Page 380 - 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. 380
What Do We Know about the World?
Indeed, the whole officium of meeting the exigency of selling the prod-
uct in the activity type of advertising in the field of business is carried
out through the activation of “culturally shared ‘recipe[s]’” (Rigotti and
Rocci, 2006: 173) of advertising a product, an interaction scheme that
relies on the employment of different textual genres. Each of them ac-
complishes a sub-officium through a given combination of thematic con-
tent, style, and compositional structure (cf. Bakhtin, 1986: 60) that has
proved to be the most adequate to reach a specific goal. In our case the
sub-officia are to announce the launch of Xylo Mepha on the market (the
press release), to inform people about how cold develops and Xylo Me-
pha’s positive effects on it (the brochure), to call to the attention the ex-
istence and availability of Xylo Mepha (the print ad and the TV com-
mercial).
The complex rhetorical situation described above is broken down
into sub-rhetorical situations, which differ in respect to the specific offi-
cium and the participants involved in the communication event that is
in respect to the involved stakeholders.
5.2 In Terms of Stakeholders
The press release, on the one side, the brochure, the print ad and the
TV commercial, on the other side, differ in respect to the addressed rhe-
torical audience. The addressee of the press release (published online on a
news portal)10 can be identified with both the journalists using the por-
tal and all other users of this website (people who plausibly are interest-
ed in recent news). On the one hand, journalists aim at bringing them-
selves up to date with recent news which they can write articles on, they
are also concerned with understanding what kind of product Xylo Me-
pha is and which advantages it has over similar products. Web-users in
general, not working as journalists, are also interested in knowing more
about the product, but they may not have a specific goal concerning this
product.11 The brochure can be both downloaded in pdf format from the
10 The press release is published on presseportal.ch, a service offered by news aktuell (Schweiz) AG, a
company of the group of the Swiss national news agency.
11 Organizations and corporations are getting used to publishing press releases on web portals or on
their websites. In such cases, both the wide public and journalists are addressees. However, there still
are organizations that do not publish their press releases online. Even in this case, though, it is be-
coming more and more usual to address the press release to a public wider than journalists. For in-
stance, some organizations, when promoting an event, send their press releases by e-mail not only to
journalists, but also to a mailing-list of potentially interested people who are likely to assure the pub-
lic of the event (we can mention i2a istituto internazionale di architettura of Vico Morcote, Ticino,
as an actual example we dealt with in the course of composition described in section 6). Also in this
case, the addressees of the press release can be ascribed to different categories.
Indeed, the whole officium of meeting the exigency of selling the prod-
uct in the activity type of advertising in the field of business is carried
out through the activation of “culturally shared ‘recipe[s]’” (Rigotti and
Rocci, 2006: 173) of advertising a product, an interaction scheme that
relies on the employment of different textual genres. Each of them ac-
complishes a sub-officium through a given combination of thematic con-
tent, style, and compositional structure (cf. Bakhtin, 1986: 60) that has
proved to be the most adequate to reach a specific goal. In our case the
sub-officia are to announce the launch of Xylo Mepha on the market (the
press release), to inform people about how cold develops and Xylo Me-
pha’s positive effects on it (the brochure), to call to the attention the ex-
istence and availability of Xylo Mepha (the print ad and the TV com-
mercial).
The complex rhetorical situation described above is broken down
into sub-rhetorical situations, which differ in respect to the specific offi-
cium and the participants involved in the communication event that is
in respect to the involved stakeholders.
5.2 In Terms of Stakeholders
The press release, on the one side, the brochure, the print ad and the
TV commercial, on the other side, differ in respect to the addressed rhe-
torical audience. The addressee of the press release (published online on a
news portal)10 can be identified with both the journalists using the por-
tal and all other users of this website (people who plausibly are interest-
ed in recent news). On the one hand, journalists aim at bringing them-
selves up to date with recent news which they can write articles on, they
are also concerned with understanding what kind of product Xylo Me-
pha is and which advantages it has over similar products. Web-users in
general, not working as journalists, are also interested in knowing more
about the product, but they may not have a specific goal concerning this
product.11 The brochure can be both downloaded in pdf format from the
10 The press release is published on presseportal.ch, a service offered by news aktuell (Schweiz) AG, a
company of the group of the Swiss national news agency.
11 Organizations and corporations are getting used to publishing press releases on web portals or on
their websites. In such cases, both the wide public and journalists are addressees. However, there still
are organizations that do not publish their press releases online. Even in this case, though, it is be-
coming more and more usual to address the press release to a public wider than journalists. For in-
stance, some organizations, when promoting an event, send their press releases by e-mail not only to
journalists, but also to a mailing-list of potentially interested people who are likely to assure the pub-
lic of the event (we can mention i2a istituto internazionale di architettura of Vico Morcote, Ticino,
as an actual example we dealt with in the course of composition described in section 6). Also in this
case, the addressees of the press release can be ascribed to different categories.
