Film – the Persuaders:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/fr
ontline/shows/persuaders/
Week 5 Lecture 1:
Rhetoric, Persuasion, and the
Relationship Between Media and
State
• Decipher fallacies in arguments, looking at
how some questions can bear very confusing
and irrelevant answers
• Understand basic concepts of rhetoric and
learning to “read between the lines” of
arguments presented in the media.
WhatTF is Rhetoric, Anyway?
• People use “rhetoric” as shorthand for something
that isn’t true, or is spun ins ome way “Oh, that’s
just rhetoric.”
• That definition is only half right – as some of you
may already know, rhetoric refers to the study of
“the specialised use of language” or the “study
of the effective use of language.”
• If you are into it, tons of classical rhetorical
devices:
http://www.uky.edu/AS/Classics/rhetoric.html
Rhetoric and Politics – Indirect Speech,
Connotation, and Competitive Framing
• Indirect Speech: “Anything concrete a politician says is
bound to offend some sector of the population. …the
art of a lot of political rhetoric is to say things that are
vague enough that there is plausible deniablity…”
• Connotation: The way you say something can make it
like a swear word in a given context.
• Competitive Framing: “just about any issue can be
framed…different ways.”
– What is called “Spin Doctoring.”
• Steven Pinker
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DS4xVcko9qw )
History of Political Rhetoric
• The ancient Greeks valued public political debate and thus convincing
others of one’s position was an important skill.
• Aristototle’s idea of enthymeme
– People don’t spend the time reasoning every point out when speaking to a
large audience. They leave the major premise implied:
• Eg “"Foreign aid is in the best interest of Brazil because it will stabilize
Brazil's democracy.” Would be a legitimate enthymeme to
a US audience because it would be unspoken to that
audience that promoting democracy is a legitimate
goal.
• Aristotle identified three genres of rhetoric
– Deliberative
– Forensic
– Epideictic
Deliberative Rhetoric
• The classic “political” rhetoric (though we will see
that forensic and epidictic play a role).
• Focused on future action.
• The deliberative speaker is trying to convince her
audience to do something: communicating for, or
against, a given action.
• “an "embellished" statement of facts, with great
vivacity, to persuade the audience of
the honor and advantage that will accrue to
them if they choose to initiate a particular mode
of action for the future.”
• “deliberative rhetoric must engage what is
controversial, because the possible means to
given ends are always more or less subject to
doubt and disagreement. ”
Holloway, Carson. “The Dangerous
Vacuity of our Public Discourse.”
http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2
010/06/1346
For example, Churchill 1940
• Winston Churchill to the House of Commons on May 13, 1940
(facing invasion by Germany as well as France leaving the war.)
– “We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on
the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and
growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the
cost may be,we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the
landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall
fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not
for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated
and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by
the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time,
the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue
and the liberation of the old.”
Forensic Rhetoric
• Focused on the past.
• Judicial, charged with determining the truth or
falsity of events that took place in the past.
• For example, in a court of law.
Epidictic Rhetoric
• “rhetoric of praise and blame”
• Epidictic speech is about promoting common
values – rather than making an argument one
way or the other.
• Strengthens already existing points of view.
• You aren’t trying to convince anyone of
anything.
Example: Football Songs
• Arsenal – “By Far the Greatest Team”
– http://fanchants.com/football-songs/arsenalchants/arsenal-fc/
Example: Swedish Extremist Stickers
• “The stickers are more to be seen as
statements about the world than as attempts
at persuading citizens to change opinions. “
Vigso, Orla. “Extremist Stickers: Epideictic
Rhetoric, Political Marketing, and Tribal
Demarcation.” Journal of Visual Literacy, 2010
Volume 29, Number 1, 28-46
Vigso, Orla. “Extremist Stickers: Epideictic
Rhetoric, Political Marketing, and Tribal
Demarcation.” Journal of Visual Literacy, 2010
Volume 29, Number 1, 28-46
• With the rise of the Christian Church in the West
the nature of rhetoric changed.
• Rhetoric was criticized, and only seen as useful
when it promulgated “correct doctrine.”
• Epidectic rhetoric thus became more common:
not making an argument, but reinforcing an
already existing stance.
• With Reformation/Enlightenment, movement
toward the modern liberal nation state,
deliberative rhetoric again took center stage.
Is Political Language Getting Dumber?
• Susan Jacoby on the use of the word “folks” –
trying
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVRQal2_28&feature=channel
Rhetorical Fallacies
• Going to examine some of each type that
might have been more complicated.
• Since you’ve the worksheet with you, we’ll go
backwards – show they example and then
show which it is.
• Three types:
– 1. Emotional Fallacy
– 2. Ethical Fallacy
– 3. Logical Fallacy
Emotional Fallacies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23kmhc3P8U&feature=related George Bush
• Either/Or Choices
• Red Herring
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wp76ly2_
NoI - Gathering Storm
• Scare Tactics, maybe also bandwagon (as they
even have a gay woman)
Indian Twins
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSs_16SclII&playnext=1&list=PL235373B
5881A0883
• Sentimental Appeal (what do these cute kids
to do with banking?)
Ethical Fallacies
• Advance the speaker’s own authority or
character
Rand Paul – Doctor http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwC-kBeLkgg
• False authority/Personal Authority as Proof
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpmFd25tRqo (John McCain)
• Ad hominem (attacking his character – lots of
houses – rather than his policies).
Logical Fallacies
(flaws within the argument itself)
Bill Clinton – sorry, I can’t help it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiIP_KDQmXs
• Equivocation: Equivocation happens when two
different meanings of a single term are used in
the proposition or argument (Maboloc, et. al,
2006).
–
–
–
–
A is B
B is C
A must be C (but meaning of B has changed.)
(B = “sexual relations” in this case)
Saying the same
thing again, but
presenting it as a
reason.
“British troops should stay in Afghanistan as long as they are needed.
” This is why I’m hot. I'm hot 'cause I'm fly, you ain't cause you not.” - MIMS
• Begging the question: to restate the original
claim in a different way (presenting as true a
premise which needs proof).
• It DOES NOT MEAN “raising a question.”
Bla, bla…Why Do We Care?
The Power of Persuasion.
• Rhetoric’s origins in the West are closely tied – at
least mythologically – with our earliest
democratic systems “ancient Greece.”
• The modern broadcast media moves the art of
rhetoric to center stage, and thus changed the
relationship between rhetoric, media, and
democracy.
• Example: Nixon/Kennedy Debate (1960)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHGs4535W_
o&feature=related
What is the relationship between
media and democracy?
Models of Democracy - Changing
• Direct Democracy: Ancient Athens. 15th
Century Switzerland. Certain communes. All
citizens vote (but in most contexts, not all
residents are citizens. Land owning males in
ancient Greece, for example –women, slaves,
etc are SOL).
• Representative Democracy: US, India. “The
modern norm” for democracy.
Adapted from notes from a lecture
by Gholam Khiabany, “Media,
Power, and Democracy” as Part of
Political Communication course 18
Can a large scale democracy exist
without media?
• Possibly not –
– How else could candidates present their views to
voters?
– How else could voters know what their
representatives do?
– How else could problems get attention?
– How else could different points of view be
debated?
Adapted from notes from a lecture
by Gholam Khiabany, “Media,
Power, and Democracy” as Part of
Political Communication course 18
Jan 2010.
• In order to have functioning democracy, then
– Technology: There must be mass media
– Access: It must be equally accessible to all
– Content: It must offer opportunities for opposing
views to be heard. They must cover public affairs
(not just Big Brother all the time)
– Legal: They must be free to criticize power.
Lecture by Gholam Khiabany,
“Media, Power, and Democracy” as
Part of Political Communication
course 18 Jan 2010.
Two ways of understanding the
relationship between Media and
Democracy
• 1. As “the Fourth Estate”
• 2. As “a Public Watchdog”
Lecture by Gholam Khiabany,
“Media, Power, and Democracy” as
Part of Political Communication
course 18 Jan 2010.
Media as the Fourth Estate
• Reference to media as the “fourth estate”
– Refers to the relationship between media and power.
– Media is essential to understanding the democratic
process: it plays a critical role.
• This comes from the idea that media keeps
power “in check”
– Carlyle wrote in his history of the French Revolution.
"A Fourth Estate, of Able Editors, springs up; increases
and multiplies, irrepressible, incalculable.” (The other
three being church, aristocrats, and bourgeois –
though those first two obviously don’t apply still
today we still use the term). Lecture by Gholam Khiabany,
“Media, Power, and Democracy” as
Part of Political Communication
course 18 Jan 2010.
Media as the Fourth Estate
• In this model, media is part of the political
model – but this makes it a nonpreresentative “estate” (unlike say, a
Parliament or theParliament
Judiciary).
(or
Congress)
Prime
Minister
(or
President)
The
Media
Judiciary
Lecture by Gholam Khiabany,
“Media, Power, and Democracy
Part of Political Communication
course 18 Jan 2010.
Media as Public Watchdog
• This theory takes the media
outside of the political process.
• The media acts on behalf the the
public.
• This theory does not see the media
as part of the elite – but it also
doesn’t see them as part of the
public.
• Does the mass media really play
such a role in contemporary
societies?
– Individual journalists and editors
might.
– But who are they accountable to?
The Media
The Public
The
Government
Lecture by Gholam Khiabany,
“Media, Power, and Democracy” as
Part of Political Communication
course 18 Jan 2010.
• Tradition of muckracking journalism arose in
late 19C – a tradition many journalists still see
themselves as part of: speaking truth to power.
• Growth in “watchdog” style reporting – where
the press holds government accountable for
wrongdoing – in post-Soviet countries.
• But democracies don’t hold a monopoly on this
style of reporting:
Watchdog Journalism in China
Coronel, Sheila S. “The Media as
Watchdog.” Harvard-World
BankWorskshop 29031st May 2008.
Harvard Kennedy School of
Government
…and not all democracies can protect
their journalists
• Phillipines, Mexico, Columbia, Russia –
journalist deaths are common.
• In 2010, 57 journalists were killed world wide
– according to Reporters Without BordersCriminal gangs and militias were increasingly
to blame, while the number killed in war
zones fell.
Alternatives to “Watchdog” Theory of
Relationship Between Media and
Government
• “Development Journalism” school arguesthat in
poorer countries, the media have a duty to
“promote development goals” (Coronel 3) – and
that being a watchdog to the government might
at times go against this.
• “Asian Values” school: in 1990s, some people
argued that the “Watchdog” theory might work
for Western democracies but in Asia, “the
media’s role is to promote social consensus for
strong governements in persuit of economic
growth” (Coronel 3)
In Summary: Principals of Liberal
Theory of the Media
•
•
•
•
Press provides a range of information
Press acts as a watchdog
Press are in private hands, operated by private property
LIMITATIONS
–
–
–
–
–
Might not make sense in every political context.
Adversarial press can disillusion voters.
Media owners are interested in profit – is this democratic.
What role does advertising play (as we saw in Murrow film).
If media are watchdogs to the state – what about business?
How to account for investigative journalism that will hold them
accountable as well.
Lecture by Gholam Khiabany,
“Media, Power, and Democracy” as
Part of Political Communication
course 18 Jan 2010.
• Film today is called The Persuaders, it’s a 2004
documentary on PR and marketing but also
talks about political advertising and political
communication.
• It will tie in nicely with our next lecture on
Political Campaigns and Communications.
Briefly:
• Marketing is about selling a product. It has a
short term focus. It’s goal is to sell a product,
person, or thing.
• Public Relations (PR) is about managing a
reputation. It has long term focus. Its goal is to
maintain a positive reputation for the product,
person, or thing.
• Lots of overlap, obviously, but they are
fundamentally different things.
• The guy who made the documentary we’re
going to watch is named Doug Rushkoff.
• Came up with a theory in the early 1990s
(ancient times) that still keeps popping up…
Rushkoff’s “Media Virus”
• From 1994 – before
the modern internet!
• “Wrapped around any
great media virus,
there is a provocative
outer casing or "shell"
of media.”
• Inside is “the viral
code” the message.
Shell
Code
• As Rushkoff notes, it wasn’t always this way:
“branding and advertising were simply ways to
publicize and identify one's products.”
• But with broadcast media – mainly TV – the
way we sold things changed.
• “Things” including: dish soap. Political
candidates…
I leave you with the words of David
Ogilvy
• most people cannot tell the difference between
their own "favorite" whiskey and the closest two
competitors': "Have they tried all three and
compared the taste? Don't make me laugh. The
reality is that these three brands have different
images which appeal to different kinds of people.
It isn't the whiskey they choose, it's the image.
The brand image is ninety percent of what the
distiller has to sell.”