This project examines the public-facing communication products and processes of the West Michigan Environmental Action Council (WMEAC), an environmental advocacy group located in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Using a social constructivist and transformative approach, this project involved an artifact analysis of digital products surrounding two environmental cases: Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substance (PFAS) contamination and the Enbridge Line 5 pipeline, two major environmental issues impacting citizens of West Michigan. This project also entailed an interview with a full-time communications professional working for WMEAC. This project analyzed the success of these products and processes using a semiotic remediation framework, which allows one to understand how artifacts travel to different audiences and contexts. It was found that the organization, while using an ad hoc approach to digital communications, successfully served as a trusted source for information regarding the environment and public health. The organization accomplished this by using a subtle, yet present employment of semiotic remediation to create an important chain of information between original sources of information and citizens. However, this project suggests that, while the nonprofit organization was active and keen to provide routine digital content for their audiences, citizen engagement was oftentimes overlooked. This project is an important contribution to scholarship in technical and professional communication, where scholarship examining the rhetorical practices of nonprofit organizations is relatively scarce. The outcomes of this project are also useful to instructors preparing communicators for future roles and to nonprofit communicators seeking insight on their own digital, public-facing communication practices.
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