His work examines the confluence of digitally networked media, rhetorical practice, public deliberation, and visual culture. His interest in how nascent genres of communication provide new opportunities for citizens to affect public deliberation is reflected in Networked Media, Networked Rhetorics: Attention and Deliberation in the Early Blogosphere (Penn State, 2014). Pfister is the co-editor, with Michele Kennerly of the Pennsylvania State University, of Ancient Rhetorics + Digital Networks (Alabama, 2017), a volume that looks to ancient figures, texts, and sensibilities to illuminate communication phenomena in digital networks. He is the author of essays appearing in such journals as Philosophy & Rhetoric, Argumentation and Advocacy, Environmental Communication, Rhetoric Review, and Social Epistemology.