Rhet Ops: Rhetoric and Information Warfare(Composition, Literacy, and Culture)

In this edited volume, authors seek to document and analyze how state and non-state actors leverage digital rhetoric as a twenty-first-century weapon of war. Rhet Ops offer readers a chance to focus on the human dimension of rhetorical practice within mobile technologies and social networks: to reflect not only on the durable question of what it means to conduct oneself ethically as a speaker or writer, but also what it means to learn the art of rhetoric as a means to engage adversaries in war and conflict.

About the Author :
Jim Ridolfo is an associate professor of writing, rhetoric, and digital studies at the University of Kentucky. Bill Hart-Davidson is a professor of writing, rhetoric, and American cultures at Michigan State University.

Review :
Rhet-Ops deserves your attention as a scholar and a citizen. If ever there was a book that illustrated the relevance of writing studies, this is it. A sobering account of the power of rhetoric to do harm, this volume reminds readers that knowledge and deployment of rhetorical strategies can literally cost lives. . . . But this rhetoric can also save lives. Rhet Ops is timely, and the volume offers multiple points for readers to reflect upon, including perspectives from academics and practitioners alike. So important and timely. Each chapter considers in different ways the consequences of our failure to address weaponized digital rhetorics, especially when such rhetorics result in mass disinformation campaigns. What’s especially unique about this volume is that it includes both academic and practitioner perspectives. The other thing I really love about this book is the ways it integrates Marxist material rhetorics (and even Foucault) in meaningful, contemporary ways. For all of the ways our field has moved on into ‘new’ materialisms and other re-imaginings of extant theories, we sometimes lose sight of these foundational scholarly contributions. Many of these essays, showing the benefits of seeing rhetoric as a weapon, are excellent models for cutting edge scholarship. The book doesn’t have a single political agenda and, in our day of polarized discourse, that ensures that everyone will love and hate something in the collection. Trish Roberts-Miller, University of Texas-Austin