Page 374 - 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. 374
What Do We Know about the World?
fore, it has to be distinguished from the actual persons who, with differ-
ent roles, intervene in the writing process of the ad.
The audience, as Bitzer points out, “must be distinguished from a
body of mere hearers or readers […] [it] consists only of those persons
who are capable of being influenced by discourse and of being media-
tors of change” (1968: 8); “[s]ince the audience must be capable of mod-
ifying the exigency positively, it follows that listeners incapable of this
modifying influence will not count as a rhetorical or functional audi-
ence” (1980: 23). In this perspective, the rhetorical audience for promo-
tional texts is composed of all those who can remove the speaker/writ-
er’s exigency, i.e. all those who can buy or can be interested in buying the
product. The rhetorical audience will therefore be different according to
the kind of advertised product or service; it can be broader or narrower
depending on the product. For instance, the rhetorical audience for car
advertisements comprise all people who have a driving license or who
need a car as a means of transport (therefore, in some countries, almost
all adult people), while the rhetorical audience for the Hewlett Pack-
ard printer mentioned in Corbett and Connors 1999 is narrower and it
comprises, for instance, organizations where many documents are print-
ed. However, being the advertisement public, all people see it, all people
can read the message, even if they are not interested and do not perceive
the factual conditions of buying a Hewlett Packard printer. Even if they
are not the targets of the speaker/writer’s exigency, even if they are not
those who can positively modify the exigency of the speaker/writer, they
are in some ways (with a role that we will more precisely describe below)
entitled to take part in the communicative action of the advertisement.
Cook (2001: 4) and, in his line, Atkin and Richardson (2005: 166) speak
of addressees and receivers.
Whatever the terms and categories we can use, these first distinc-
tions show that, besides the speaker/writer and the audience, other per-
sons are involved in the rhetorical situation. These persons, from Bitzer’s
perspective, are sources of constraints that the speaker/writer takes into
consideration when operating. We name them stakeholders.
4. Stakeholders of a Text
The notion of stakeholders stems from the domain of corporate
communication and refers to those people who have a stake in the activi-
ty of an organization or institution, thus wish that it would succeed and
work in their favour. In a similar perspective, we maintain that all texts
written in an enterprise in order to carry out its activity and achieve its
fore, it has to be distinguished from the actual persons who, with differ-
ent roles, intervene in the writing process of the ad.
The audience, as Bitzer points out, “must be distinguished from a
body of mere hearers or readers […] [it] consists only of those persons
who are capable of being influenced by discourse and of being media-
tors of change” (1968: 8); “[s]ince the audience must be capable of mod-
ifying the exigency positively, it follows that listeners incapable of this
modifying influence will not count as a rhetorical or functional audi-
ence” (1980: 23). In this perspective, the rhetorical audience for promo-
tional texts is composed of all those who can remove the speaker/writ-
er’s exigency, i.e. all those who can buy or can be interested in buying the
product. The rhetorical audience will therefore be different according to
the kind of advertised product or service; it can be broader or narrower
depending on the product. For instance, the rhetorical audience for car
advertisements comprise all people who have a driving license or who
need a car as a means of transport (therefore, in some countries, almost
all adult people), while the rhetorical audience for the Hewlett Pack-
ard printer mentioned in Corbett and Connors 1999 is narrower and it
comprises, for instance, organizations where many documents are print-
ed. However, being the advertisement public, all people see it, all people
can read the message, even if they are not interested and do not perceive
the factual conditions of buying a Hewlett Packard printer. Even if they
are not the targets of the speaker/writer’s exigency, even if they are not
those who can positively modify the exigency of the speaker/writer, they
are in some ways (with a role that we will more precisely describe below)
entitled to take part in the communicative action of the advertisement.
Cook (2001: 4) and, in his line, Atkin and Richardson (2005: 166) speak
of addressees and receivers.
Whatever the terms and categories we can use, these first distinc-
tions show that, besides the speaker/writer and the audience, other per-
sons are involved in the rhetorical situation. These persons, from Bitzer’s
perspective, are sources of constraints that the speaker/writer takes into
consideration when operating. We name them stakeholders.
4. Stakeholders of a Text
The notion of stakeholders stems from the domain of corporate
communication and refers to those people who have a stake in the activi-
ty of an organization or institution, thus wish that it would succeed and
work in their favour. In a similar perspective, we maintain that all texts
written in an enterprise in order to carry out its activity and achieve its
