| As with other empirical methodologies, communication audits have been criticized for ignoring the needs of some stakeholders. Some have called for audits of a more participatory nature, in order to empower and respect community organization practitioners and build their capacity as managers of their own complex systems of communication. With its own history of participatory activist research, Writing and Rhetoric is well placed to address this call; therefore, I am seeking to answer: what would a communication audit look like following a participatory research strategy? I do this by reimagining the communication audit while working with the Oakland County Permaculture Meetup (OCPM), a grassroots community organization focused on providing a support network of knowledge and resources local food system topics in their local area of Oakland County, Michigan. I partnered with them to evaluate their communication systems since its formation over a 1.5 year period in a collaborative and participatory approach. The Meetup group did not express any specific "problem" that they sought for us to address in our evaluation, but to holistically determine what worked well within the group and what did not. In doing so, I contribute to the developing management of OCPM communication systems, as well as provide one viable model of a participatory communication audit to others. |
