public rhetoric and practical communication composing with a purpose lecture 5: cat 125 elizabeth...

Public Rhetoric and Practical Communication

Composing with a Purpose

Lecture 5: CAT 125Elizabeth Losh

http://losh.ucsd.edu

Composing with a PurposeChoosing an Approach

http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=BYKVS_PHZvA#!http://www.youtube.com/watch?f&v=h-8PBx7isoM

Is Changing Someone’s MindAlways a Reasonable Goal?

Peter Coleman Sam Gregory

Basic Questions

What is the message?

Who is behind the message?

Who is the audience for the message?

What is the message intended to accomplish?

What is the message?

The Macy Conferences 1946-1953Interdisciplinary discussions of new areas of researchSystems theory, cybernetics, cognitive science, and Gestalt psychology

What is the message?

Signal and Noise in a Communication ChannelClaude Shannon

What is the message?

How do we define information?

The relationship between information and entropy

The relationship between information and uncertainty

C-H-O-_

C-H-O-C-O-L-A-T-_

What is the message?

I cnduo't bvleiee taht I culod aulaclty uesdtannrd waht I was rdnaieg. Unisg the icndeblire pweor of the hmuan mnid, aocdcrnig to rseecrah at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mttaer in waht oderr the lterets in a wrod are, the olny irpoamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rhgit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whoutit a pboerlm. Tihs is bucseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey ltteer by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Aaznmig, huh? Yaeh and I awlyas tghhuot slelinpg was ipmorantt! See if yuor fdreins can raed tihs too.

What is the message?

Roman Jakobson

Phatic Communication

Bronisław Malinowski"The problem of meaning in primitive languages" (1923)

Communication without significance that only creates or maintains social ties

Who is behind the message? (Lecture 3)

Who is behind the message? Who is Dylan Avery?

Who is behind the message? Who are you?

Who is the audience for the message? (Lecture 4)

What is the message intended to accomplish? (Lecture 5)

Edward BernaysCrystallizing Public Opinion (1923), Propaganda (1928), Public Relations (1945),The Engineering of Consent (1955)

Walter LippmanPublic Opinion (1922)

Clem Whitaker and Leone Baxter

Strategy 1: Social Media

Public DiplomacySocial MarketingInstitutional BrandingRisk Communication

Why was change needed?

Persuasion is different from deliberationThere is a conflict of interest when the

government is both a regulator and a content-creator

The public deserves more transparency not lessThe era of mass communication was changing

Strategy 2: Print & Broadcast Media

How can messages accomplish things?

J.L. Austin – Speech Act TheoryPerformative utterances don’t just describe the world or comment on the world . . . They change the world

Locutionary Acts with Consequences beyond the verbal, syntactic, and semantic aspects of a meaningful utterance

“Don’t go into the water.”A warning intended to scare

“Would you like to borrow my bootleg Clash tapes?”

An offer intended to impress

John SearleIllocutionary Acts

assertives = speech acts that commit a speaker to the truth of the expressed proposition, e.g. reciting a creed

directives = speech acts that are to cause the hearer to take a particular action, e.g. requests, commands and advice

commissives = speech acts that commit a speaker to some future action, e.g. promises and oaths

expressives = speech acts that express the speaker's attitudes and emotions towards the proposition, e.g. congratulations, excuses and thanks

declarations = speech acts that change the reality in accord with the proposition of the declaration, e.g. baptisms, pronouncing someone guilty or pronouncing someone husband and wife

J. L. AustinPerlocutionary Acts

Individual or group psychology rather than social or legal validation

“Saying something will often, or even normally, produce certain consequential effects upon the feelings, thoughts, or actions of the audience, or of the speaker, or of other persons: and it may be done with the design, intention, or purpose of producing them.”

Writing with PurposeThe Parking Scenario

A. Write a letter to the editorB. Write an e-mail to the chancellorC. Create a Facebook pageD. Write a press release announcing a protest eventE. Create a poster presentation with data from a research study

The True Function of TVs at UCSDhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFZb8i5VqFw

More Evidence, Less TestimonyDiebold Voting Machine Flips Votes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNYA5ggwG84

More Testimony, Less EvidenceUnited Breaks Guitars

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo

Writing with PurposeNorthwestern Journalism Students

What if you are highlighting experimental artwork?

What if you aren’t?

What if you don’t have a lot of experience composing with a purpose?