Borrowing Credibility: An Exploration of Scientific Credibility in the Pseudo-Scientific, Live Water Website
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The Science Communication Project @ISU was founded in 2010 with the goal of enhancing collaborative research on, education for, and the practice of public science communication, broadly conceived. Our biennial symposia- which include public presentations of multidisciplinary research and interactive workshops- bring together a network of scholars who share interests in public engagement of science, environmental communication, natural resource management, and agriscience. Conference proceedings showcase research, evaluations, and critiques of science communication-related practices and phenomena.
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In this paper, I examine the techniques that pseudo‑scientific websites use to present themselves as credible. Sites such as the Live Water website use the same techniques as scientific publications to evoke the credibility of research‑based science while simultaneously rejecting scientific consensus. Through a rhetorical analysis of the Live Water website’s “Live Water” and “Other Water” pages, I explore how this site establishes its persuasiveness and scientific credibility, and I aim to show how public trust in science can be usurped and shaped by selective use of scientific elements that are used in service of value based, ideological, and pseudo‑scientific arguments.