Rhetoric and Public Life Exam 2: Chapters 4,5,and 6

presence

visuals have immediacy, the creation of something in the front of an audience’s consiousness. it “acts directly on our sensibility”

absence

has attention deflected away from it, lacks immediacy, not in an audience’s consciousness

visual culture

a culture distinguished by the ubiquity of visual forms of communication that appear in multiple media outlets at the same time (ex. magazines, cell phones, etc.)

rhetoric of display

rhtetoric tat makes ideas present through visual display

dominant reading

a reading in which the audience takes the “connotated meaning” they do not challenge the ideology behind the message or in the way in which it maintains hegemonic power

oppositional reading

a reading in which the viewer correctly decoded the denotational and connotational meanings of a text

negotiated reading

reading in which the viewer accepts some of the hegemonic meanings, but also recognizes some exceptions

iconic photographs 4 main criteria

1recognized by everyone within a public culture

2understood to be representations of historically significant events

3objects of strong emotional identification and response

4regularly reproduced or copied across a range of media, genres, and topics

body rhetoric

rhetoric that foregrounds the body as part of the symbolic art

enactment

occurs when the person engaging in symbolic action functions as proof of the argument they advance

circulation

encourages critics to study the manner in which a visual moves through space and time, sometimes unmoored from its original location and production

image events

stages acts designed for media dissemination. they are structured to elicit the attention of media outlets, so that they appear on public screens

meme

any building block of cultural meaning and transmission: an idea, a style, a behavior, or practice

internet memes

digital items with common characteristics that are imitated and reiterated around the web

argument

a rhetorical form that provides data for a claim

argumentation

the process of exchanging arguments

enthymeme

a syllogism based on probabilities, signs, and examples whose function s rhetorical persuasion. it’s successful construction is accomplished through the joint efforts of the speaker and audience

claim

the conclusion whose merits we are seeking to establish or what the rhetor is trying to persuade the audience to believe

claim of fact

a claim that advances an empiracally verifiable statement

claim of definition

a claim that identifies how a concept or term should be defined , how words and terms attain meanings and how they are used in argumentation

claim of value

a claim that advances a statement about what is worthy, not empirically verifiable

claim of policy

a claim that addresses what should be done, identifies an agent and an action to be taken

data

information on which the claim is based, evidence or supporting matter

warrants

bridges, or the generalized “rules” and “principles” that link data to claims. shows that a jump from data to conclusion is reasonable, and that the conclusion is warranted

qualifier

a statement indicating the “strength” conferred by the warrant. not all claims have the same level of certainty

spheres of argument

branches of activity-the grounds upon which arguments are built and the authorities to which arguers appeal

grounds

the core assumptions that are accepted or the people who are allowed to speak as experts in that sphere

personal sphere argument

informal arguments among a small number of people, involving limited demands for proof, and often about topics that matter only to those involved in the conversation

technical sphere argument

argument that has explicit rules and is judged by those with specific expertise in the subject

public sphere argument

argument that exists to handle disagreements transcending personal or technical disputes

narrative

the representation of at least two real or fictive events or situations in a time sequence, neither of which presupposes or entails the other, are forms of symbolic action, they depict or describe events but aren’t the events themselves

personal memory

the manner in which individuals remember their own pasts

collective memory

a shared and constructed creation of a group or nation

myth

a dramatic vision that serves to organize everyday experience and give memory to life. teach cultural values

vivacity

a sense of immediacy or presence created through the use of descriptions, imagery, and colorful language that make an idea come alive

plot

the chain of causation of events within a narrative

character developmetment

2nd characteristic of good narratives, the process of describing the actions of and relationships among actors within a story

narrative fidelity

asks whether the events included in the story correspond to the audience’s experiences and understanding of reality

narrative probability

asks the question “what constitutes a coherent story” or, more simply, does the story hang together?

representative anecdote

a narrative that summarizes a person, thing, or situation. Helps critics understand the appropriateness of the narrative

comic frame

a view point that would have you see others as mistaken rather than as evil

tragic frame

a view point that would have you see others as vicious and evil rather than as mistaken. “evil implies that a person has an inherent detect, correction is not possible as a solution”