The Modern Rhetorical Triangle - Assignment Example

The modern rhetorical triangle constitutes of three elements, ly, speaker, audience and the situation (Cooper, 2009, p.52). The effectiveness of the message or the completeness and perfection of the rhetoric in relation with the speaker depends on the person who is speaking, why is he/she speaking, whether the speaker is a credible one for the audience and why, how the text presented by the speaker is characterized by “his or her personality or intentions” and also the historical context of the formation of the message presented by the speaker (Cooper, 2009, p.52). The second element being the audience, it is about what could be the nature of the expected audience, who could be the real audience, to what extent the speaker has understood the nature of the audience and how this understanding has influenced the presentation of the speaker, etc. (Cooper, 2009, p.52). The third element, situation relates with the purpose of the act of speaking, and the aspect that helps the speaker relate with the audience (Cooper, 2009, p.53). In the two video that this essay has examined in relation with the rhetorical triangle, the manifestations of these three elements have similarities, differences and mutual connections. 1) In the first video titled, How to Make an Origami Butterfly, the speaker is the creator of the video and his intention is to teach the audience how to make an origami butterfly (Rob, 11 June 2009). It is evident from the video that the speaker is a person who knows about Origami art (Rob, 11 June 2009). His intention is also to attract as much audience as possible to view his video so that he can earn some money out of the advertisements that come along with this video (Rob, 11 June 2009). The speaker has tried to keep the video as simple as possible in presentation style and visualization so that even a person who does not know anything about the art form can learn (Rob, 11 June 2009). As the speaker is only showing his hands and the piece of paper required to make the butterfly in this video, it is clear that he prefer to remain personally anonymous and he also wants the audience not to be distracted by his face or other unwanted visual elements (Rob, 11 June 2009). This is also an indication that the speaker knows his audience well, because usually the audience of a You Tube video of this kind are keen to learn the craft as simply as possible and does not want to be confounded by unwanted information and details (Rob, 11 June 2009). 2) When it comes to the audience of this video, it is clear from this rhetoric that the audience could of any age group, but they of course must be those who know how to use internet (Rob, 11 June 2009). It is also clear from this video that the audience is persons interested in some kind of craft work but not experts in any of them, especially Origami (Rob, 11 June 2009). This clear also because an Origami expert will not need to learn such simple a craft work from such simple a presentation as they might need more advanced lessons. The real potential audience could be students, people who are interested in hobbies, teachers who need to use such teaching aids in class rooms and people who watch just for the fun of it. 3) Finally, coming to the third rhetorical element, the situation, from analysis, it can be seen that a person from the Western World is presenting this video which becomes evident from his accent and the color and shape of the hands (Rob, 11 June 2009). The context is also that internet and especially You Tube has become very popular amidst a mass audience and this video has the potential to reach out to a great number of people. This audience can serve as a potential market for the speaker and can earn him an income also. The situation also reflects the rising interests in art and craft from different civilizations and cultures in the context of a globalized world with strong and varied communication links. The second video is titled, Flower Arrangements, and is about beautiful flower arrangements that suit a home environment (Meghan, 17 May 2007). 1) This video is similar to the first video in that this is also teaching the audience about a particular craft work (Meghan, 17 May 2007). But contrary to the first video, this video shows the speaker in person while in the first video, his voice is only heard (Meghan, 17 May 2007). The second thing about the speaker is that in the first video, the speaker is a male and in the second one the speaker is a beautiful woman (Meghan, 17 May 2007). In the beginning of the second video, the speaker explains to the audience why this tutorial is important to them and thus directly makes a contact with the audience and their needs (Meghan, 17 May 2007). The beautiful face of the presenter serves as an added attraction to the audience to watch this video (Meghan, 17 May 2007). The flowerpots set in the background also enhance what the speaker is telling through their visual presence (Meghan, 17 May 2007). The speaker also explains all the contexts in which the information presented in this video will become useful (Meghan, 17 May 2007). When the video progresses a second speaker is also introduced, who is an expert in flower arrangements and this projects the preliminary information that the first speaker provides into the second speaker’s more authentic presentation (Meghan, 17 May 2007). This kind of reinforcing technique and interactive approach is not present in the first video while presenting the speaker. 2) The audience for this video is people who are interested in flower arrangements, and those who want to have flower arrangements in their houses (Meghan, 17 May 2007). It is also clear from the video that a major portion of the audience could be housewives on whom the responsibility of making a home aesthetically attractive rests (Meghan, 17 May 2007). As the video shows both simple and somewhat complicated flower arrangements, and also inexpensive and expensive ones, the rhetorical analysis can conclude that the audience can be both rich and poor people (Meghan, 17 May 2007). As both the speakers are females, the potential audience might also be more women than men (Meghan, 17 May 2007). 3) Regarding the situation, it can be said that this video gains its audience in the context of rising affluence in our society causing people to spend more money on beautifying their house (Meghan, 17 May 2007). This video also has a context that it portrays the flowers grown in the Western hemisphere and hence it is mostly meant for a Western audience (Meghan, 17 May 2007). A person from India or China might not have access to these flowers. 2) The elements of speaker, audience, and situation were successful too varying degrees in the two videos. In the first video, How to Make an Origami Butterfly, one recognizes that the speaker was partly successful because of their background knowledge and obvious experience in the subject. There is the recognition that the video’s recognition of audience is completed successfully as only the speaker’s hands are shown. This allows the audience to increasingly immerse themselves in the process of learning and demonstrates the video understands the intentions of the viewers. Finally, the situation – indicated to be the Western World – is successful attenuated to as the speaker uses a Western accent and works to teach this audience a skill they otherwise would not be exposed to. In the second video, Flower Arrangements, the speaker is successful in creating a personal connection with the audience through addressing them directly. The speaker’s natural charisma directly contributes to her effectiveness. Later a second speaker appears. This speaker is successful as she is an expert in the field. In terms of audience it seems the choice of two female speakers is successful as the primary audience will be women interested in flower arrangements. In terms of context it seems that the video is successful as it recognizes the audience and the learning situation and properly positions the video towards these ends. 3) There are a number of considerations when comparing and contrasting the two videos. While the first video only displayed the speaker’s hands, the second video features the entire speaker. In this video the speaker is a beautiful woman and later an expert, while in the first video, the speaker is a non-descript male. This difference underlines a general thematic difference between the two videos, namely the second video is slightly more complex than the first because of the subject matter. Purely from a learning perspective the first video can be termed more efficient through its bare bones approach. Conversely, through rhetorical presentation and ease of viewing the second video can be viewed as the more engaging. To conclude, the two videos discussed above have the speakers as trainers/teachers. The audiences of both these videos are learners but they differ from each other in many demographic characters. The situation in the first video differs from the second one in that the first one will have a global appeal and audience but the second one will only have a Western audience and context. Both these videos will earn their speakers good revenues in the context of internet communication and commerce. But there are gray areas in any analysis which raise theoretical questions like, do the speaker create his/her own audience or whether the audience determines the speaker and the message (Borrowman and Enos, 2009, p.276). Yet another question that needs to be addressed is that whether the analysis of the audience can be separately done from the situation as they both influence and change each other (Borrowman and Enos, 2009, p.276). But yet, both these videos provide a clear picture of how the three elements of the rhetorical triangle make the message effective. References Borrowman, S and Enos, T (2009), Renewing rhetorics relation to composition: essays in honor of Theresa Jarnagin Enos, London: Taylor & Francis. Cooper, S. (2009) Making history mine: meaningful connections for grades 5-9, Portland: Stenhouse Publishers. Rob (Producer). (2009 June 11) How to Make an Origami Butterfly [You tube video] Retrieved July 21, 2012 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4L5nDDgEEk Meghan (Producer). (2007 May 17) Flower Arrangements [You Tube video] Retrieved July 20, 2012 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOLkLekzUEw Read More