments – serve as more than mere components of the rhetorical situations that practitioners will encounter. Instead, they prompt important rhetorical negotiations that can extend our understanding of genre knowledge and the rhetorical strategies this knowledge informs. This dissertation uses the insights of practitioners to propose a framing of genre knowledge based on negotiations stemming from event contexts rather than event texts, arguing for a wider lens to encompass the rhetorical moves practitioners make. It also highlights the medley of genres utilized to prepare for events and analyzes several rhetorical moves specific to events, reinforcing these environments as rich spaces for investigation.