Technical Communication is a Social Medium

ABSTRACT

Technical communicators can manage the content users share in online communities, but this is only feasible if the users act like a community with a shared understanding of what the software does. When they do not, users discuss technologies as unsettled objects and rely on technical communication to socially construct them. This research describes such uses of technical communication and argues how professional technical communicators can help.

KEYWORDS:

• Forums
• communities of practice
• invention
• social construction
• experience

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.