ENGL/COMM/WRDS: The Rhetoric of Fear » January 10th: Introduction to the Class

January 10th: Introduction to the Class

Tonight we will get to know each other and find out the course goals and requirements. I will go over the syllabus and highlight some important dates and assignments to come. Then, we’ll get to know our classmates and go over the texts for tonight (possibly in a different order than what’s below).

Your Story

I want us to get to know one another briefly. I hope you were able to put this up before tonight, but, if you haven’t, no worries. Just make sure you do this soon. Below are the questions from Canvas:

  • Name (preferred pronouns)
  • Year (don’t say “2023″; I mean your year in the/a program—Junior, Senior, etc.)
  • Major/Minor
  • Hometown(s)
  • Job and Future Job (aspiration)
  • For this next group of questions, if you don’t have a favorite, just let us know your most recent.
    • Favorite Book
    • Favorite Movie
    • Favorite TV Show
    • Favorite Video Game
  • Favorite Technology
  • If you had to pick one thing (source, person, specific authority, etc.) that you trust the most, what would it be?
  • What do you expect in “The Rhetoric of Fear”?

Ubiquity of Rhetoric

You’d think that with such a rich history, rhetoric would be introduced to students long before college. Well, it is, but not necessarily as a pillar of Western Civilization. The term comes up when politicians or their critics denounce an opponent’s speech as empty; therefore, “rhetoric” is often associated popularly with “empty speech,” non-contributing verbiage, or fluff.

But the study of rhetoric is much more complicated. Just as each discipline has its own epistemology–the study of knowledge, its foundations and validity– each discipline’s communication has a rhetoric. And rhetoric isn’t limited simply to disciplines: Movements, Social Norms, Technology, Science, Religion, etc. have a rhetoric. I often define such analyses into “rhetorics of…” as common factors surrounding the power or belief in a particular area. In other words, beliefs, attitudes, values, and practices are rhetorics of prevailing social ideology: One’s acceptance of cultural “truth” is based largely on one’s immersion into the culture’s myths and beliefs. Therefore, this definition of rhetoric requires us to recognize the relationship among sender-receiver-mediator. Of course, for our discussion, the “mediator” is culture. There is no concrete, definitive transmission of rhetorically pure communication. Sender and receiver filter the message(s) based on their experiences. Lucky for us, we can locate prevailing patterns in messages because culture mediates them. When doing a rhetorical analysis, you have to ask what are common ways particular ideas are conveyed in a culture. There are plenty of examples in new media.

For instance, what’s the rhetoric behind Hollywood movies that end in marriage and/or babies? Well, getting married and having children is a major cultural practice, so that gets “played out” in films. Additionally, women are often consider babymakers in search of a man to donate the necessary ingredient, so female characters in Hollywood films have traditionally not been *complete* until they marry and have children or somehow fulfill a woman’s socially constructed “proper” role according to prevailing attitudes. Because our culture (remember, this is a generalization) favors families as opposed to singles, the rhetoric of our entertainment—the power behind acceptance or enjoyment of a film—conforms to the cultural value of privileging families.

A brief Introduction of Rhetoric.

Asimov’s “A Cult of Ignorance”

Let’s discuss the article you read for today. I use this in nearly every class I teach and have notes and questions for further thought on this 43-year-old article that’s still relevant today. Please head over to the “Cult of Ignorance” webpage for the discussion.

Other Texts for This Evening

If I haven’t already discussed the goals and vision for this course, let me do that now. This class is related to my current book project, but it’s not identical. The book is much more narrowly focused on politics, but I want this class to be more expansive. Let’s discuss Slovic and Withey a bit more formally; then, we’ll discuss the video and painting. I’m interested in your impressions.

Slovic, Paul. “Perception of Risk” (on Canvas)

I know what you’re thinking: how can such an old article be valuable for us? It’s not that old…only about 36 years old. Although this article assumes more sociological expertise, Science is a bit more general and aims for a variety of scientific audiences. We’ll just gloss over the statistical jargon (multidimensional scaling, multivariate analysis, etc.)

  • p. 280: Survival is also aided by an ability to codify and learn from past experience.
  • p. 280: “…to evaluate hazards, the majority of citizens rely on intuitive risk judgments, typically called ‘risk perceptions.'”
  • p. 280: “…experience with hazards tends to come from the news media, which rather thoroughly document mishaps and threats occurring throughout the world. The dominant perception for most Ameri­cans…is that they face more risk today than in the past and that future risks will be even greater than today’s.”
  • p. 281: “…perception and acceptance of risk have their roots in social and cultural factors.”
  • p. 281: “…probabilistic processes, biased media coverage, misleading personal experiences, and the anxieties generated by life’s gambles…”
  • p. 281: “New evidence appears reliable and informative if it is consistent with one’s initial beliefs; contrary evidence tends to be dismissed as unreliable, erroneous, or unrepresentative.”
    • You still don’t think this is relevant? The authors just theorized echo chamber.
  • pp. 282-283: :…the concept ‘risk’ means different things to different people. When experts judge risk, their responses correlate highly with technical estimates of annual fatalities.”
  • p. 283: “…the higher its perceived risk, the more people want to see its current risks reduced, and the more they want to see strict regulation employed to achieve the desired reduction in risk.”
    • Let’s pause on this for rhetorical reflection. How might this be useful for your understanding of persuasion? What might this reveal about a potential lay audience.
  • p. 285: “…people’s deep anxieties are linked to the reality of extensive unfavorable media coverage and to a strong association between nuclear power and the proliferation and use of nuclear weapons.”
  • p. 285: CONCLUSION–“In short, ‘riskiness’ means more to people than ‘expected number of fatalities.’ Attempts to characterize, compare, and regu­late risks must be sensitive to this broader conception of risk.”

Withey, Michael. Mastering Logical Fallacies “Foreword,” “Introduction,” & “Key Terms,” pp. 7-13
Red Hot Chili Peppers. “Otherside.” {Video and Lyrics}
Antonello da Messina. Vergine Annunciata, c. 1476. A 21st Century text: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z37ulRPTmfE

Find Examples of Rhetoric

Although I don’t want you to assume rhetoric is always about nefarious stuff, try to be on the lookout for examples of rhetorical chicanery. Throughout the semester, I’ll try to provide examples of the rhetoric of fear or rhetoric in general. I happened across these two articles today:

What do you think about the titles? What do you expect the articles to discuss?

Next Week

Keep up with the syllabus. You have readings on Canvas. If you plan to be in this course, get the textbooks for the class. Your first textbook reading will be in two weeks—January 24th. Don’t forget to do this week’s Weekly Discussion Post–Your Introduction–on Canvas. Set a reminder because these will be due every Thursday by 11:00 pm.