Author: Jessica Estep Associations

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Work in Progress: The Rhetoric of Riding a Bike: Misrepresentations Among Competing Transportation Publics
Author: Jessica Estep
Associations: Ph.D. student in Rhetoric and Composition at Georgia State University; Instructor of English at Georgia Gwinnett College
Paper Abstract:

Drawing on public sphere theory and Burkean concepts of identification, this article analyzes bicycling as a public constructed through numerous opposing perceptions, including athleticism, recklessness, fun, transportation, and childlike pleasure. Within publics, dominant publics and counterpublics emerge as a result of discourse around those publics. The for-profit news media in Atlanta promotes bicycling primarily as a method of physical exercise, while advocacy groups less effectively insist that bicycles are for transportation. People participating in each bicycling subpublic are often misrepresented through their association with transportation or recreational bicycling. In addition, bicycling’s depiction as primarily a fitness-based recreational activity means that transportation bicycling is a counterpublic, left out the discourse space surrounding transportation policy and infrastructure changes in Atlanta. Bicycle advocacy organizations need to try more creative, hands-on rhetorical strategies to persuade local news media and city officials to identify with bicycling as a form of transportation.
Background Theory and Information:

“Publics” are created both by their participants and by the discourse surrounding them—particularly in the mainstream media (Michael Warner)
“Dominant publics” tend to have their views reflected back to them in the media and politics (Nancy Fraser)
“Counterpublics” (and sub-publics) have less access to media space and therefore have less of a voice (Nancy Fraser)
Bicyclists are a “public” with diverse members and two major sub-publics: transportation cyclists (who ride for transportation) and recreational cyclists (who ride for fitness)

Case Study:

I did a case study of bicyclists in the Atlanta area to see how the media and a local advocacy group represented bicyclists as a public.
I analyzed 10 articles from the Atlanta Journal Constitution, 5 articles from CNN.com, and 10 news articles from the website of the local nonprofit bicycle advocacy group, the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition (ABC).

Case Study Conclusions:

Overwhelmingly, the AJC and CNN portray bicyclists as recreational cyclists

Frequent mentions of “spandex”
Emphasis on bicycling for health/fitness (such as triathletes) or long bicycle rides

Overwhelmingly, (in 9 of 10 articles), ABC portrays bicyclists as transportation cyclists

Frequent mentions of “community”, “access”, and “complete streets”
References to bicycling’s connection to other transportation networks (MARTA, the subway line)

Overall Conclusions:

Recreational cycling emerges as the dominant public with more discourse space
Transportation cycling emerges as a counterpublic—Nancy Fraser posits that “counterpublics emerge in response to exclusions within dominant publics” and “help expand discursive space”
Following Kenneth Burke’s ideas about identification in A Rhetoric of Motives, ABC shows cyclists as transportation users to persuade other transportation users believe that their interests are joined with bicyclists’.
Speaking of identification: (spin class; toddlers on tricycles): CNN and AJC writers likely identify with cycling as recreational
Disconnection between the cycling public’s multiple/confusing representations can cause problems with “inter-public relations”—pitting recreational cyclists’ goals against transportation cyclists’ goals
What to do to fairly and accurately represent bicycling publics?

Key Rhetorical Scholars Cited:
Burke, Kenneth. “From A Rhetoric of Motives.” Bizzell, Patricia and Bruce Herzberg,
eds. The Rhetorical Tradition: Readings from Classical Times to the Present.
2nd ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2001. Print.
Fraser, Nancy. “Rethinking the Public Sphere: A Contribution to the Critique of Actually
Existing Democracy.” Social Text 25/26 (1990): 56-80. Web. 21 Oct. 2014.
Habermas, Jürgen. The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry
into a Category of Bourgeois Society. Trans. Thomas Burger with Frederick
Lawrence Cambridge: MIT Press, 1989. Print.
Hauser, Gerard A. “Civil Society and the Principle of the Public Sphere.” Philosophy and
Rhetoric 31.1 (1998): 19-40.
Ryder, Phyllis Mentzell. Rhetorics for Community Action: Public Writing and Writing
Publics. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2010. Print.
Warner, Michael. Publics and Counterpublics. New York: Zone Books, 2005. Print.

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