AI for Social Justice: New Methodological Horizons in Technical Communication
S. Scott Graham, Hannah R. Hopkins
Abstract
This Methodologies and Approaches piece argues artificially intelligent machine learning systems can be used to effectively advance justice-oriented research in technical and professional communication (TPC). Using a preexisting dataset investigating patient marginalization in pharmaceuticals policy discourse, we built and tested 49 machine learning systems designed to identify and track rhetorical features of interest. Three popular and one new approach to feature engineering (text quantification) were evaluated. The results indicate that these systems have great potential for use in TPC research.
Topics & Concepts
Rhetorical questionTechnical communicationFeature (linguistics)Computer scienceTechnical writingRhetoricEconomic JusticeSocial justiceArtificial intelligenceEngineering ethicsData scienceSociologyHuman–computer interactionHigher educationEngineeringSocial sciencePolitical scienceLinguisticsElectrical engineeringPhilosophyLawTopic ModelingArtificial Intelligence in Healthcare and EducationComputational and Text Analysis Methods