SESSION SIX: The Art of Rhetoric

Woodsy Owl was the mouthpiece for a 1970's public service campaign to prevent littering.
To view a public service announcement (PSA) from the campaign, see the links below.

Tonight, we examined the S (sender) of the SMCR model by investigating the art of rhetoric. Our search focused on two questions: 1) What is rhetoric? and 2) What rhetorical techniques do senders use to influence public opinion?

Rhetoric is generally thought of as the art of persuasion through effectively (carefully crafted) speaking and writing. The study of rhetoric dates back to Aristotle (ancient Greece) and encompasses law, politics and art. Today's rhetoric surpasses speaking and writing to include multimedia effecting all of the human senses. Rhetorical strategies can impact sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch as well as logic (reason). Common rhetorical fallacies include: appealing to emotions or authority; using metaphors, allusions or archetypes; creating a bandwagon; introducing a red herring; and many more. To examine rhetoric in practice, we read Barthes' Operation Margarine and Zizek's A Cup of Decaf Reality.

- DUE SESSION 7 (3/05) -
Writing Assignment: Journal 6
Project Homework: LAP Proposal (worksheet)
Reading:

• Collective Opinion as Social Force - Irving Crespi (pp. 47-75)
  
• Public Service Announcement (MBC)
  
• Public Service Announcement (Wikipedia)
• Public Opinion (Wikipedia)

Other PSA Viewing Resources:

• Prelinger Archives
• The Ad Council
  
• Youth for Human Rights
  
• Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign

Viewing Assignment (required):

• David Lynch's Public Service Announcement ('06)
• The faster the speed, the bigger the mess ('06)
• This is your brain on drugs ('80s)
• Give a hoot; don't pollute ('70s)
• Take a bite out of crime ('81)
• Perversion for Profit ('65)
• Duck and Cover ('51)
• The Egg and US ('52)

- JOURNAL 6 - Select and view any two of the public service announcments listed above. React to the announcement by responding to the following questions:

• What public issue does the campaign address?
• What rhetorical devices (appeal to emotion, etc.) does it employ?
• What techniques (audio, camera angles, etc.) does it use?
• How does the ad engineer public opinion regarding the issue?

Click on the image below to view a printable version of the campaign proposal worksheet.

SESSION FIVE: The Politics of Representation

Tonight, we examined the M (message) of the SMCR model by looking at representations and their connection to reality. We focused our discussion on three questions: 1) What is a representation? 2) How are representations used to frame or shape reality? 3) How has the representation/reality relationship evolved?

We started our investigation by discussing three types of representations, each characterized by a different relationship to reality. Copies are representations that copy reality exactly as it is. Symbolic representations use symbols (such as words or graphics) to point to something in the real world. Whereas, interpretive representations show reality in an artistic or subjective way.

- DUE SESSION 6 (2/26) -
Writing Assignment: Journal 5
Viewing Assignment (required): The Living Room Candidate
Project Homework: LAP preparation
Reading:

• Operation Margarine - Roland Barthes
• A Cup of Decaf Reality - Slavoj Zizek
• The Public Sphere - Jurgen Habermas
• The Public Sphere (Sparknotes)

- JOURNAL 5 - Visit The Living Room Candidate site. Select and view one presidential campaign commercial. React to the commercial by responding to the following questions:

• What reality/worldview does the commercial represent?
• How is this representation used to engineer public opinion regarding the candidate?
• What cinematic techniques (audio, camera angles, lighting, etc.) does it use to "manufacture consent"?
• What rhetorical devices (appeal to emotion; appeal to authority; etc.) does it employ?

SESSION FOUR: Mass Media Reception

This session, we examined the R (receiver) of the SMCR model, focusing on three key questions: 1) Who is the mass audience? 2) How is the mass audience shaped? and 3) Is today's mass audience different from past audiences? If so, how? To dissect these questions, we began by outlining the important role of media in our lives today. And, despite the fact that we feel autonomous in our ideas/actions/beliefs, our intake of mass media (as much as 9 hours each day!) has a profound effect upon our lives as individual and social beings.

Our shared media experiences unify us; they construct shared culture and beliefs. Meaning is not something that can occur solo. And, while it may appear that we freely choose mass media communications, our freedom is limited by the choices offered. For media critics, such as Noam Chomsky, these limitations are a method of manufacturing mass consent. Elite media (consisting of corporations and experts) construct a single mass mind, while weeding dissenting opinions out via socialization, fatigue and mass distraction. Critic Guy Debord also focuses upon the power of mass distraction. For Debord, the passivity and alienation of modern life results from the dominance of spectacle, where representations have replaced reality.

- DUE SESSION 5 (2/20) -
Writing Assignment: Journal 4
Viewing Assignment (required): Growing Up Online
Project Homework: Public Issue Research (3 pages)
Reading:

• Simulacra and Simulations - Jean Baudrillard
• The Politics of Representation in Network Television - Herman Gray (chapter 23)
  
• Notes on the Construction of Reality in TV News Programmes - David Chandler

- JOURNAL 4 - View the Frontline documentary Growing Up Online. React to the documentary by answering our three key questions for this session: 1) Who is the mass audience? 2) How is the mass audience shaped? and 3) Is today's mass audience different from past audiences? If so, how?

Click on the .jpg below for a printable version of the public issue research guidelines.

SESSION THREE: Mass Media Construction

Tonight, we attempted to dissect three key questions: 1) What are mass media? 2) How have mass media evolved historically? 3) How is the evolution of mass media connected to larger cultural and social change? While we did not determine exact answers to these questions, our discussion outlined general changes in human communication (Orality -> Scribality -> Print -> Electric) and connected these changes to media inventions (Language -> Writing -> Print - Electricity).

To understand these shifts, we examined two pivotal texts: Marshal McLuhan's The Medium is the Message and Walter Benjamin's The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. Both of these texts helped us to focus on the construction of media, or channels, through which messages are developed and sent.

- DUE SESSION 4 (2/13) -
Writing Assignment: Journal 3
Project homework: Campaign analysis (3-5 pages).
Reading:

• The Society of Spectacle – Guy Debord (chapters 1 & 2)
• What Makes Mainstream Media Mainstream - Noam Chomsky
• Media in Our Thoughts and Lives - Arthur Asa Berger (pp. 9-24)

- JOURNAL 3 - Share a brief description of the three sources you have selected for your campaign analysis. You do not need to analyze the sources; simply give a few details.

Below, please find a printable .jpg of the Campaign Analysis Guidelines.