Exploring Persuasive Techniques & Media Influence in Rhetoric - Prof. K. Filbel, Study notes of Communication

Download Exploring Persuasive Techniques & Media Influence in Rhetoric - Prof. K. Filbel and more Study notes Communication in PDF only on Docsity! Final Notes The Beginnings of the Rhetorical Tradition  Corax, the 1st professional rhetorician  Rhetoric as powerful skill-set and necessary to democracy  Sophists: teachers of public education, available to those other than aristocracy! — Rhetoric is for practical ends — Sophist’s taught dialectic: contradictory arguments based on widely-held premises The Dialectic Structure: Rhetoric Focuses Primarily on Persuasion o James Herrick: R/Pers. Creates interest & suspicion  Interest in influencing others and gaining personal advantage  Suspicion of being taken advantage of  Principle to remember: “Persuasion works best which does not call attention to itself.”  don’t tell someone you’re trying to persuade them With persuasion we hope to influence attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. Evolution of the Rhetorical Tradition o Classical Period  5th – 4th centuries B.C.E.: emphasis on public speaking & effective public engagement  Sophists saw truth as relative & probable  Plato: against the Sophists, rhet. & democ., an idealist  Aristotle: differed with Plato, saw truth as based on observation. Aristotle’s definition of rhetoric: our ability to discover in the particular case what are the available means of persuasion Protagoras: humans are the measurers of all things, unable to determine any single thing as having absolute truth Classical Rhetoric  Cicero & Quintilian: developed Aristotle into 5 cannons: 1) Invention Thesis   Antithesis  Synthesis (becomes new thesis) 2) Arrangement 3) Style 4) Memory 5) Delivery  In democratic invention is most important! It requires freedom to fully inquire into public matters, to gather all facts and arguments to devise public policy. Middle Ages  The end of democracy in 27 B.C.E. when Augustus became Emperor  The heart of the canon of invention was lost  The Church continued the tradition of truncated rhetoric  Aurelius Augustine reduced the 5 canons to 2: 1) “Invention” (finding subject matter for sermons) 2) Making them more understandable & memorable (arrangement, style, delivery) Modern Rhetoric  Emerged out of linguistics, philosophy & literary theory  Began in English department: some interested in “oratory” (speech) but were marginalized  Some teachers of speech broke from English and began new organization, today called the National Communication Association (NCA)  Herbert Wichelns- beginning of rhetorical criticism as separation from literary criticism (enduring permanence, seek performance) R.C focuses on effects on audience Kenneth Burke’s Dramatistic Pentad  Life is drama, and can be understood in dramatistic terms  Burke sought a grammar of motives: — A means of understanding human motivation — But 1st, Why do humans communicate? — Model for analyzing 2 basic terms help explain: Alienation & Identification A. We communicate to overcome “epistemic isolation”: perceived difference and alienation. B. Language creates categories of similarity and difference: Identification / Consubstantiality or Alienation. C. Focus on the dissimilar, and will see little in common with others (alienation). D. Focus on the similar, and will see what you have in common with others (identification). Language offers hope for the latter. Figure and Ground  A form, silhouette or shape is perceived as figure (object) while the surrounding area is seen as ground (background) Male Gaze  VPT claims that visual images in media encourages viewers to look pleasurably at images via a male gaze  Male Gaze: Males and females view people represented in visual images by identifying with the male actors — Many of the images in society have a male bias Scopophelia  Psychoanalytic concept  “The love of looking”—pleasurable or sexually-arousing looking Narcissism  Psychoanalytic concept  Excessive self-love based on one’s self image  We identify with particular characters, models or body images; seeing ourselves in the roles portrayed that we’re attracted to Fetishism  Getting pleasure from openly looking at an object that is satisfying in itself  Images of people are reduced to body parts (synecdoche – trade part, for the whole) Voyeurism  Secretly observing others engaged in sexual, sordid or scandalous acts Rhetorical Implications  Images have a powerful unconscious influence on those seeking to achieve the ideals portrayed  “Influence” but not “cause” of actions/reactions to images. Video games don’t cause one to go out and kill. But they might desensitize the viewer. As well, images sensitize toward realities and no realities.  EX: In AHS, Filbel wasn’t affected when one of the 2 headed twins starts to decompose and die, he’s seen/read about how this could happen Media-Centered Perspectives Media Effects Research o Based on social science methodologies o Rhetoricians also use these theories o For upcoming assignment, consider using any classical, dramatistic, gestalt, visual pleasure, and media-centered theories Media Ecology Theory o Central issue: How media and communication processes affect perception, understanding, beliefs and behavior o Marshall McLuhan – a mediated messages content affects the conscious mind, but the medium itself affects the unconscious mind o Hot medium = “high definition” – contains a lot of information (passive) o Cool medium = “low resolution” – requires a lot of interaction and practice (get more involved) EX: TV, it can be playing in the background Media History o The media age has become an increasingly dominant set of influences pervading our lives o We are more connected to a greater variety of people and sources across time and space o EX: art, newspapers, books but now we have more in-depth social networks Media Logic o The degree to which users take a medium and its social uses for granted o This taken-for-granted status prevents one from seeing the effects media have on us o Commodification (product placement): advertising is blended with programming o Amplification: use of focus and selection that brings greater importance to an item o Reduction: what brings less importance o Agenda-setting theory: ability to influence the salience of topics on the public agenda Social Learning Theory o We learn by observing how others act o Imitations are impressionable Parasocial Relationship Theory o P.R. are asymmetrical- one party knows a lot about another party, but not vice versa o Bond of Intimacy: created when viewers believe they know actor/character, but actors rarely get to know the fans o Factors that create this bond of intimacy: realism and privacy o Realism- the believability of characters and their encounters o Privacy- we often watch media alone Cultivation Theory o Exposure to violence leads to a perception of a violent world o Exposure to repeated ideas and consistent messages may shape attitudes about the real world Introduction to the Performance Discipline o Richard Schechner’s focus The field is wide open Human values are from social agreement o Identity, an important element o Performance studies is vast in scope Assumptions about Performance Studies o Examines behavior as an object of study o Involves doing performance o Participant observation o Frequency involved in social practices and advocacy (when you start to see someone’s actions as normal) Views cultural groups in 2 ways: 1) Cultural groups are always interacting 2) Cultural groups have distinct identities and they protect those identities by enacting their performances o We live in a world of multiple literacies which are performed: “body literacies,” “aural literacy,” “visual literacy,” “electronic literacy,” etc. Performance Study Coursework at LSU o Analysis and performance of literary texts o How people perform in everyday life o Study and practice of avant-garde and performance art The Histories of Performance Studies o The NYU Line — 1st called performance studies in 1980 — Emerged from theatre: Richard Schechner befriended Victor Turner, an anthropologist o The Northwestern University/LSU Line — Emerged from oral interpretation — Emphasis on literature Performance Studies as a Discipline o Is Interdisciplinary o Is Anti-disciplinary Performance of Literature Analysis of Content and Structure in a Literary Work  Each point resembles the performance of literature can be made about daily performance