An
example of something that illustrates Bitzer’s Rhetorical Situation are the
women marches that occurred all over the world on January the 21st. Like
Bitzer said, rhetoric is the product of a situation. Rhetoric occurs because of
a situation, so it is dependent on something happening before it is created.
The current president of the United States and other political leaders have
made a strong stance in fulfilling their campaign promises that affect woman in
our country. For example, they have promised to defund health organizations
such as Planned Parenthood, which has provided sexual and reproductive health
services to many who need it. As this situation to defund Planned Parenthood
and take control of a women’s body has escalated, women responded by marching
for their rights. At these marches, many women gave speeches that responded to
the agenda of politicians. The oral text used that was spurred from the
situation of women’s rights being in danger is an example of Bitzer’s
Rhetorical Situation. I have included a speech by America Ferrera, actress and activist, where she responds to the president's agenda that negatively affects woman in our country.
For
Edbauer’s rhetorical ecologies, an example would be the Pepe the Frog meme. The
Pepe meme originated from a comic, and it was originally meant as a positive symbol
with the accompanying caption “feels good man.” However, may people have taken
the pepe symbol and used it to create new meaning. Most recently, the Anti-Defamation
League has added Pepe the Frog as a hate symbol because of its recognition as a
symbol adopted by anti-semites, racists, and the alt-right movement. This
proves Edbauer’s thoughts about rhetoric being ecological and constantly
changing. I have attached the image of the original Pepe the Frog and a link where you can find many examples of the meme transformed to have a very negative meaning.
Bitzer,
who argues that rhetoric is spewed from a situation, is contradictory to
Edbauer’s view that rhetoric is subjective. I agree more with Edbauer’s
description more because it is more focused on the fluidity of rhetoric and the
factors that influence a way that rhetoric is interpreted.
Kelly,
ReplyDeleteI really like your example about the recent women's marches. I think the new President and his agenda sparked the exigency and created the situation to speak out and fight for women's rights. America's speech was a great one. I enjoyed Scarlett Johansson speech as well.
Your Pepe the Frog meme example was spot on. It helped reinforce the idea of circulation to me. Similar to the "Keep Austin Weird" slogan, a lot of people switched the context of the slogan, in this case meme, and gave it a multitude of meanings.
I think your example for Edbauer of Pepe the Frog worked really well! The meaning of it keeps changing based on the people who've been using it, whether thesis towards a positive or negative light, and greatly exemplifies the circulation of text. I completely agree with your preference of Edbauer as well.
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