Journal 2 - Demetree

The first thing that comes to my mom when thinking about rhetorical situations are Donald Trump’s speeches.  Trump was able to coerce wary voters into voting for him based on how he spoke and what he spoke about.  Trump displayed many signs of Bitzer’s rhetorical situation by using exigence, audience, and constraints.  He talked about issues that are happening in the US today, and was able to sway voters into voting for him based off of the issues he spoke about.  He used his audience, which was primarily white, conservative, older-generation people from rural parts of the US to drive his points, knowing how most of these people thought about politics and about the issues he would be discussing.  Lastly, he did know his constraints and how to get around the fact that most of the people voting for him were of the same class and age group.  Edbauer’s theory of rhetorical ecology however, did play a large role in Trump’s campaign as well.  When the audio of Trump speaking badly about women was revealed, many voters turned on him.  This example of rhetorical circulation or ecology is very evident because it shows how a circulating text can rapidly change the minds of voters.  Another example of both Bitzer and Edbauer’s theories would be a text like the Bible.  Bitzer’s point about audience, exigence, and constraints are very evident here because the Bible has a certain audience that follows it, speaks of exigences that are happening in our world today, and has many constraints on who is reading and actually following out its practices or believing it.  Edbauer talks a lot about circulating texts and materials and how they are fluid and ever changing.  This is similar to the Bible argument because the Bible comes in many different versions and languages.  A person who picks up and reads it may not be Christian or know anything about Christianity, they may just think it’s a storybook.  Both theories are very sound and have a lot of similarities and differences.  I think that both Bitzer and Edbauer would agree that rhetoric can influence an audience or group of people however, the fixed rule of the audience is where there is disagreement. Bitzer believes there is a fixed audience, and Edbauer argues that this audience is ever changing and fluid.  In my opinion, I agree more with Edbauer’s theory simply because it is closer to our generation, which has forever changed rhetoric with the invention of Internet.