Sydney - Stanford || Cross-Cultural Rhetoric Video Conference || May 2009
Workshop page link: http://ccr.stanford.edu/workshops/051209.html
Activity: Presentation and Rhetorical Analysis of Cartoons/Texts across Cultures
I. 10 Minutes
Getting to Know Teams in a Cross-Cultural Context
Location: Rooms A, B, C, D, & E at http://switchboard.stanford.edu
.
Activity: Introduce yourselves by name, age, course of study, place of origin. Type names and emails on the whiteboard; discuss with each other what “arguments” are made by the Stanford
( http://www.stanford.edu
) and Sydney ( http://www.usyd.edu.au/ ) university homepages based on your rhetorical analysis of these websites.
II. 30 minutes
Presentation and Group Rhetorical Analysis of Political Cartoons and Texts
Group members take turns giving 1 minute of presentation about your cartoon or image, then receiving feedback on the analysis and presentation style. Be sure to limit yourselves to 5 minutes of discussion per presentation to insure that each group member has a chance to present and to receive feedback.
Consider the following while responding to the presentations:
 What is the central argument of the cartoon/image presented? Is there an additional
argument being made? What specific visual, linguistic or rhetorical elements contribute to making that argument? Does that cultural argument work through logic
(logos), character (ethos), or emotions (pathos)? Why might those appeals work right now
(kairos)? How does the text reflect or shape culture (doxa)?
 Discuss the audience/audiences. Who do you think is addressed by the text? How might other audiences respond to the message? Are there audiences who might not understand it? What aspects of the text might be seen as offensive, funny, endearing, outrageous to certain audiences and why? What do you learn about the importance of word choice, image combination, context, audience, and purpose?
 As a member of the audience for the presentation, what more did you want to know about the analysis or research topic? What are some ideas for helping the speaker to tailor his/her presentation to be effective to cross-cultural audiences?
Tech Tip: If you have a saved copy of your image on your computer, you can use the “Open >
Image” command under the file menu in Marratech to open the image on the whiteboard so that everyone in your group can see it.
III. 10 minutes
Collaborative Group Work
Activity: As a team, create a statement or list that describes 3-5 best practices for presenting your analysis or topic across cultures. Use the collaborative white board to draft this statement or list TOGETHER as a group. When you have finished, post the list as a comment to the blog post at http://www.stanford.edu/group/ccr/blog/2009/05/communicating_ideas_across_cul.html - be sure to note the names of the different members of your group in your comment.
(flip over for further instructions → )

IV. After the Video Conference
Please post a blog comment in which you reflect on today’s video conference at http://www.stanford.edu/group/ccr/blog/2009/05/sydneystanford_video_conferenc.html
 What did you learn about intercultural communication and rhetoric across cultures from this video exchange?
 What was most memorable moment or element of the exchange? What surprised you the most?
 What new insights do you have that you can use for your presentation, your research project, or future intercultural communications?