Studying Audiences & Effects Instrumen tal • Rooted in behavior ; does the audience do what the rhetor seeks from them as a result of the rhetoric Constitut ive • Rooted in identity ; does the audience see and define themselv es as the rhetor seeks? Ethical • Rooted in values; does the audience assess right/wr ong, good/bad as the rhetor seeks? Attitudin al • Rooted in preferen ces; do audience s hold the same preferen ces as the rhetor
Transcript
Studying Audiences & Effects
Instrumental
• Rooted in behavior; does the audience do what the rhetor seeks from them as a result of the rhetoric?
Constitutive
• Rooted in identity; does the audience see and define themselves as the rhetor seeks?
Ethical
• Rooted in values; does the audience assess right/wrong, good/bad as the rhetor seeks?
Attitudinal
• Rooted in preferences; do audiences hold the same preferences as the rhetor
COMM 401Interpreting Strategic DiscourseWeek Two
Argument
Early Discussions of Argument Aristotle—Non-artistic vs. artistic means of persuasion. Aristotle—3 means of persuasion
Ethos Pathos Logos
Aristotle—Enthymeme Cicero (Rhetorica ad Herennium)—5 parts to a complete
argument: The proposition The reason The proof of the reason The embellishment The résumé (conclusion)
Classical Rhetorical Canon of Invention (Inventio)
Logical proof Stasis—locating the starting point of the case/debate.
▪ Stasis of fact▪ Stasis of definition▪ Stasis of quality
Ethical proof Romans expanded the Aristotelian conception of ethos. Includes all of a speaker’s life/character. Quintilian—a good man speaking well. Goodness becomes the hallmark of Roman conceptions of ethos.
Pathetic proof Reinforcement for logos. Roman development: Quintilian’s theory of humor—both content and delivery.
The Ramistic Shift
The split between logic (argument/invention) and rhetoric (style & delivery) was brought about through the education reforms of Peter Ramus (1515-1572).
Ramus was an educational reformer. Argued for an educational system different from the liberal arts model, where rhetoric was one of the seven liberal arts.
Split persists for centuries.
Whately on Rhetorical Argument
Focus on argumentation resurfaces in the works of Richard Whately (1787-1863).
Whately limits the scope of rhetoric to argumentation
Rhetoric is less concerned with invention/discovery and more with management
A priori argument: cause to effect
Argument from sign: effect to a condition
Three different types of testimony: Undesigned—genuine and
simple in orientation Negative testimony—the
inability of an advocate to counter/respond to contradiction or refutation
Concurrent—several witnesses who don’t interact affirm a similar conclusion
Whately on Rhetorical Argument
Presumption: “preoccupation of the ground.” A proposition “must
stand good till some sufficient reason is adduced against it.”
Burden of Proof: rests with the rhetor seeking to refute the presumption.
Contemporary Views of Argument
Most contemporary understandings of argument come from Stephen Toulmin.
Toulmin puts forth a practical, realistic sense of argument as opposed to a formal, logical sense of argument.
Basic Toulmin Model
Extended Toulmin Argument Model
The Parts of the Toulmin Model Claims can appear anywhere in the argument or they may be implied
(in which case you must identify them by inference). The claim organizes the entire argument; everything else in the argument is related to the claim.
The data for the claim provides the evidence, reasoning, opinions, examples, and factual information about the claim that make it possible for the reader to accept it. Support is always explicitly stated and will not have to be inferred. It can appear either before or after the claim and is required to be acceptable and convincing.
Qualifier/Modality: Arguments are not expected to demonstrate certainties. Instead, they usually only establish probabilities. Claims are qualified to meet anticipated objections of an audience.
Backing: Evidence provided to make warrants acceptable to audiences.
The Parts of the Toulmin Model
Warrants are the assumptions, general principles, widely held values, commonly accepted beliefs and appeals to human motives that are important parts of any argument. They are not written out as part of the argument, which allows an audience a sense of participation in the argument and thus, they are more likely to buy the argument. The audience supplies warrants; if the audience accepts them, the argument is convincing. Warrants are culture bound; they represent the values, beliefs and training typical of individual cultures. They represent the psychology of an argument, in the sense that they reveal the unspoken beliefs and values of the author and invite the reader to examine his or her own beliefs and make comparisons. Warrants link the support to the claim by enabling the audience to accept or justify particular evidence as proof of a particular claim. They also establish links between the author and the audience; shared warrants result in successfully establishing common ground.
Rebuttals establish what is wrong, invalid or unacceptable about an argument, and may also prevent counter-arguments or new arguments which represent entirely different perspectives or points-of-view on the issue. Rebuttals may appear as answers to arguments that have already been stated, or the author may anticipate an audience’s rebuttal and include answers to possible objections before they are stated.
Example of Toulmin Model of Argument Congress should ban animal research (Claim #1) because
animals are tortured in experiments that have no necessary benefit for humans such as the testing of cosmetics (Data). The well being of animals is more important than the profits of the cosmetics industry (Warrant). Only Congress has the authority to make such a law (Warrant) because the corporations can simply move from state to state to avoid legal penalties (Backing). Of course, this ban should not apply to medical research (Qualifier). A law to ban all research would go too far (Rebuttal). So, the law would probably (qualifier) have to be carefully written to define the kinds of research intended (claim #2).
COMM 401Interpreting Strategic DiscourseWeek Two
Media/Mediation
Media/Mediation
For most of human history, rhetoric has concerned oratorical presentations/texts.
Other forms of human communication were interpersonal, conversational, artistic, poetic—but not rhetorical.
Stages of Media Development Novelty/Development Stage: Inventors and
technicians. Entrepreneurial Stage: Inventors and investors. Mass-Medium Stage
All new forms of communication start out slowly. Usually viewed with suspicion.
New communication always borrows from the old model.Marshall McLuhan noted that the content of any new
medium is the medium that came before.
Plato’s Cave
Adjusting to New Media
Early Forms of Mediation
Writing Music Art Printing/Movable Type
First attempts at figurative art – 35,000 and 25,000 B.C.E.
Cave paintings at Lascaux, France – 15,000 B.C.E.
Photography
Photography First known photograph was in
1827 by Niepce—8 hour exposure time.
Early photographs by Louis Daguerre, called daguerreotypes (1839).
In U.S., early daguerreotypes by M. Brady communicated the reality/brutality of the Civil War to millions. Some commentators worried that they were too real.
EadwardMuybridge
Motion in pictures was magical.The Lumiere Brothers were hailed by Renoir as another Gutenberg.Dominant question: “In a moving image, what should do the moving?”
Motion Pictures
Lumiere Films
Early Cinema
1889—Celluloid was bought by George Eastman (Eastman/Kodak)
In the late 19th/early 20th century, Georges Méliès began the development of the
narrative filmEdwin Porter—first American narrative film in
Lee De Forest was instrumental in moving Marconi’s wireless telegraphy to wireless telephony, allowing for the transmission of voice and music.
De Forest was particularly known for the invention of the vacuum tube that was the beginning of modern electronics.
Set the stage for broadcasting to mass audiences.
Different from narrowcasting, or the person-to-person communication of telegraphy and telephony.
The Development of Broadcasting
RCA, in 1926, purchased AT&T’s telephone group network to form the National Broadcasting Company (NBC)
The began the affiliate system of programming—a national network broadcasting to local affiliates who would also provide their own programming.
RCA’s monopoly was eventually subject to anti-trust moves by the government.
In the 1940s, NBC-blue was sold and became ABC.
Understanding Media
"Any hot medium allows of less participation than a cool one, as a lecture makes for less participation than a seminar, and a book for less than a dialogue."
The Current Media Landscape
• How would you describe the role of mediation on contemporary strategic discourse?
• What are your primary patterns of communication consumption? How are the messages you consume mediated?
• How does your media consumption differ from those who were media consumers 50 years ago?
• How will media consumers 50 years from now encounter strategic discourse differently from you?
