ABSTRACT
Long before the 2016 Russian cyber attacks against U.S. election infrastructure, cybersecurity was a growing concern for policy makers. In this chapter, we explore the work of scholars in communication and critical security studies who have studied the emergence, framing, and public policy discourse of cybersecurity in the United States. We provide a case study of the use of “Pearl Harbor” metaphors and analogies in U.S. cybersecurity discourse that demonstrates the opportunity that exists for communication scholars to make valuable contributions to our understanding of cybersecurity. We conclude by offering our vision of a cybersecurity research agenda for communication studies. In short, we argue that while communication has paid limited attention to cybersecurity thus far, communication scholars have made some valuable contributions and there is a need for communication perspectives on this important issue.
