Public Communication
Public communication does not belong to only the famous; - every day, all over the country, average people stand up and speak to audience and, in doing so, make a difference. pg. 234
This phrase is the very basis of the course project you are currently working on. Public Communication - it's about much more than organizing, writing and presenting a speech. It is truly about making a difference as the quote about states.
After reading chapter 9, you should be able to:
1). Explain characteristics and purposes of communication in the public sphere.
2). Know the social functions and personal consequences of public communication.
3). Explain why it is important to understand audience beliefs, attitudes, and values.
4). Understand how credibility, attractiveness, and power enhance speaker effectiveness.
5). Use the Toulmin model to diagram and evaluate an argument.
6). Give examples of authoritative, motivational, and substantive appeals.
7). Distinguish arguments from cause, sign, generalization, and analogy and identify the kinds of fallacies associated with each.
This chapters starts out by defining Public Communication. It is a one-to-many form of communication wherein a single speaker addresses a large audience.
Applicability - We may not recognize all of the ways in which we engage in public communication. However, for the Public Speech critique assignment, I have asked you all to find a public presentation to evaluate. Chapter 9 will help to inform your essay, based on the speech that you observe, analyze and evaluate. You will then use Chapter 9, among other chapters in the course text to inform your paper. (Using quotes from this and other chapters in the text, etc... then draw conclusions). I will post more about this another day.
The book then moves onto a discussion about Social Functions of Rhetoric. Here are some examples from the text:
*Discovering Facts
*Testing Ideas
*Persuading Others
*Shaping Knowledge
*Building Community
*Distributing Power
Applicability - When you write your Public Speech Critique paper, you should consider some of these concepts. What was the purpose of the speech you observed? Does it fit into one of these categories? I won't go into too much detail for fear of being redundant with the course text, but you can read more about these on page 238-239.
Page 240 moves onto a discussion about Evaluating Public Communication. Does this ring a bell? If not, it certainly should. This is what your first paper is all about - evaluating, analyzing, critiquing, observing, etc... a public presentation. Consider the following sub ideas in the text:
Physical setting
Medium
Occasion
History as context
Rhetorical Situation
These ideas can greatly affect a public presentation. If we were in a f2f (that's face-to-face) classroom setting, we would probably have a lengthy discussion about how each of these can influence the message of a speaker.
Applicability - If you review the assignment sheet, it asks you to choose concepts to cover in your essay. The ideas above are all on there. ;)
The text then moves to a discussion about The Audience-Speaker Relationship (pg 242). Wow, this is a cool section. I'm going to geek out about this for a second........
The Audience-Speaker Relationship, as written in your course text is quite important. There are a number of different facets that are involved in this.
Audience Attitudes and Change
Beliefs
Attitudes
Values
Source Characteristics and Audience Response (logos, pathos, ethos)
Internalization, credibility, identification, attractiveness, compliance, power
And on and on and on...... But get this - these are things that can greatly influence an audience. How do these things relate to the public presentation you are going to observe, or have observed for the coming project?
The book then moves onto the Toulmin Model on pages 250-251. You can read a bit about Stephen Toulmin by clicking on his name. Here is a comprehensive explanation of the Toulmin Model as noted by About.com. In short, this model has a number of different steps. Your book outlines these steps as:
1). Claim (what the speaker wishes the audience to accept)
2). Qualifier (indicates the strength of the claim)
3). Data (audience members want data to support claims)
4). Warrant (connecting link between data and claim is called the warrant)
5). Backing (additional evidence)
6). Rebuttal or Reservation (this is a statement of the conditions under which the claim does not hold true)
Page 252 does a great job of explaining how to use the Toulmin Model in everyday argumentation.
Applicability - Can you figure out the steps of the Toulmin Model in the Public Presentation you are observing for the first project? Since quite a few of you are observing a church service to fulfill the requirements of this assignment, it would be particularly interesting to see if you can break down a church service into a manageable explanation? This is an interesting observation for a lot of folks when taking on assignment such as the one I have given you. Public Presentations whether they are in a classroom setting, church, or otherwise, have some common components that we rarely evaluate or pay attention to.
The text goes on to explain Types of Arguments.
*Authoritative Argument
*Motivational Argument
*Substantive Argument
Can you classify which type of argument your public observation falls into?
What a cool chapter. I know I'm a bit geeky about this chapter, but I really do love the idea and purpose of Public Communication. I can't wait to see how y'all critically analyze your respective presentations.
No comments:
Post a Comment