Public Affairs Concepts - Literature review Example

PUBLIC AFFAIRS CONCEPTS By Name Course Instructor Institution City/State Date Public Affairs Concepts Introduction Rhetoric according to (Struever, 2009, p.91) can successfully be utilised in political debates; thus, creating a platform for political rhetoric. The key facets of classical rhetoric include logic, image and emotional appeal. From this perspective, political leaders always manipulate their image in order to generate a more intelligent, righteous, and responsible version of themselves that is exhibited in the public domain (McKay, 2010). Besides that, they use logic so as to generate arguments that are valid, and also to draw attention to errors of arguments made by the opposition. Moreover, emotional appeal is regularly utilised in public discourses such as speeches, as well as to expressively charge certain words so as to inflame a particular reaction from the audience. As stated by Struever (2009, p.91), political rhetoric is fundamentally classical rhetoric used in a contemporary political situation, and the rhetoric basics (ethos, pathos, as well as logos) all are utilised in the modern political discussion. Essentially, rhetorical competition has marked the world politics, but the existing theoretical frameworks are struggling to explain rhetoric’s outcomes as well as dynamics. The essay seeks to illustrate public affairs concepts with reference to numerous current affairs examples. Discussion Most people who are uninformed as stated by Gershkoff and Kushner (2005, p.526) take cues from leader opinion, and normally this is the elites’ understanding of the events. That is to say, individuals who control the language are the same people who control the argument, and in consequence they are more expected to fruitfully translate their belief into a policy. According to Gershkoff and Kushner (2005, p.526), the media as well can shape public opinion by means of tone, issue frames, as well as content manipulation. Since lots of media coverage to any political event largely features official speeches excerpts or quotes from political leaders’ opinion, these media coverage are offering politicians another venue to spread their propagandist message, wherein the public, especially the uninformed ones are expected to listen to, accept as true, and act in response. Public Opinion key point as stated by Lippmann (2012, p.213) is to exhibit the challenge that democracy faces, considering that the pictures within the heads of people cannot resemble with that of the outside world. So, public opinion proposes a remedy rooted in unseen facts’ representation as well as organized intelligence of public affairs. The behaviour of a man is a reaction to a pseudo-environment, and this environment is defined in pictures inside his head. After Republican Senators Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, as well as Marco Rubio publicly launched their campaigns for the US president, their rivals in Democratic Party initiated a propaganda machine for attacking the Republican candidates. This was evidenced by the three images posted by the Democrats on their Facebook page, each picture representing one of the three candidates asking their supporters not to vote for them because the oppose basic policies initiated by the democrats and which has been beneficial to American people (Rumpf, 2015). Previously, politicians were unwilling to capitalise on the interactive benefits attributed to web technologies, fearing that they can lose grip of their discourse (Dietel-McLaughlin, 2010, p.50). But this is not the case anymore, as evidenced by abovementioned Democrat’s propaganda in Facebook. But according to Dietel-McLaughlin (2010, p.51), this discourse is widely utilised by politicians to get elected, and not essentially to revitalise democracy. Basically, a true democracy allows the citizens to participate in the process of setting the agenda, but the present environment of strategic uncertainty makes majority of politicians stop communicating with audiences capable of compromising their political focus (Dietel-McLaughlin, 2010, p.51). The concept of the public sphere according to Habermas (1991, p.236) is the network used by certain individuals to influence their action through information communication as well as opinion. Habermas talks about the bourgeois public sphere undulation, remarking the challenging effects of capitalism, commercialization, as well as the mass media intensification on critical-rational debate.  Even though undeniably influential, the argument presented by Habermas has widely been criticised, especially because of his flawless notion of the public sphere that focuses on the principle of universal access, and is as well a discernible constraint to the possible use of internet as a public sphere.  In this case, the variance between a public broadcasting system that is run by the government in comparison to one that pursues commercial model has collapsed in the globalization era wherein cable television that is commercially-based has side-lined public broadcasting in majority of nations. Still, public broadcasting provides a perfect platform for communication public opinion for public or individual interest. But this has been over showed by misinformation circulating within the Internet, which in consequence, destabilises democratic discussion, resulting in sharp inconsistencies in the present media system. Recently, Bobby Jindal, Louisiana governor sharply criticized the way US president Obama was handling terrorists group such Islamic State citing that he is incompetent and does not deserve t c be the US commander-in-chief. In his words, Jindal claim that Obama believes that Americans are unintelligent and uninformed. Muslims according to Jindal lack interest in fighting terrorism, bearing in mind that Obama is a Muslim. Obama administration as per Jindal has constantly declined to admit that US is at war (Sherfinski, 2015). Jindal sentiments are considered rhetoric because he is planning to run for presidency in 2016 and so he is possibly seeking votes by taking advantage of increased terrorism activities by ISIL and Obama’s inability to offer solution. Jindal posits that Obama has failed to acknowledge ‘Radical Islamic terrorism’, and in consequence, he cannot offer solution to it. Lack of job opportunities according to Jindal is the reason why most young people are becoming radicalized and joining terrorists groups (Sherfinski, 2015). Inability by Obama to offer solution to ISIL problem angers Jindal who believes that the war is won by killing the enemy, and so in his view Obama does not deserve the top Job. Lippmann (2012, p.43) exhibited how people utilize tools like stereotypes so as to create their opinions. While gathering public opinions, people do not just picture more space and more time than, but they have to define and judge more things, more actions, more people than they can imagine. According to Lippmann, stereotypical judgments are left for the public, until limited information is provided by the mass media so as to change their opinion of an incident. Different from other propaganda philosophers, Bernays (1928, p.9) acknowledges that propaganda may be both harmful and beneficial to the public. As stated by Bernays (1928, p.10), propaganda may assist the public to make decision on what to contemplate or change the public opinions, and this can truly be favorable to the functioning of the society as one. Bernays (1928, p.9) writes that, people are governed, their minds are moulded, their ideas suggested, their tastes formed, mainly by individuals who they have never heard of. In this regard, to smoothly cohabit as a functioning society, people have to cooperate considering that shaping is a crucial part of civilization. The invisible leaders according to Bernays do not have knowledge of their followers’ identity, but still they lead them through their natural leadership qualities, their capability to offer required concepts as well as through their key social structure position. In this case, the Republican seizure of leftist anti-elitist rhetoric points a substantial threat to the prospects of the Democrats in 2016 (Edsall, 2015). Fighting for equality for the invisible poor people exhibit their understanding of benefits attributed to public opinion. However, the rebellion growth in the Republican ranks with regards to what must be done concerning the economy as well as who should steer the process verifies the modern reform conservative movement strength which to some extent has turned out to be acknowledged as the ‘reformicon’ movement. A number of scholars such as Groeling and Baum (2011, p.3) have argued that the public is exceedingly responsive to what they hear and see from politicians, especially with regard to foreign policy as compared to the domestic policy. Therefore, the extent of the public support for government supported initiatives relies heavily on the mix of politicians’’ rhetoric concerning the government policy to which the public is exposed. In this case, when the public see elites showing bipartisan backing for government policy, they normally respond positively. However, when the public see elites taking part in opinionated bickering concerning the government, they become divided, mainly along partisan lines. For this reason, the public use the trusted politicians’ opinions as a shortcut to information, or experiential cue; thus, getting adequate time to reflect on their self-interests, devoid of using much energy and time to become impeccably informed Conclusion In conclusion, it has been argued that leaders pursuing policies that cannot be justified by the public always experience a number of practical impediments. Uninformed public always tend to follow leaders opinion, but for leaders without rhetorical resources can force a number of leaders to change their strategy. Basically, social identities and social norms matters for all leaders seeking to use rhetoric resources. As stated in the essay, rhetorical methods are regularly utilised by politicians, and such are intended to mainly encourage the audience in agreeing with their opinions. References Bernays, E., 1928. Propaganda. Dietel-McLaughlin, E., 2010. Remediating Democracy: Youtube And The Vernacular Rhetorics Of WEB 2.0. Dissertation. Bowling Green, OH: Erin Dietel-McLaughlin Graduate College of Bowling Green. Edsall, T.B., 2015. The Republican Discovery of the Poor. [Online] Available at: HYPERLINK "http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/11/opinion/thomas-b-edsall-the-republican-discovery-of-the-poor.html" http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/11/opinion/thomas-b-edsall-the-republican-discovery-of-the-poor.html [Accessed 5 May 2015]. Gershkoff, A. & Kushner, S., 2005. Shaping Public Opinion: The 9/11-Iraq Connection in the Bush Administration’s Rhetoric. Perspectives on Politics, vol. 3, no. 3, pp.525-37. Groeling, T. & Baum, M.A., 2011. The Longest War Story: Elite Rhetoric, Public Opinion, and the War in Afghanistan. Seattle, Washington: Political Communication Preconference of the American Political Science Association. Habermas, J., 1991. The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry Into a Category of Bourgeois Society. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. Lippmann, W., 2012. Public Opinion. Chelmsford, Massachusetts: Courier Corporation. McKay, K., 2010. Classical Rhetoric 101: The Three Means of Persuasion. [Online] Available at: HYPERLINK "http://www.artofmanliness.com/2010/12/21/classical-rhetoric-101-the-three-means-of-persuasion/" http://www.artofmanliness.com/2010/12/21/classical-rhetoric-101-the-three-means-of-persuasion/ [Accessed 5 May 2015]. Rumpf, S., 2015. Confused Democrats Post Facebook Images with GOP Talking Points. [Online] Available at: HYPERLINK "Confused%20Democrats%20Post%20Facebook%20Images%20with%20GOP%20Talking%20Points" Confused Democrats Post Facebook Images with GOP Talking Points [Accessed 5 May 2015]. Sherfinski, D., 2015. Bobby Jindal: Obama ‘incapable of being commander-in-chief’. [Online] Available at: HYPERLINK "http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/feb/23/bobby-jindal-obama-incapable-being-commander-chief/" http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/feb/23/bobby-jindal-obama-incapable-being-commander-chief/ [Accessed 5 May 2015]. Struever, N.S., 2009. Rhetoric, Modality, Modernity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Read More