Recall Communications: Discourse Genres, Symbolic Charging, and Message Design

Abstract

Recall messages embody organizations' strategic choices to temper audience impressions and satisfy audiences' concerns about the existence of product defects, the rectifying of the defects, and the organizations' continuing focus on quality. This article presents a grounded approach to understanding and managing the rhetorical nature of recall announcements as a discourse genre for strategic communication. After brief discussion of genre theory applied to strategic communication, the essay places recall messages in the context of the relevant research literature. An analysis of product recall messages reveals the genre to be comprised of fear-appeal elements, stylistic choices related to language intensity, and pragmatic concerns for projecting an organizational image focused on quality. The essay concludes with implications for theory, practice, and future research.

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