This article uses theories of space and findability to analyze a public information center as an example of multi-modal risk communication. The Yucca Mountain Information Center is an informational space created by the Department of Energy to inform the public about the proposed nuclear waste repository planned for Yucca Mountain, Nevada. As a public space, the Center uses fact sheets, posters, and three-dimensional displays to make arguments about the storage of nuclear waste; we argue that the physical space, text, displays, and online space are all elements of risk communication. We offer a new way to read these elements of risk communication and suggest potential opportunities for public agency.
References
1.
TilleryD., The Problem of Nuclear Waste: Ethos and Scientific Evidence in a High-Stakes Public Controversy, IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, 45, pp. 325–334, 2006.
2.
GrabillJ. T. and SimmonsW. M., Toward a Critical Rhetoric of Risk Communication: Producing Citizens and the Role of Technical Communicators, Technical Communication Quarterly, 7, pp. 415–441, 1998.
3.
MillerC., Learning from History: World War II and the Culture of High Technology, Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 12, pp. 288–315, 1998.
4.
MillerC., The Presumption of Expertise: The Role of Ethos in Risk Analysis, Configurations11, pp. 163–202, 2004.
5.
KatzS. B. and MillerC., The Low-Level Radioactive Waste Siting Controversy in North Carolina: Toward a Rhetorical Model of Risk Communication, in Green Culture: Environmental Rhetoric in Contemporary America, HerndlC. G. and BrownS. C. (eds.), University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, pp. 111–140, 1996.
6.
WaddellC., Saving the Great Lakes: Public Participation in Environmental Policy, in Green Culture: Environmental Rhetoric in Contemporary America, HerndlC. G. and BrownS. C. (eds.), University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, pp. 141–165, 1996.
7.
DaytonD., Evaluating Environmental Impact Statements as Communicative Action, Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 16, pp. 355–405, 2002.
8.
MadanipourA., Design of Urban Space: An Inquiry into a Socio-Spatial Process, John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1996.
9.
ZeviB., Architecture in Space: How to Look at Architecture, Horizon Press, New York, 1957.
10.
CarmonaM., Public Places—Urban Spaces: The Dimensions of Urban Design, Architectural Press, Oxford, 2003.
11.
SircusJ., Invented Places, Prospect, 81, pp. 30–35, 2001.
12.
MorvilleP., Ambient Findability: What We Find Changes Who We Become, O'Reilly Press, Farnham, 2005.
HirshS. and DinkleakerJ., Seeking Information in Order to Produce Information: An Empirical Study at Hewlett Packard Labs, Journal for the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 55, pp. 807–818, 2004.
15.
NagelhoutE., Assessing Professional Writing Programs Using Technology as a Site of Praxis (with Jeffrey Jablonski), in Assessment in Technical and Professional Communication, AllenJ. and HundlebyM. (eds.), Baywood, Amityville, New York, pp. 224–249, 2008.
16.
NagelhoutE., Contrastive Rhetoric: Reaching to Intercultural Rhetoric, Pragmatics and Beyond Series, ConnorU. and RozyckiW. (eds.), John Benjamins Publishing, Amsterdam, 2008.
17.
StaggersJ., Teaching the Air Midwest Case: A Stakeholder Approach to Deliberative Technical Rhetoric (with Meredith Zoetewey), IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, 47, pp. 233–243, 2004.
18.
StaggersJ., Learning with Limits: New Faculty and Course Management Software (with Meredith Zoetewey, Michael Pennell), in Content Management: Bridging the Gap between Theory and Practice, Baywood, Amityville, New York, pp. 57–70, 2008.
19.
TilleryD., The Problem of Nuclear Waste: Ethos and Scientific Evidence in a High-Stakes Public Controversy, IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, 45, pp. 325–334, 2006.
20.
TilleryD., Start State, End State: Trajectories of Graduate Study for and by Technical Communicators (with Brenda Camp Orbell), in Culture Shock and the Practice of Profession: Training the Next Wave in Rhetoric and Composition, RomanoS. and AndersonV. (eds.), Hampton Press, Cresskill, New Jersey, pp. 61–81, 2006.
