Page 341 - Gabrijela Kišiček and Igor Ž. Žagar (eds.), What do we know about the world? Rhetorical and argumentative perspectives, Digital Library, Educational Research Institute, Ljubljana 2013
P. 341
challenges of rhetoric in the era of “bytes and likes” 341
plify argumentative procedural rhetoric in a spectacular way. As it is an-
nounced on the homepage: “Our objective is to investigate the persua-
sive potentials of the medium by subverting mainstream video gaming
cliché (and possibly have fun in the process).”3 Games, such as the Phone
story, lead the player to the ”dark side” of consumers’ society, for exam-
ple, the smart phones, forcing them to realize the consequences of only
drawing on the process’ rules and regulations. Consequently, procedural
rhetoric helps to reveal the meaning of system operations and their cul-
tural patterns. Then, in using toolbars and software and logic, there is
the switching on and off rhetoric. Therefore, media rhetoric is support-
ed by a capacity with which systemic, operational and graphical coding
can be unveiled and elaborated.
Procedural rhetoric can function as the literacy of system-opera-
tions and argumentations, which expands visual literacy. More of a re-
discovery than an innovation, it identifies predominant characteristics
of new media technologies and, consequently, is to be taken into consid-
eration in understanding, interpreting, and producing new media mes-
sages.
8. Aural Rhetoric
Whilst the branch of visual rhetoric was struggling with the
2500-years-long disciplinary determination and domination of the ver-
bal, aural rhetoric was strangled into almost total silence and scholar-
ly neglect. Aural discussions are omitted practically from contemporary
rhetorical theory; rhetoric’s aural dimension seems to be forgotten or
unheard.
Nevertheless, sonority, as a symbolic activity, used to be an inherent
part of the rhetorical speech. In the classical rhetorical tradition, voicing
was discussed with the last rhetorical canon of speech (delivery). How-
ever, in the first place, there were some treatises which dealt with it and
suggested that the aural was prior to the textual, determining structural
and aesthetic verbal features. In rhetorical performance, the oral/aural
mingled with the visual: the speaker’s appearance, body postures, and
gestures. Aristotle (1403b) said that delivery was “a matter of the right
management of the voice to express the various emotions-of speaking
loudly, softly, or between the two; of high, low, or intermediate pitch; of
the various rhythms that suit various subjects. These are the three things
– volume of sound, modulation of pitch, and rhythm-that a speaker
3 www.molleindustria.org
plify argumentative procedural rhetoric in a spectacular way. As it is an-
nounced on the homepage: “Our objective is to investigate the persua-
sive potentials of the medium by subverting mainstream video gaming
cliché (and possibly have fun in the process).”3 Games, such as the Phone
story, lead the player to the ”dark side” of consumers’ society, for exam-
ple, the smart phones, forcing them to realize the consequences of only
drawing on the process’ rules and regulations. Consequently, procedural
rhetoric helps to reveal the meaning of system operations and their cul-
tural patterns. Then, in using toolbars and software and logic, there is
the switching on and off rhetoric. Therefore, media rhetoric is support-
ed by a capacity with which systemic, operational and graphical coding
can be unveiled and elaborated.
Procedural rhetoric can function as the literacy of system-opera-
tions and argumentations, which expands visual literacy. More of a re-
discovery than an innovation, it identifies predominant characteristics
of new media technologies and, consequently, is to be taken into consid-
eration in understanding, interpreting, and producing new media mes-
sages.
8. Aural Rhetoric
Whilst the branch of visual rhetoric was struggling with the
2500-years-long disciplinary determination and domination of the ver-
bal, aural rhetoric was strangled into almost total silence and scholar-
ly neglect. Aural discussions are omitted practically from contemporary
rhetorical theory; rhetoric’s aural dimension seems to be forgotten or
unheard.
Nevertheless, sonority, as a symbolic activity, used to be an inherent
part of the rhetorical speech. In the classical rhetorical tradition, voicing
was discussed with the last rhetorical canon of speech (delivery). How-
ever, in the first place, there were some treatises which dealt with it and
suggested that the aural was prior to the textual, determining structural
and aesthetic verbal features. In rhetorical performance, the oral/aural
mingled with the visual: the speaker’s appearance, body postures, and
gestures. Aristotle (1403b) said that delivery was “a matter of the right
management of the voice to express the various emotions-of speaking
loudly, softly, or between the two; of high, low, or intermediate pitch; of
the various rhythms that suit various subjects. These are the three things
– volume of sound, modulation of pitch, and rhythm-that a speaker
3 www.molleindustria.org
