Rhetorical situation
An article by Lloyd Bitzer introduced the model of the rhetorical situation in 1968, which was later challenged and modified by Richard E. Vatz (1973) and Scott Consigny (1974).
More recent scholarship has further redefined the model to include more expansive views of rhetorical operations and ecologies.
Vatz quotes Chaïm Perelman: "By the very fact of selecting certain elements and presenting them to the audience, their importance and pertinency to the discussion are implied.
Situations that do not physically make us attend to them are avoided and reflect the significance of subjectivity in framing socio-political realities.
In studying the cognitive processes that induce discovery, Flower and Hayes propose the model of the rhetorical problem.
Rather, she argues, this deconstruction reveals the ability of the rhetorical situation to actually create provisional identities and social relationships through articulation.
[9] In their 1993 article, Mary Garrett and Xiaosui Xiao apply Bitzer's rhetorical situation model to the response of the Chinese public to the Opium Wars of the 19th century.
"She offered rhetorical ecology as a new method that includes the interaction transformation fluidity openness of all these elements with ongoing social flux.
[1][11] The six core elements of Rhetorical ecology as a method are Interconnectedness, Fluidity and Change, Affective Dimensions, Materiality, Public Engagement, and Historical Context.
Edbauer points out that situations are not static; they take on a life of their own and evolve due to changing social conditions.
Cooper suggests five different systems that are all intricately interwoven in the actual act of writing: ideas, purposes, interpersonal interactions, cultural norms, and textual forms.
[2] In the article, he explicitly acknowledges that he is not writing off the theory as something inherently bad; rather, he is observing complications within it and offering up creative new perspectives on the topic.
He particularly focuses on the need to employ place-based and community-engaged research to better understand the history of the discipline and work toward shaping a better future.
Rhetorical templates function within constraints of the genre, but also affect the exigence and purpose by creating how the text is written and read.
He examined how power dynamics, historical contexts, and nonhuman agents such as disease or natural disasters influence rhetorical strategies across different communities.
Ordeman argued that the distribution of resources was affected by neoliberal policies and historical context to strip away citizens of their agency.
[citation needed] A fundamental way in which Ordeman's study utilized aspects of rhetorical ecology was its use of nonhuman agents such as the Rio Grande River and infectious diseases.
He argues that Neoliberal policies have and continue to affect the treatment of marginalized bodies by prioritizing the interests and growth of a white economy, leading to the disenfranchisement of communities of color which are then deemed as expendable aliens.
Because of these Neo-Liberal policies, Ordeman argues that Mexican Americans face poor working conditions and low wages.
This exploration of bodies combined with the lack of governmental support and resources, Ordeman argues, makes this community especially vulnerable to health crises.
Utilizing Blitzer's original rhetorical situation analysis, Gruber stresses the importance of context in understanding how messages surrounding a plant-based diet are constructed and received.
Grubber further argues that we must consider the audience, exigence, and constraints that help shape the rhetoric surrounding veganism, Vegetarianism, and environmentalism.
She applies rhetorical situation methodology to the American political movement supported by many college students nationwide, known as Pro-BDS.
A central component from the foundation of the rhetorical situation is the need to focus on the audience, and the students did just that by primarily targeting their discourse to their peers, faculty, and administration.
[17] In her 2023 Dissertation titled: Including Critical Feminist Approaches in the Technical & Professional Communication Classroom: An Autoethnography throughout Changing Rhetorical Ecologies, Brandi Jo Fuglsby advocates for the inclusion of critical feminist perspectives in technical and professional communication (TPC) in higher education.
To further emphasize her point, she argues that a classroom is part of a more extensive ecological system where students and teachers alike are affected by outside circumstances in an ongoing process and thus subject to change.
Fuglsby furthers that the incorporation of critical feminist approaches into the classroom allows for recognition and support of counter-rhetorical strategies by showcasing how different messages compete with each other.
She suggests that incorporating different approaches in the classroom also means different mediums, which can affect the learning outcomes of an ever-growing, diverse student population.
