Technical Communication Quarterly Oct 2023

Agentive assemblages in online patient spaces

Shanna Cameron University of Memphis

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article engages with TPC scholarship that calls for increased attention to agency as distributed and interdependent. This study analyzes 320 postings in one online health forum to better understand how patients come together to collaborate with one another, distribute information, and make health decisions. I argue that viewing crowdsourced forums as agentive assemblages may help researchers explain both the agency of individual actors as well as the collective agency of groups over time.KEYWORDS: Agencyassemblagescommunityembodimentempowermentonline health AcknowledgementsThe author would like to thank Katherine Fredlund, Alexandra Russell, Elizabeth Lane, Bess Myers, William Duffy, Edward Maclin, Kimberly Hensley Owens, and Julie Homchick Crowe, as well as the two anonymous reviewers and the editorial staff at TCQ, for their kind and valuable suggestions on early drafts of this article.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.Additional informationNotes on contributorsShanna CameronShanna Cameron is a Ph.D. candidate in the Writing, Rhetoric, and Technical Communication program at the University of Memphis. Her research interests include feminist theories and practices, digital rhetorics, and the rhetoric of health and medicine. Her work has also appeared in the Journal of Technical Writing and Communication.

Journal
Technical Communication Quarterly
Published
2023-10-02
DOI
10.1080/10572252.2022.2162133
CompPile
Open Access
Closed
Topics
Export
BibTeX RIS

Citation context

Cited by in this index (1)

  1. Cameron (2023)
    Amplifying Diverse Narratives of Social Support in Online Health Design
    Communication Design Quarterly

References (61) · 25 in this index

  1. Alexander et al. (2021)
    Health and Wellness as Resistance: Tactical Folk Medicine
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  2. Arduser (2011)
    Warp and Weft: Weaving the Discussion Threads of an Online Community
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  3. 10.2307/j.ctvw1d7ss
     ↗
  4. Bakke (2019)
    Trust-Building in a Patient Forum: The Interplay of Professional and Personal E…
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  5. Bay J. L. (2004)
    JAC
Show all 61 →
  1. Bellwoar (2012)
    Everyday Matters: Reception and Use as Productive Design of Health-Related Texts
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  2. 10.1215/9780822391623
     ↗
  3. Bivens K. M. (2018)
    Kairos
  4. Booher A. K. (2018)
    Feminist rhetorical science studies: Human bodies, posthumanist worlds
  5. Clinkenbeard (2020)
    A Posthuman Approach to Agency, Disability, and Technology in Social Interactions
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  6. Colton et al. (2018)
    A Social Justice Theory of Active Equality for Technical Communication
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  7. Cooper (2011)
    Rhetorical Agency as Emergent and Enacted
    College Composition and Communication
  8. Cooper, D. B. & Menefee, G. W. (2022). Dilation and curettage. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/bo…
  9. De Hertogh L. B. (2015)
    Ada: A Journal of Gender, New Media, and Technology
  10. DeLanda M. (2006)
    A new philosophy of society: Assemblage theory and social complexity
  11. Deleuze G. (1987)
    A thousand plateaus: Capitalism and schizophrenia
  12. 10.2147/IJWH.S165474
     ↗
  13. 10.1177/0308518X15603222
     ↗
  14. Edenfield et al. (2019)
    Queering Tactical Technical Communication: DIY HRT
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  15. 10.1177/1049732305281944
     ↗
  16. 10.7330/9781607329855
     ↗
  17. Frost et al. (2021)
    Reimagining the Boundaries of Health and Medical Discourse in Technical Communication
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  18. Geisler (2004)
    How ought we to understand the concept of rhetorical agency? Report from the ARS
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  19. 10.1016/S1701-2163(15)30413-8
     ↗
  20. Graham (2009)
    Agency and the Rhetoric of Medicine: Biomedical Brain Scans and the Ontology of…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  21. Harper (2021)
    Tired as a Mutha: Black Mother Activists and the Fight for Affordable Housing a…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  22. 10.2307/358177
     ↗
  23. Hensley Owens K. (2015)
    Writing childbirth: Women’s rhetorical agency in labor and online
  24. Holladay (2017)
    Classified Conversations: Psychiatry and Tactical Technical Communication in On…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  25. 10.1093/humrep/deab126.069
     ↗
  26. 10.1093/humupd/dmt045
     ↗
  27. Jarvis (2021)
    Invitational Rhetoric in Epistemic Practice: Invitational Knowledge in Infertil…
    Rhetoric of Health and Medicine
  28. 10.5325/j.ctv14gp26x
     ↗
  29. Johnson M. (2015)
    Peitho Journal
  30. Johnson et al. (2020)
    “Sticky Baby Dust” and Emoji: Social Support on Instagram during In Vitro Ferti…
    Rhetoric of Health and Medicine
  31. Jones (2017)
    Rhetorical Narratives of Black Entrepreneurs: The Business of Race, Agency, and…
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  32. Kessler et al. (2018)
    Terminal node problems: ANT 2.0 and prescription drug labels
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  33. Kimball (2006)
    Cars, Culture, and Tactical Technical Communication
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  34. Kimball (2017)
    Tactical Technical Communication
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  35. Koerber (2006)
    Rhetorical Agency, Resistance, and the Disciplinary Rhetorics of Breastfeeding
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  36. Latour B. (2005)
    Reassembling the social: An introduction to actor–network theory
     ↗
  37. Lohmann-Bigelow J. (2007)
    The Ochsner Journal
  38. March C. M. (2005)
    Presentation at 60th annual ASRHP clinical meeting in
  39. 10.1016/j.rbmo.2010.11.018
     ↗
  40. 10.4135/9781473983045
     ↗
  41. Miller (2007)
    What Can Automation Tell Us About Agency?
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  42. Milroy L. (1980)
    Language and social networks
  43. Molloy et al. (2018)
    A Dialogue on Possibilities for Embodied Methodologies in the Rhetoric of Healt…
    Rhetoric of Health and Medicine
  44. 10.4324/9781351203074
     ↗
  45. 10.1016/j.xfre.2021.01.002
     ↗
  46. National Institutes of Health (NIH). (2017). Faqs about rare diseases. Retrieved from https://rarediseases.in…
  47. 10.7330/9781607329855.c002
     ↗
  48. 10.1080/14649365.2017.1420212
     ↗
  49. 10.1007/s11013-017-9522-2
     ↗
  50. 10.4324/9781351203074-5
     ↗
  51. Scott et al. (2020)
    Editorial Reflections
    Rhetoric of Health and Medicine
  52. Segal (2009)
    Internet Health and the 21st-Century Patient: A Rhetorical View
    Written Communication
  53. 10.1111/ajo.13182
     ↗
  54. Walkup et al. (2018)
    Health Ecologies in Addiction Treatment: Rhetoric of Health and Medicine and Co…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  55. 10.4324/9780429198748
     ↗
  56. World Health Organization. (2007). Health products policy and standards. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/t…
CrossRef global citation count: 2 View in citation network → Build reading path →

Related articles

  1. Pedagogy Apr 2025
    Contributors ↗
    modern rhetorical theory rhetorical criticism african american rhetorics cultural rhetorics first-year composition writing pedagogy basic writing graduate education two-year college teacher development writing centers technical communication professional writing labor and working conditions digital rhetoric multimodality social media literacy studies race and writing gender and writing community literacy literary studies editorial matter
  2. Pedagogy Apr 2023
    Contributors ↗
    rhetorical criticism first-year composition writing pedagogy creative writing graduate education two-year college service learning teacher development writing centers technical communication professional writing labor and working conditions digital rhetoric multimodality race and writing gender and writing literary studies editorial matter
  3. Pedagogy Apr 2022
    Contributors ↗
    rhetorical criticism writing pedagogy creative writing writing across the curriculum teacher development collaborative writing assessment writing program administration technical communication professional writing digital rhetoric literacy studies gender and writing disability studies literary studies book reviews editorial matter
  4. Pedagogy Jan 2022
    Contributors ↗
    modern rhetorical theory rhetorical criticism genre theory discourse analysis african american rhetorics decolonial rhetorics first-year composition writing pedagogy basic writing writing across the curriculum graduate education teacher development argument collaborative writing transfer assessment portfolios writing program administration writing centers peer tutoring technical communication professional writing archival research digital rhetoric social media grammar and mechanics literacy studies race and writing gender and writing disability studies public rhetoric community literacy literary studies editorial matter
  5. Pedagogy Oct 2025
    Contributors ↗
    modern rhetorical theory rhetorical criticism genre theory cultural rhetorics first-year composition writing pedagogy advanced composition creative writing writing across the curriculum graduate education two-year college service learning teacher development technical communication professional writing labor and working conditions archival research multimodality artificial intelligence literacy studies race and writing gender and writing disability studies literary studies editorial matter