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This dissertation is a rhetorical analysis of a broad-scale social action over the Internet. In 1990, Lotus Development Corporation announced the impending release of a new product called Lotus MarketPlace: Households, a database containing marketing information on 120 million Americans. Many people became concerned with the privacy implications of MarketPlace and used the Internet to protest the product. In what was perhaps the first instance of a "protest in cyberspace," this case highlights traditional rhetorical issues such as ethos and delivery and more contemporary concerns such as rhetorical communities on computer networks. These features provide evidence of how computer-mediated communication (CMC) might be used to increase public decision making. Specifically, the case illustrates rhetorical features about CMC as a communication technology.

This study argues that the rhetorical dynamics of common values expressed through a common character (ethos) and the speedy delivery of computer messages were utilized by the online participants and thus helped to sustain a community protest. In the early stage of the protest, Lotus MarketPlace gave people a tangible focal point for more general concerns about computer privacy; a community formed quickly and grew as messages sped throughout cyberspace. Soon thereafter, delivery and community ethos worked to create a "cyber-organization" to a protest that was taking place in an otherwise anarchic forum. Instead of a leader, certain texts took on the role of leading the protest. Yet even with this structure, the protest also contained multiple threads of conversation. This open-ended feature allowed some inaccurate information to be spread. Finally, when Lotus attempted to enter the protest, their corporate ethos conflicted with the dominant ethos of certain protesters. Thus, communities on computer forums can be both positive and problematic: they can be powerful for distributing a message but can also leave out dissenting voices and outsiders from the community.

At its most general level, my study is about the intersection of human communication and computer technology. As cyberspace continues to grow, close attention must be paid to the rhetorical dynamics of electronic communities before any claims can be made about teledemocracy.