Downloads provided by UsageCounts
The urgent need to find out medical information has led institutions and mass media publications to craft a new digital genre of expert / non-expert communication, without any previous agreement on either its rhetorical or discursive features. This genre, which I have labelled medical electronic popularizations (Med-E-Pops), has been initially identified as a blurred genre with hybrid functions, and understood as a reshaping and repurposing of medical research articles (Med-RAs), in an attempt to facilitate understanding by a heterogeneous audience, the Internet community. This paper aims to uncover the extent of Med-E-Pops writers’ (in)visibility studying the use of abstract rhetors in their texts as a devoicing mechanism. Previous researchers concluded that abstract rhetors in scientific dissemination articles explain the situation described in the Med-RAs as independent of human agency. I will contrastively analyse the use of abstract rhetors in a comparable corpus of 40 Med-E-Pops and 40 Med-RAs. In particular, I will explore (1) the rhetorical distribution throughout the texts, (2) the semantic implications of each inanimate subject and (3) their combination with active verbs. This will allow me to reflect on whose voice is crafted in this digital genre and with what purpose.
Knowledge Transfer, Academic and Institutional settings, Digital genres, Visibility, Medical English
Knowledge Transfer, Academic and Institutional settings, Digital genres, Visibility, Medical English
| selected citations These citations are derived from selected sources. This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | 0 | |
| popularity This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network. | Average | |
| influence This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | Average | |
| impulse This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network. | Average |
| views | 5 | |
| downloads | 2 |

Views provided by UsageCounts
Downloads provided by UsageCounts