Author: Charlotte Stone

A buzzword is a popular word or phrase with shifting and adjusting meanings due to societal trends. Though originally noted in the 1940’s as business slang for key terms in a lecture at Harvard,¹ buzzword takes on a wider colloquial meaning today. Buzzwords are words that have already existed in society’s vernacular, but have quickly shifted meaning as a result of current political or social climates. Therefore, current events and trends can turn an obscure or common word into a buzzword, whether it’s in the media, politics, public addresses, or even interpersonally. Buzzwords are fluid–ephemeral, even, as they are reliant on the trends in our society, which shift over time. Due to these conditions, they are oftentimes understood as shallow rhetoric. Buzzwords, however, can be used rhetorically as a tool in persuasion and, as polarizing as they can be, effective in delivering a message. Buzzwords, therefore, can tell us a lot about how we communicate. The very way the buzzword is constructed is a new type of communication strategy and reflective of our current society. As buzzwords do connotative and denotative work as well as communicate pathos and ethos, their significance should be taken seriously in our field alongside other rhetorical techniques.

Drawing on semiotics, Buzzwords exist connotatively and denotatively. The original meaning is intrinsically connected with the new connotative meaning, as the literal definition of the word plays a role in the definition of the buzzword. Buzzwords work by giving the audience a distinct impression or feeling that elevates the term from its original definition. Let’s turn to several examples. Take the term snowflake. Snowflake can be literally defined as a tiny piece of snow. However, in today’s political climate, snowflake is now understood as a derogatory name given to indicate that a person is overly sensitive and entitled. The term is used as an insult, and it offers insight into a societal divide in the United States. The word has become a buzzword in contemporary political and cultural battles between conservatives and liberals.² 

Take another example, the term influencer. To influence someone is to persuade, coerce, or change their mind. The word influencer, then, probably should sound like a malapropism for persuader. Today, however, an influencer is someone who has the potential to affect and encourage potential buyers of a product through social media promotion.³ As a result of the powerful marketing abilities associated with social media, individuals are now able to define their careers as influencers, simply by having copious social media followers. Therefore, the term influencer has a new meaning— as a term that denotes a person who shapes people's buying patterns through social media. The emergence of the buzzword also tell us about the growing popularity of social media marketing in the past few years. The word has also become a buzzword due to its prevalence and frequency, popping up on social media, on television, in headlines, and more.

Another rapidly emerging buzzword is wellness. The concept of wellness was understood as the level of health in an individual. Today, wellness is an umbrella term that covers everything from exercising to “super foods” (another buzzword) to self-care. Wellness is a heavily used reactionary buzzword to parts of society’s shift to focus more on self care, particularly mental health. Overall, buzzwords are simply previously-existing words in our language that, as a result of the current state of affairs and direction of society’s rhetorical energy, have taken on a different and heavier meaning due to shifting societal values and their repetition.

Importantly, buzzwords are not always a redefining of a single word but can also be a phrase used to send cultural, social, and political messages. Take the term fake news. Fake news was not necessarily a relevant phrase prior to the current president using it to lash back against media disapproval and to discredit his critics. Suddenly, fake news is a popular term that most people are at least familiar with and associate it with the president and his turbulent relationship with the media. The term Fake News is an example of how buzzwords can be used semiotically to promote a certain ideology.

Politically charged and polarizing buzzwords like fake news demonstrate how buzzwords can function as language and symbolic action. Buzzwords can represent the use of pathos, as they can tap into and manipulate the emotions of the audience. An example of a pathetic (pathos-driven) argument using buzzwords could be the term “Pro-Life.” This buzzword is designed to suggest that the “other side” is, by default, “Pro-Death,” and not the actual stance of people who support women’s right to choose.

Buzzwords do denotative work, but they also work into the speaker’s ethos. The word snowflake, as unsophisticated as its overuse may qualify it, is effective in garnering the attention of certain groups whenever it is used in public arenas. For example, if a person on television uses it to describe members of a political party, a large part of American viewers will feel angry and irritated. Another large part of America will feel emboldened, excited, and heard. The word influencer, though often met with eye rolls when used to describe as someone’s career, represents a massive piece of American media and industry. The word itself may seem superficial and unspecific but now defines a specific kind of labor produce through media in support of consumer capitalism. However, according to how successful influencers are with convincing people to buy things, people clearly love them, or love to hate them—either way successfully advertising their brand. By describing someone as an influencer, it grabs an audience’s attention, regardless of if that is in a “good” or “bad” way.

The word wellness, though at times associated with gurus and smoothies, also can be used as a massive marketing tool. Buzzwords are trendy, and consumers want to be in on the trend. By including wellness in a description of a commodity or service, it attracts attention and appeals to certain groups of people, successfully communicating (and advertising). When the term Fake news is used, it simultaneously angers and excites significant parts of the population, but it overall calls attention to whatever it is being used to describe. Buzzwords can be pithy and powerful, and they are not simply throwaway terms.

The term buzzword itself holds much negative connotation, and it is mostly used to counter an idea that is actually meaningful or deep. While buzzwords are often understood as shallow rhetoric, they are persuasive in communication. The words themselves are trendy, and therefore attract attention, and communicate cultural and social messages, which is exactly why rhetoric and communication studies should consider buzzwords an object of study. 

Buzzwords actually demonstrate an effective form of communication. More critically, however, is that the nature of buzzwords tells us a lot about how we communicate. Buzzwords produce meaning through quick and systematic repetition. Without exposure and repeated use, the concept of a buzzword would not exist. It has to circulate with enough influence, range, and visibility to permeate society, allowing it to do rhetorical and communicative work. Buzzwords, therefore, are representative of how we communicate.

A buzzword introduces a cultural milieu and then recedes. While it is a word not typically associated with the field of rhetoric and communication studies, it should be. Buzzwords are often understood as shallow rhetoric, but they are pivotal in communication. Requirements for a typical keyword in communication studies include circulation, medium, and content. Buzzwords and their playing fields check all three of those boxes. They represent a new way of communicating ideas and a new way to make arguments. They work in denotation, semiotics, ethos, and pathos to function as persuasive language, and they also represent as well as offer insights into how we communicate. Communication studies work to name and classify how an argument is made, and buzzword is a name for a specific type of communication strategy that should be taken seriously alongside other strategies such as a trope or a genre. Buzzwords should be taken seriously as a new part of the field.