P155: Lecture 1: Begin: 10:30
I. The course:
Not what this course is about, what it is for.
We are the subject of this course.
County jail: half IU students and half prisoners
How do we live and relate to one another in the public realm?
Speech
Voice
Life
II. Value of the course:
Work in a team
Make decisions and solve problems
Plan, organize and prioritize work
Communicate verbally with people inside and outside an organization
Obtain and process information
Create and/or edit written reports
Influence others
98% give presentations in front of others
(soft skills are not taught by employers)
Communication—time to master the art of communication
Automated workforce—communication skills “social intelligence”
The distinctive human art of representation
III. Dangers of oral communication: The distinctive human art of misrepresentation
Clinton-Lewinski scandal (“Google it…”)
The 7 Temptations of Rhetoric
- Deception
- Manipulation
- Seduction
- Propaganda
- Trickery
- Flimflam
- Equivocation
What is the good of rhetorical eloquence if it can deceive?
If it can go either way, why is it considered an art?
…a great power loosed
Like any power, rhetoric is a vehicle for good or evil
*useable concepts* means quiz question
Dangers………………………..Opportunities
Sophistry: manipulation, deception, equivocation; slick use of the tools of rhetoric to bamboozle
your audience
Vs.
Eloquence: self-reflection, self- cultivation, building community; the capacity of the beauty and
power of language to illuminate and move
The truth of the word
Finding the right word
“I Have a Dream” NOT in the body of the speech (high school auditorium)
 True eloquence
IV. What does the word PUBLIC mean?
Psychological
Sociological
Political
Once you are in the public eye you lack the ability to hide (Jennifer Lawrence and nude pics)
The public as the general will
The public realm as a commons*
1. Psychological: In the public eye
Anxiety
Public and private—what is private anymore?
“strangers” are persons with whom you have no personal acquaintance; persons who
are not a member of your family, group, community
2. Sociological: the agency of “the public”
The public has spoken
The silent majority
Polls show that most Americans
The people of this great country
Patriotism is at an all-time high after the shooting…
1.5 million marched in Paris—Charlie Hebdo, grew to 3.7 (half the country)
Polling
Tribalism—we want to delineate the boundaries of our groups
Amorphous
Anonymous
Transient
Shape-shifting
3. Political: The public realm as a political space (share a common space)
“An imperfect union” –Anti-Federalist Papers
Agreement is not always possible
Deliberation and decision in a democratic public sphere does not depend on consensus.
In fact, it’s designed to withstand dissensus and even benefit by conflict.
The Polis: the Greek ideal of public oral communication—citizenship
Small Athenian city-states/ common, homogenous values
Two models: civic virtue model and civil society model
Civic Virtue: easier to reach consensus-- friendship
We use civil society model (minimal that you need for this to work)
–tolerance, respect, agreed upon rights and obligations
In a civil society,
1. consensus is not likely
2. positions are often intransigent
3. values are rarely shared universally
4. positive change is usually only ever incremental
Common topics of conversation where we seek common ground (and seems as though we never will):
Police use of force
Wealth inequality
Date rape on campus
Gun laws
Why do we try? It’s what we got.
 Consent to live together in mutual respect despite not knowing each other and having
different values and goals
 Share the common resources
 Collaborate for common ends
Definition of the Public Sphere
A relationship of strangers struggling for the right balance of privileges and obligations for
maintaining a free common space.
Disclaimer: fudging a bit—move from society to community
IV. Our Teaching Approach
Not about communicating your feelings
Not about speaker to audience (simply)
We will start in the position of the audience
Famous quotes about why it is important to think of the audience before a speaker
thinks of what to say
audience centered approach should become automatic
cultivating a habitus: the sum of character attributes and propensities inculcated
through…
audience centered means:
1. strategic: to achieve speaker’s ends
2. ethical: to respond to audience’s needs and demands
3. constitutive: created by the interaction (speakers and listeners are not the same after an
exchange—we reconstitute ourselves by the very process of communication)
V. The History of Speech Theory
1. First stage: transmission model
2. Second stage: speech communication model
3. third stage: public sphere model
Linear and circular models only
Linear
Language as envelope—transmission: we don’t care about the context
From clerk of the registrar
From ex-landlord
From the Colts owner
Hypodermic needle model—a mode of progaganda, dangerous because it treats people as
objects
Circular
Public Oral Communication Model
Meaning is emergent
Audience is actively shaping the meaning
Context, interests, values, differences change the message itself
Knowing your release date—transmission
Everything else is circular
Review:
Skill + human competence
“Public”
Audience Centered Approach
The 3 Models of communication
Three top course goals:
Think habitually from the position of the other (audience centered)
Speak from a humanist rhetorical perspective (not sophistry)
Master the formal skill of extemp (be like King—no memorization)
Impromptu
Extemp (prepared by choosing words on the spot)
Scripted
HW: Read chapter 1, take quiz, any homework instructor assigns,