Enacting Multiple Audiences: Science Communication Texts and Research-Industry Relationships in the New Zealand Wine Industry

Science communication makes science relevant to nonscientist audiences, but relevance and audience can be resolved at multiple levels. This study in the New Zealand wine industry suggests that written science communication can make science topically relevant without building relevant relationships with individual audience members. Paradoxically, winemakers and winegrowers describe research as relevant to industry generally but not to their own work in particular. Analyzing science communication documents shows rhetorical moves connecting research and industry but distancing research from individual readers. This case suggests the utility of attending to rhetorical relationships in science communication and the need for unique rhetorical strategies.