Public: something you encounter walking around town—people, advertisements, businesses. Public seems like an ordinary, everyday word. We are the public. We've heard of public restrooms, public television, public school, or maybe even Public Storage.
But what about rhetoric? Lots of people equate rhetoric with something negative. Rhetoric makes us think of politicians. We say, "What did he say this time? Ah, that's just a bunch of rhetoric!" This common usage of rhetoric has almost come to be equated with lying. But rhetoric is everywhere, it can be used for good, and we use it without even realizing it. Aristotle said rhetoric is "observing in any given case the available means of persuasion." How do you convince people to agree with you? Whatever strategies you use, that's rhetoric.
So back to the combination of these two words: Public Rhetoric. Almost anything we see around us can be viewed from a rhetorical lens. All of the following can be "read" as means of persuasion: neighborhood design (Is it a gated community? Does everyone have a fence? How many parks are there?), school architecture (Are there columns? What color is the school? How many stories is it?), car dealerships (Is it a shiny, silver building? Are cars parked on fake mountains? How big is the lot?), human bodies (What are people saying with their clothes? How about piercings or body art?), and of course all kinds of words (advertisements, news stories, street signs, and on and on). Someone said, "Everything's an Argument," and they were right.
The purpose of this blog and your lab assignments is to "read" an artifact in the world and then share something you noticed or learned about how it utilizes public rhetoric. Maybe you want to ask people why they live in their chosen neighborhoods or how they feel about an institution's building. Or you might want to "read" films about these topics and share your observations about the rhetorical choices the directors made. Or maybe you want to focus on "reading" the words or visual presentation of written texts like a newspapers or magazines or news feeds. Whatever you choose to "read," think of how your chosen artifacts are "public" and try to unpack what "rhetorics" they use to make an argument. [1 image, 1 quotation, 2 links, 400 words]
In 2016, a fake website titled, ABCNEWS.com.co published a false article about then Presidential candidate Barack Obama, the article stated allegedly he wanted to ban the pledge of allegiance from all schools during his election. The rhetorical strategies used were a fake website that closely mirrored ABCNEWS.com, they used persuasion to discourage americans from voting for Presidential candidate Barack Obama, they provoked negative emotions throughout the article by stirring up unnecessary anger and intending to mislead americans. They tried to affect his campaign in a harmful manner as this article received over 2 million shares, likes and comments on facebook. https://itp.live/content/225-7-of-the-craziest-fake-news-stories
ReplyDeleteFoxnews3, a fake news site published a false article saying “Martin Shrkreli whom is a pharmaceutical CEO was gunned down and turned into a chicken nugget”. This far fetched article is unbelievably false yet hilarious, the persuasive ad techniques used in this article use pathos which appeals to the emotions of its audience because it evokes pity, sadness and humor into this article. This article also uses a strategy called ethos, instead of facts or logic the writer heavily relied on presenting false information to persuade his audience. The article does not contain any sources of credibility as the website was published with the intent to mislead its viewers which does not allow the audience to gain any trust. https://itp.live/content/225-7-of-the-craziest-fake-news-stories
ReplyDeleteThis is a clear example of what we would consider to be fake news. I think millennials would really get a kick out of reading this article while possibly wishing it was true. This article mentions a “texting lane” to be made in Miami Dade dedicated to millennials to text and drive in. While it is false, the article is still definitely humorous but overall it could be a huge safety risk for everyone involved. The writer of this article uses words such as texting, millennials and driving in order to provoke emotions of excitement in the targeted audience. https://itp.live/content/225-7-of-the-craziest-fake-news-stories
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