Bitzer’s “The Rhetorical Situation” is an
important first look into the idea of rhetoric as a whole. He gives his point
of view on what rhetoric is and his definition of a rhetorical situation, which
is any context in which discourse is used, more often than not in a situation
in which persuasion may be used. He explains that the situation is one of the
most important aspects of rhetorical theory in that its purpose is “to produce
action or change in the world” (4). Rhetoric alters reality, and, through
discourse, persuasion and action are the main goals.
Edbauer counters Bitzer’s accounts of the
definition of rhetoric and rhetorical theory, and introduces the idea of
“rhetorical ecology,” which shifts the view of a rhetorical situation from one
exigence with a singular set of constraints between two equal bodies to the
idea of constantly shifting contacts between different cultures and histories.
This revised theory of rhetoric turns the term “rhetoric” itself from a noun to
a verb.
For my example of everyday writing, I’ll use a
Facebook post from a friend's page:
“I
subscribe to conservative news FB pages, so I get a lot of their stuff.
Consistently, every pro-Trump article posted on FB has three links to
anti-Trump articles below it. Every pro-Cruz article posted on FB has three
links to anti-Cruz articles below it. Who generates those links? Facebook does.
This place, that used to be pure conversation with friends has become a
political messenger. Not sure I can put up with 11 more months of that. It's
okay when MY FB friends post their opinions. FB manipulating "social
media" is not okay.”
(No comment on specific content of the post, just the
situation presented.)
In the model of Bitzer’s rhetorical situation,
my friend's post gives an exigence (the possible theory of Facebook pushing its
own political agenda onto its users) and constraints (her possible misjudgment
of the links provided due to her personal political viewpoint could be one of
those constraints). Her purpose for this post is the intent of raising
awareness to this issue she has theorized to create action against said issue.
In Edbauer's interpretation, the exigence is
still present; however, by posting this theory on a media platform such as
Facebook, my friend is allowing for the flow of a situation
to continue through comments and replies to her status update. This
means that the commenters and my friend are all practicing rhetoric as a verb as
it is constantly changing when more people are joining the discussion with
different histories and discursive preferences, creating a contact of diverse
people all with a common topic of discussion.
No comments:
Post a Comment