Recruitment on Paper, Recruitment on the Web: An Examination of the Rhetorical Strategies used in each Medium

This study examines the rhetoric of college and university recruitment on paper and on the Internet. In particular, the centers on the difference between the two media in relation to their readers, writers, and final texts. A triangulated research approach was used: text analysis, interviews with writers and readers, and reader surveys that include open- and closed-ended questions. The printed and electronic recruitment materials of three peer institutions of the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) formed the basis of the research. Those institutions included the University of Northern Iowa (UNI), the University of Texas at San Antonia (UTSA), and the University of the North Carolina at Charlotte (UNCC). The research revealed that writers of recruitment messages approach their tasks differently, depending on the medium they work in. Printed and electronic text, while essentially the same in content, is presented within the boundaries or possibilities of its medium