CSS 3302-Baylor-Dr. Bass-Exam 2

Kenneth Burke's Defintion of Rhetoric

Rhetoric "is rooted in an essential function of language itself... the use of language as a symbolic means of inducing cooperation in beings that respond to symbols."

Identification

Real or perceived overlap of two individuals' perspectives or ways of seeing the world.

Ideographs

Words or phrases that suggest ideology

Public Sphere

The process by which free people may deliberate public issues without undue influences.

Counterpublics

A view of society taht runs contrary to the prevailing beliefs; based on the needs of specific cultural groups.

Stasis Statements

Statements that expose, present, or describe the nature of a character or the setting in which the action occurs. These can also take the form of happenings in which someone/something else impacts a character.

Ideology

An interrelated set of meanings that are generated by a culture.

Fantasy Themes

Creative interpretations of past or future events told by group members in an informal setting in order to fill some need. They create a shared culture or way of seeing the world.

Hegemony

Subtle control exerted over a culture's ideology by the dominant class.

Process Statements

A character performs an intentional action. Such statements involve a change of state bought about by an agent.

According to Boulding, what are the three things that can happen when a message "hits" an image?

1. The perception someone has on an image may remain unaffected.

2. When a message is received, there may simply be knowledge added to the perception on the image.

3. Although very rare, a message may cause someone to have complete shift in world view.

List the 4 conventions governing news presentations

1. Personalized Coverage

2. Dramatized Form

3. Fragmented Content

4. Culturally Normalized

Describe Burke's disticitino between "action" versus "motion". How did this distinction enable rhetorical critics to overcome the challenge posed by the social scientific approach to communication?

- Motion is non-symbolic, whereas action is based on symbols or rhetoric.

- There can be no action without motion

- There can be motion without action

- Action is not reducible to terms of motion

- Motion is regulated unconsciously such as the heartbeat or a reaction to a loud noise

- Action is the human ability to plan our motion to produce an effect.

- Originally, analysts were using controlled test subjects in an artificial environment. They were looking at people who were acting out of intentional persuasion, i.e. a message and situation that does not take place in the real world. Therefore, communication researchers were only able to look at the initial reactions of the audience, the motion. Rhetorical critics, however, are able to examine the effects rhetoric has on an audience by studying the action an audicene takes in the real world.

Outline in detail the narrative structure of the Journey Western (Plotline)

A journey from the east to the west and the difficulties encountered and overcome.

Outline in detail the narrative structure of the Journey Western (Characters)

Marginals, outcasts who are trying to escape from a corrupt society. Not all characters conform to their stereotype.

Outline in detail the narrative structure of the Journey Western (Setting)

Occurs over the course of a few days. Set-in wide-open spaces. Are functional as opposed to flashy.

Outline in detail the narrative structure of the Journey Western (Arguments)

West a redemption, wide-open spaces associated with freedom, and re-establishment of a new community.

Describe in detail the economic factors that led to the development of a public sphere during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century.

Private businesses became interested in government policy while the government became interested in economic policy because foreign trade gave them import and export taxes.

Outline in detail the narrative structure of the Dialectical Western (Plotline)

There is a threat posed by lawlessness to civilized society. Everyone for himself/herself (The American Monomyth). A hero that is not part of the community emerges out of nowhere.

Outline in detail the narrative structure of the Dialectical Western (Characters)

The Hero of complex character. The Billain may be a vile or likable person-his actions constitute a threat to civilized life in a town. The Women can either be a respectable or a shady woman whose support of the hero redeems her in the eyes of the community.

Outline in detail the narrative structure of the Dialectical Western (Arguments)

Establishment of order in place of chaos and anarchy. Underlying tragic irony, however, in the sense that the victory of the hero will spell the end of such a life and its replacement with the very sort of civilized lifestyle that many peop;le sought to escape by migrating westward.

List Burke's dramatistic pentad. Be sure to indicate the ideo-philosophical positions implied by each of the terms of the pentad.

1. Act-Realism: do not care about motives just the action.

2. Scene-Materialism/Determinism: believe that human behavior is determined by the situation or environment.

3. Agent-Idealism: sees people as rational and capable; person has power over their own destiny.

4. Agency-Pragmatism: what can the person do to get the desired outcome.

5. Purpose-Mysticism: People who do things for a higher reason (God, the constitution, etc.)

Outline in detail the religious factors during the seventeenth century that facilitated the later development of the public sphere and the reestablishment of rhetoric as socio-political tool in the real world.

- Martin Luther's priesthood of the believer

- Translation of Bible from Latin into native languages

- Need for skill in argumentation