Framework for Our Study of Public Discourse
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Study of rhetoric is the study of: the rules, places, subjects, characteristics,
and strategies of language with which communities construct the public sphere.
- The scope of our study is the community's rhetorical practice
- The action we study is the everyday accomplishment of public purpose
- We view the community as the shaper of discourse
Our interest is a comparative study of American communities in different times
and different places all seeking to use their voices to address their public
concerns.
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Investigating the rhetoric of the community
Questions we will ask
- Where are the places for speaking toward public matters?
- Who is allowed to speak in the public sphere?
- Who is listened to when they speak in public?
- What subjects are talked about in public?
- What is/are the characteristic problem that requires rhetoric in the community?
- What situations are appropriately addressed by publics?
- What rules govern proper speaking in the public?
- How do the speakers establish authority?
- What characteristics mark speaking in the community?
- What strategies are common in speaking?
- How does the community motivate public action?
How we answer these questions
- We do intensive study of the discourses of the past
- We look for descriptions of speaking in diaries, newspapers, reports, books, etc.
- We look for instruction in rhetoric (particularly theories of speaking) that teach people how to participate in their community.
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Step by step in your study of the discourse of communities
Step 1: Learn something about life in the community
- How did people live their lives? What was a typical day? What were the rhythms of their life?
- What was important in their lives?
- How do they do their public lives?
- What were the institutions of their community?
Step 2: Learn something about speaking in the community
- Asking those questions above: where, who speaks, who is listened to, what subjects, what problems, in what situations, with what rules typical strategies, and characteristics, what generates authority and motivation
Step 3: Compare this knowledge with a speaker and speech from the community
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Step by step in your study of individual speeches
Step 1: Train your sensitivities to yield claims
- Trust your sensitivities about things that stand out
- Compare and contrast with other texts
- Use the questions and structures from the introduction to Reid and Klumpp
- Use the stimulus of our hypotheses about the community
Step 2: Formulate claims about the speech
- Who is speaking here? Why do they get to speak? Is this typical of this
community?
- Where is the speech given (or the rhetoric encountered)? Is this a typical
place in this community?
- How does the speaker establish authority? What do they think would lead people
of the community to listen to them?
- How do they frame the situation as a public concern? What justifies public
concern? What strategies intensify that concern? How is this framing grounded
in this community?
- How do they describe the situation? Why has it happened? What strategies
shape that description? Are those strategies typical in this community?
- How do they motivate public action? How do they justify the response they
champion? What strategies intensify the motivation of the community to act?
Are these typical in this community?
- What vocabulary do they use to frame, describe, and motivate? What ideographs?
What metaphors? What arguments? Are these typical of the community or special
to this speaker?
- What characterizes the style of the speech? Is the language common or elevated?
Is the style direct or wandering? Is this style typical of the community or
special to this speaker?
Step 3: Develop a sense of proof with text
- Be skeptical; drive your thesis into text. Be able to point to the specific
elements of the text that prove your interpretation.
Step 4: Question the significance of your observations
- Why is your observation important to understanding the speech's impact?
Its relationship to the community?
Step 5: Carry to understanding the power of speech in community
- What does your observation tell us about discourse in this community?
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What makes a good critic of discourse?
- Audacity of sensitivity constrained by the discipline of text
- Audacity of interpretation constrained by the discipline of proof
- A clear concise thesis which drives into text/context
- Ability to transform text into context
- Movement between text and society
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Thinking Through "the Public"
First, differentiate between public matters and private
matters
- Public matters are those that we sense are not ours alone, but
that we share attitudes and beliefs about them with others. For example, public
problems are those that we feel are not problems we should expect to solve
by ourselves, but that we should look to cooperation with others to address
them.
- Private matters are those that we do not seek to take beyond our
own awareness. We consider the involvement of others as meddling. For example,
we would address private problems on our own, not seeking the help
of others.
- The line between public and private is always a matter
for discussion and changes over time. In the age of AIDS we consider sexual
behavior to be a matter of public health and not a totally private matter.
Second, understand Public communication versus Mass communication
- The distinction is C. Wright Mills'.
"In a public . . . virtually as many people express opinions
as receive them; public communications are so organized that there is a chance
immediately and effectively to answer back to any opinion expressed in public.
Opinion formed by such discussion readily finds an outlet in effective action
. . . When these conditions prevail, we have the working model of a community."
"In a mass, far fewer people express opinions than receive
them; for the community of publics becomes an abstracted collectivity of individuals
who receive impressions from the mass media. The communications that prevail
are so organized that it is difficult or impossible for the individual to answer
back immediately or with any effect. The realization of opinion in action is
controlled by authorities who organize channels for such action. The mass has
no autonomy from institutions; on the contrary, agents of authorized institutions
interpenetrate this mass, reducing any autonomy it may have in the formation
of opinion by discussion."
"In a community of publics, discussion is the ascendant mode of communication,
and the mass media . . . simply enlarge and animate discussion, linking on primary
public with the discussions of another. In a mass society, the dominant
type of communication is by the formal media and the publics become media
markets."
- Mills believes that our culture has become a mass culture, and having done
so, it leaves us without effective ways to address matters we consider public.
Notice Mills differentiation:
| Public Communication is characterized by: |
Mass Communication is characterized by |
- as many people express opinions as receive them
|
- fewer people express opinions than receive them
|
- organized so that people may immediately and effectively answer
back when opinions are expressed
|
- organized as one-way communication so that there is no effective
way to answer back with any effectiveness
|
- Action follows immediately on discussion; power to act in discussants
|
- Action is only through mediation of those in authority, power to
act is remote from those in discussion
|
The mass society of the 20th century should be visible to you in Mills' description.
We sit on the verge of a possibility of a post-mass society era. That
should give you a sense for how alternatives are possible.
Third, define The Public Sphere
The Public Sphere is the place, time, and conditions under which we can
interact with others about public matters.
- The Public Sphere is not the governmental. The government
may project itself as the public sphere in order to attain power, but that
is merely one arrangement.
- The Public Sphere is not defined by leadership, but by
participation. Nevertheless, leadership exists within the public sphere.
Fourth, understand what we mean by "Public Address"
Not simply speaking in public, but the use of the voice to effect participation
in the public sphere.
Finally, consider the "Community" as a context for public life
The basis of public life lies in community. The people that we look to as compatriots
in the construction of our public life interact in the spaces or sites we create
for discussing and resolving public matters.
Contents to this file
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Understanding American Communities: Some
Key Sensitivities