Making decisions about communication technologies: a rhetorical decision method

This dissertation focuses on how people make decisions about communication technologies and draws on theories from rhetoric, decision making, communication studies, and technology as well as scholarship from others who address the subjects of technology and communication together. These theories provide the basis for proposing a rhetorical decision method for making decisions about communication technologies.

The method includes five steps: (1) assessment of the decision situation and the potential audience's needs; (2) complex analysis of audience and the contextual factors that influence a decision situation; (3) identification of influences (agencies) that suade the decision maker, including processes, kinds of data, influential people or groups, etc.; (4) determination of how to articulate the decision and examination of whether implementation of the decision reflects the articulation; and (5) examination of the response of the audience based on feedback from users.