Introduction

Author(s):  
Michael J. MacDonald

This introduction provides an overview of the aims, audience, structure, and content of The Oxford Handbook of Rhetorical Studies. In addition to defining rhetoric and mapping the field of rhetorical studies, it provides a historical context for the contemporary resurgence of interest in rhetoric through a discussion of new methods of textual and historical analysis, the modern expansion of the field of rhetoric, and novel forms of rhetorical theory and practice made possible by new media technologies. The introduction also provides detailed summaries of all 60 chapters, arranged thematically to offer a topical survey or “snapshot” of the Handbook as a whole. In general, the introduction argues that rhetoric, far from being moribund, is a protean, multifaceted art that plays a key role in myriad academic disciplines (drama, literature, philosophy, etc.) and fields of social practice (law, politics, education, etc.).

One of the most remarkable trends in the humanities and social sciences in recent decades has been the resurgence of interest in the history, theory, and practice of rhetoric: in an age of global media networks and viral communication, rhetoric is once again “contagious” and “communicable” (Friedrich Nietzsche). Featuring 60 commissioned chapters by eminent rhetoric scholars from 12 countries, The Oxford Handbook of Rhetorical Studies offers students and teachers an engaging but sophisticated one-volume introduction to the multidisciplinary field of rhetorical studies. The Handbook traces the history of Western rhetoric from ancient Greece and Rome to the present and surveys the role of rhetoric in more than 30 academic disciplines and fields of social practice. This combination of historical and topical approaches allows readers to chart the metamorphoses of rhetoric over the centuries while mapping the connections between rhetoric and law, politics, science, education, literature, feminism, poetry, composition, critical race theory, philosophy, drama, criticism, deconstruction, digital media, art, semiotics, architecture, and other fields. In addition to offering an accessible and comprehensive introduction to rhetoric in the European and North American context, the Handbook includes an introduction with summaries of all 60 chapters, a timeline of major works of rhetorical theory, translations of all passages in Greek and Latin, and a glossary of more than 300 rhetorical terms. Taken together, the chapters in this volume demonstrate that rhetoric is not merely an art of stylish communication but a pragmatic, inventive, and critical art that operates in myriad social contexts and academic disciplines.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 267-279
Author(s):  
Ahmet Atay

Because of rapid developments in new media technologies and digital platforms, we live in a media-driven and highly digitalized society. Most of our everyday experiences are either highly mediated or digitalized. Hence, we live in a complex and multidimensional cyberculture. In order to understand and make sense of our experiences and identities within this culture, as scholars, we require fresh, new methods; hence, I propose cyber or digital autoethnography. In this essay, I define cyber or digital autoethnography and making a case for their importance. I will also outline cyber or digital autoethnography’s potentiality.


2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 437-453 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ralph Schroeder

AbstractVisions of media spanning the globe and connecting cultures have been around at least since the birth of telegraphy, yet they have always fallen short of realities. Nevertheless, with the internet, a global infrastructure has emerged, which, together with mobile and smartphones, has rapidly changed the media landscape. This far-reaching digital connectedness makes it increasingly clear that the main implications of media lie in the extent to which they reach into everyday life. This article puts this reach into historical context, arguing that, in the pre-modern period, geographically extensive media networks only extended to a small elite. With the modern print revolution, media reach became both more extensive and more intensive. Yet it was only in the late nineteenth century that media infrastructures penetrated more widely into everyday life. Apart from a comparative historical perspective, several social science disciplines can be brought to bear in order to understand the ever more globalizing reach of media infrastructures into everyday life, including its limits. To date, the vast bulk of media research is still concentrated on North America and Europe. Recently, however, media research has begun to track broader theoretical debates in the social sciences, and imported debates about globalization from anthropology, sociology, political science, and international relations. These globalizing processes of the media research agenda have been shaped by both political developments and changes in media, including the Cold War, decolonization, the development of the internet and other new media technologies, and the rise of populist leaders.


Author(s):  
Enrico Proietti

The European Commission faced the subject of educational relation between new media technologies and expressions of culture in order to adopt pondered policies. This article reports on the proceedings of an Open Method of Coordination Working Group, whose task has been to study the synergies between education and culture, regarding the new methods of artistic and cultural education provided by new technologies. By illustrating the debate on Media Literacy across Europe, it shows the specific recommendations expressed by the Group. Special focus is given on the educational application of new technologies to cultural heritage. By using this paratextual tool society could improve comprehension. As happened during a workshop of the Working Group, this paper focuses on the educational significance of using archaeological contexts. The necessary mental attitude to imagine and reconstruct past exteriorities involves a lot of contexts, above all the virtual one.


2014 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 732-754 ◽  
Author(s):  
Óscar García Agustín ◽  
Félix J. Aguirre Díaz

The Chilean students’ rebellion emerged in 2011 within the wave of global protests. Even though it is an organized movement, with roots in a specific historical context, it shares with the global movement the use of new media technologies, the appropriation of public spaces, and the concern for democracy and equality. The movement deploys flexible forms of organization and mobilization such as flash mobs, in the case analyzed in this article, the GenkiDama for Education. The students create a narrative based on the famous Manga series Dragon Ball Z to reframe the conflict between students and government. As Manga fans, they open up participation to other less politically defined identities. The flash mob moment works as a communicative event in which the narrative is put into place and strengthens a sense of community in the streets of Santiago de Chile. To analyze the connections between the fictional narrative of Manga and the use of the public space, we draw on Michel de Certeau’s theory on spatial practices and the function of stories and place/space. Spatial practices during the flash mob challenge the social and spatial order in order to represent a symbolic victory of the students over the political system.


2014 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 732-754
Author(s):  
Óscar García Agustín ◽  
Félix J. Aguirre Díaz

The Chilean students’ rebellion emerged in 2011 within the wave of global protests. Even though it is an organized movement, with roots in a specific historical context, it shares with the global movement the use of new media technologies, the appropriation of public spaces, and the concern for democracy and equality. The movement deploys flexible forms of organization and mobilization such as flash mobs, in the case analyzed in this article, the GenkiDama for Education. The students create a narrative based on the famous Manga series Dragon Ball Z to reframe the conflict between students and government. As Manga fans, they open up participation to other less politically defined identities. The flash mob moment works as a communicative event in which the narrative is put into place and strengthens a sense of community in the streets of Santiago de Chile. To analyze the connections between the fictional narrative of Manga and the use of the public space, we draw on Michel de Certeau’s theory on spatial practices and the function of stories and place/space. Spatial practices during the flash mob challenge the social and spatial order in order to represent a symbolic victory of the students over the political system.


2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-83
Author(s):  
Melissa Hudler

In The Muses' Concord, James H. Jensen observes that rhetorical theory and practice ground all the arts of the Renaissance era (47). This connection is evident in the discourse of rhetorical and dance performance shared between Classical rhetoric treatises and Renaissance dance manuals, which leads one to understand both arts equally as forms of ordered and measured language. The recognition and perspectives of dance as a form of rhetoric contribute much to our understanding of the culture's awareness and economy of nonverbal communication. The shared elements of rhetoric and dance can be observed in the sheep-shearing festival scene of The Winter's Tale (4.4). A rhetorical reading of this scene conveys the rhetorical quality of dance, as well as its dramaturgical function. Framing this reading is a cultural and historical context that delineates the association between dance and rhetoric as it was understood by Quintilian, Sir Thomas Elyot, and Ben Jonson. Indeed, Perdita's corporeal eloquence communicates an air of nobility out of place in the rustic setting of this scene and misplaced within this assumed peasant. Because Perdita's true identity is discovered soon after (5.2), this scene, with its covert comingling of peasants and aristocrats and its graceful spectacle, can be understood as a pivotal moment that moves the play from its discordant beginning to its harmonious end.


2011 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 531-551
Author(s):  
Jacob Smith

In an era of CD-Rs and MP3 sound files, the vinyl phonograph record has attained iconic status as the quintessential old analog media form. An analysis of the theory and practice of “backmasking” reveals how a discourse of the occult “re-newed” the old medium of recorded sound one hundred years after its invention. Little scholarly attention has been paid to debates in the 1980s about the alleged presence of backmasking: the term given to the process whereby messages were thought to be placed in popular phonograph records such that their full meaning could be discovered only when the record was played in reverse. The backmasking controversy provides an example of the re-enchantment of an old medium, not through the work of avant-garde artists but conservative Christian preachers, anticult lecturers, and high school teachers, whose antimedia discourse was culturally productive far beyond their local origins or narrow intentions. To appreciate the multiple sources and unintended results of the backmasking panic, this article makes use of scholarly work on new media, the sociology of religion, the history of occult discourses surrounding the electronic media, debates about subliminal advertising, and the cultural history of recorded sound. By thus placing backmasking within these various historical and cultural frames, we are better able to understand how vernacular media theory and the grassroots public performances of traveling showmen constructed a sense of astonishment often associated with media technologies only when they are new.


2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Flaviane Da Costa Oliveira ◽  
Jaíza Pollyanna Dias da Cruz Rocha ◽  
Ingrid Faria Gianordoli Nascimento ◽  
Luciene Alves Miguez Naiff ◽  
Raphael Ferreira de Ávila

RESUMO: As novas tecnologias midiáticas têm revelado formas de comunicação e práticas sociais que desafiam os modos de fazer ciência. O presente estudo explora, de forma inicial, a diversidade de possibilidades de pesquisas em psicologia social compreendendo os recursos virtuais como campo ou objeto de pesquisa. Propomos um mapeamento de produções científicas, a partir do acesso remoto ao portal de periódicos CAPES, tendo sido utilizados na busca, os descritores “social psychology” and internet. Foram encontrados 1042 itens datados entre 1993 e 2016. Os resultados relacionados ao tópico “Social Psychology” totalizaram 289 produções, das quais, analisamos 134 resumos publicados entre 2011 e 2016. As categorias temáticas de maior expressão foram: Comportamento de usuários da internet (26,12%) e Identidade e relações intergrupais (11,94%). Em relação ao método, 17,16% dos estudos relatam o uso de experimentos, 9,70% o uso de surveys e 5,97% questionários. A análise revelou que a maior parte dos estudos (41,79%) compreende a internet como objeto de investigação, não sendo apenas um campo ou instrumento facilitador da execução das pesquisas. Apesar de 36,57% dos trabalhos não situarem a teoria de base, os dados demonstram uma multiplicidade de abordagens teóricas empregadas. Diante da complexidade deste cenário e dos fenômenos nele analisados, desafios teórico-metodológicos se impõem. Consideramos que o detalhamento e descrição do percurso metodológico, o uso da triangulação de métodos e a articulação entre o campo da psicologia social e as teorias da cibercultura, podem potencializar as produções “na” e “da” internet.Palavras-chave: cibercultura; internet; psicologia social; métodos de pesquisa; mapeamento.ABSTRACT: New media technologies have revealed forms of communication and social practice that challenge ways of doing science. Firstly, the present study explores the diversity of research possibilities in social psychology regarding virtual resources as a field or research object. We propose mapping the scientific production from the remote access to the portal of the CAPES journals. For this purpose we`ve used key-words descriptors "social psychology" and internet. We found 1042 items that matched the criteria. The years of publication ranged from 1993 to 2016. Results related to the topic "Social Psychology" presented 289 papers, of which we analyzed 134 published abstracts between 2011 and 2016. The categories with the most important themes were: Internet user behavior (26.12%) and identity and inter-group relations (11.94%). In relation to the method, 17.16% of the studies were experimental, 9.70% surveys and 5.97%questionnaires. The majority of studies (41.79%) considered the internet as a research object, and not just a field or instrument facilitating the execution of research. Although 36.57% of the studies did not present the base theory, data demonstrates a multiplicity of theoretical approaches employed. Due to the complexity of this scenario and the phenomena itself, methodological challenges are imposed. We considered that detailing and describing the methodological pathway as well as the use of triangulation of methods and articulation between the field of social psychology and theories of cyberculture can stimulate, productions "on" and "from" the internet (that is, using the internet as a research field as well as a research tool).Keywords: cyberculture; internet; social psychology; research methods; mapping.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anastasia Schlechty

Lloyd Bitzer’s 1968 article, “The Rhetorical Situation,” reframed scholarship on communication. Prior to this, rhetorical studies primarily looked to content and style of discourse in order to provide an analysis of meaning and value; however, scholars became frustrated with the limited access that this type of framework afforded. The 1960s marked a dramatic shift in dominant rhetorical thinking from modern thought toward a realm of new ideological approaches, including postmodern thought. Environment became a major focus of postmodern communication studies, claiming that the situation, more than the content itself, determines the message. Rhetorical frameworks continue to rely on a modern or postmodern consciousness, despite the emergence of yet another societal shift into an evolved postmodernism, a reaction to the biases inherent in this relativism. Specifically, the evolution of the postmodern mind into an apathetic consciousness leads to an expiration of exigency as Bitzer defined it 50 years ago. This paper argues that current scholarship lacks a complete awareness of these new assumptions and understandings, specifically relating to cultural apathy. This paper will recount the historical context that leads into this modern framework, illustrate the situation, and argue the potential solutions. Ultimately, this paper reveals that much exigency inhabits a devalued position in the now-evolved postmodern mind, and rhetorical theory must renovate its understanding on discourse accordingly through three steps: acknowledgment, updated definitions, and thoughtful discourse.


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