“User”-Centered Design: Rebuilding Justice-Driven Technical Communication for Addicts through Rhetorics of Recovery

Sorry, but you do not have permission to view this content.
Subscribe
Notify of
6 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
danielliddle

The activity in the oral component was so fun! I was wondering if you could speak to how the issues in the content of the sites spreads to their SEO. Are there strategies that luxury sites are using to get to the top of search results, and are these salvageable/useful to apply to sites that don’t have the same funding for SEO research? I imagine there are some great resources that are buried in the results, and I wonder whether it is even possible to use the same techniques. Would it ultimately hurt a non-luxury site to look (at least to google) like a luxury site?

claudiamitchell

I think that this is something that merits further investigation, but part of what you touch on here is an issue that initially inspired me towards this project. There are great resources buried in the results! But the facilities and programs that adhere the most closely to AA’s guidelines will most often necessarily be the ones with the least attention to their SEO, since 12-step principles dictate the importance of “attraction, not promotion”– fundamentally, the mutual-aid centers which follow 12-step programs most closely would refuse self-promotion, and refuse profit-seeking, since these are essential guiding values of 12-step programs. The nature of these programs in general will always tend to make their online voices much quieter than the luxury facilities which don’t apply these tenets to themselves.

And so the problem with small, self-funded programs is less one of resources (though that’s certainly an issue as well) and more a principled unwillingness to engage in these methods, since the belief is that to do so interferes with the sanctity & effectiveness of 12-step programming itself.

Jessica Campbell

I am interested in your coding technique. Did you begin with an a priori coding scheme? How did you identify and categorize 12-step rhetorics?

claudiamitchell

I identified 12-step rhetorics based on their frequency and prominence in the 12-step literature, working mainly from my existing personal knowledge of and experience with 12-step programs to formulate a categorizing process. While I only closely reviewed the foundational, and most widely circulated, 12-step texts (the Alcoholics Anonyomus Big Book, and 12 Steps and 12 Traditions) I also reviewed other major literature, and the primary texts for other analogous 12-step programs based on AA, which revealed the depth of the consistency of the rhetoric across the programs and literature. The specific, repeated phrasing of tenets and principles throughout and across these texts made the most commonly used rhetorics easier to identify.

However, for the purposes of this presentation, I focused mainly on the prominent aspects of 12-step values expressed through their rhetoric which contrasted to the luxury rehabs’ websites rhetoric. There are certainly more rhetorical devices and choices which 12-step programs frequently use that are also prominent, and relevant even to this analysis, but which require more context and explanation– and merit a more data-driven & extensive qualitative examination.

Joseph Bartolotta

Your study is fascinating and I cannot help but also think there’s an interesting intellectual property angle to this as well. We can all pretty easily go and find the 12 steps online, as the Big Book and the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions are available to anyone as pdfs on the AA website. Do you find that Luxury rehab places probably have a more vested interest in keeping their methods secret, as they have a more clear profit incentive? There’s an interesting question here to answer about how the availability of AA materials make them more usable particularly because their method is more apparent. Is this consistent with your findings?

claudiamitchell

Yes, I think that one of the reasons AA materials are so widely used, even by profit-seeking entities, is because of the access they grant to an existing, worldwide system (significantly, also, a system that is free to use) and because of the respectability & longevity that the AA name lends to the programs that use it. Though AA does not advertise itself, its structure and focus is such that it will also not be able to interfere with a rehab that uses the AA text/programming, even if they do advertise in a way AA refuses to. Some of the aspects of AA which make it so uniquely successful and so constantly perpetuated also lead to its vulnerability to misuse by outside entities- ex. AA does not endorse or lend its name to any outside programs, but it also focuses solely on its own mission, and so it does not denounce outside entities, either. This ‘honor system’ tends to work well within the program itself, but entities uninterested in upholding that ‘honor system’ have no firm obligation to.

The fact that not all of the rehabs that use AA actually advertise their use of it was interesting to me as well. I have to think that part of the reason for this is to keep their methods ambiguous, in the interest of offering to potential clients (at least the appearance of) an experience only they could provide. The majority of luxury rehabs tend to seem very similar, but usually also in their communication/promotional materials try to position themselves as unique in spite of this- and therefore, in the eyes of someone seeking help, uniquely capable of helping them.

6
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x
| Reply