When discussing
Bitzer's Rhetorical Situation, the important aspects he focuses on are the
exigence, constraints, and the audience. His focus is predominantly on what
caused the rhetorical situation and the action that it brings from the
audience. A powerful example of this would be the acts of Martin Luther King
Jr. Due to the injustice and severe mistreatment of African Americans, MLK
uses his rhetorical prowess to appeal to the countries ethical and emotional
values. In this case, the exigence is the mistreatment that they have been
faced with that brought on the powerful rhetoric of Martin Luther King Jr. The
audience is people of all colors, especially African Americans, who suffered
the injustices or disagree with the mistreatment and are moved by MLK’s
speeches to act and demand change. Also, Martin Luther King’s “I have A Dream”
speech is a perfect example of the rhetorical situation being used by him by
physically speaking to the audience and prompting the change of equal treatment
to African Americans. The biggest constraint that Martin Luther King Jr. and
his followers faced were the people that were against them and tried to
suppress them. Ultimately, this rhetorical situation brought on a powerful and
overdue change that lead to equal rights of all individuals regardless of
color.
As far as Rice is
concerned, her focus is on the Rhetorical Ecology and she defines it as coordinating
processes that move across the same social field and within shared structures
of feelings. This argues against Bitzer that the rhetorical situation he
portrays has a stagnant quality and does not embrace the quality of how this
public rhetorical situation doesn’t only exist in their elements but also in
the elements of neighboring events. A perfect example of rhetorical ecology
would be the social media outlet that is Facebook. Facebook allows for a
rhetorical ecology where an individual can express their rhetoric and interact
with that of others and a person’s feed allows for your rhetorical situation to
interact with neighboring events as well. There is a never-ending interaction
with the rhetor and their text as well as with the audience and the influence
that they have upon the rhetor’s text. It is like the blog mentioned at the end
of the article and how posts are left open for comments and how they can be
circulated through the aspect of sharing. It embraces and bleeds the qualities
of thinking/doing because most people are physically sharing their thoughts and
opinions in a social aspect.
They both tend to share the aspects of exigence, the rhetor,
audience, and constraints but Rice expands on how history, movement, and outside
factors will influence the rhetorical situation at hand. On the other hand, Bitzer
believes in a systematic rhetorical approach of how the exigence causes the
rhetoric which causes action in the audience and Rice allows for the flow of
other aspects to influence these qualities. I agree more with Rice because I
feel rhetoric is always changing and being influenced by outside factors.
Although there are situations that have the cut and dry feel that Bitzer
embraces, I feel many more situations flow in the way Rice acknowledges.
I really like the examples you picked! The rhetoric of MLK during the civil rights movement and Facebook are two completely different ideas but you found a way to connect them through Rice and Bitzer's evaluations. Your example of MLK's rhetoric during the civil rights movement helps me to better understand Bitzer's large focus on exigencies and how, to him, the exigence is what either makes a situation rhetorical or not. Your evaluation and explanation of the situation is very clear and helpful as it relates to Bitzer's exigencies. Your other example of Facebook as it relates to Rice is also another interesting example that emphasizes her main points of circulation and audience-author communication. Overall both your examples do a great job of articulating the main ideas of each author and helped me gain a better understanding of what is important to them!
ReplyDelete