How to use rhetoric to get what you want by Camille A. Langsten
Rhetoric is the art of seeing the available means of persuasion and is today applied to any communication.
- Forensic (judicial) rhetoric establishes facts or judgements about the past, like a detective finding facts to describe an event.
- Epideictic (demonstrative) rhetoric makes a proclamation about the situation.
- Symbouleutikon (deliberative) which focuses on the future and is the rhetoric of politicians arguing about the future and the positive or negative effects that will result from change. For example, Dr. Luther King presenting an argument that "I dream of a day when children will be judged not by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character."
- Ethos is how you convince an audience of your credibility
- Logos is the use of logic or reason, employing analogies (this is that, or this like that), examples, citations of research and statistics. Can also be the structure and content itself. Use factual knowledge to support an argument. False information which is believed to be true can be used to manipulate, such as vaccines causing autism. (Also, not this concept of a belief returns from our discussion of culture. You can build a culture around a belief, even if it is not factual).
- Pathos appeals to emotion. Often the most effective mode in modern media and can be irrational and unpredictable, rallying for peace or war. Beauty products might relieve insecurity or cars make us feel powerful and rely on pathos to succeed.
Understanding rhetoric provides us the tools to develop persuasive communication while allowing us to recognise and understand how rhetoric is being used on us.
What Aristotle and Joshua Bell can teach us about persuasion by Conor Neill
Example of Joshua Bell playing in a sold out theatre versus playing violin to nobody in a subway station.
- Ethos is reputation, or what you're known for.
- Credibility asks do you look and act professional, or, at least suitable for the role. Eg. a lawyer might be expected to wear a suit and tie, a doctor or scientist to wear a lab coat, a tradesman to have overalls and a tool belt, an artist or creative to be covered in paint or look eccentric.
- Trustworthiness requires the listener to believe you care about them as much as yourself, that your motives are clear and understood.
- Authority is confidence and decisiveness with a clear, strong voice.
- Logos states the idea should make sense form the audience's point of view, different from the speaker's point of view, so should be made relevant to the audience if it will succeed. Good arguments should make logical sense to the audience.
- Pathos is emotional connection, often created through narrative structure. The right emotional environment must be created for the audience and be ready to receive the informaiton.
In Joshua Bell's situation, ethos is reduced as the concert hall confers trust in the audience that the talent on stage should be respected whereas we don't have the same understanding of trust within a subway. A concert hall also provides the emotional space, pathos, preparing the audience to develop a connection with Joshua Bell's work, while the hustle and bustle, daily lives and transitionary space of a subway isn't conducive to emotional connection with a static musician. We might hear the music, but we're not prepared to listen to it.
Also, not similarities here between hearing and looking and listening and seeing, as discussed in relation to visual literacy.
Looking or hearing (biological) is directing one's gaze in a specific direction.
Seeing or listening (cognitive/interpretive) is perceiving with one's eyes; be or become aware of something from observation; discern or deduce after reflection. The way we see is affected by our culture and society.
Seeing or listening (cognitive/interpretive) is perceiving with one's eyes; be or become aware of something from observation; discern or deduce after reflection. The way we see is affected by our culture and society.
Activity // Define
- Ethos
- Character
- Credibility
- Persuasion
- Information
Visual Language: Perspectives for Both Makers and Users by Van Den Broek, Jos et al.
Van Den Broek, Jos, Willem Koetsenruijter, Jaap De Jong, and Laetitia Smit. ‘Visual Rhetoric: Images That Persuade’. In Visual Language: Perspectives for Both Makers and Users, 88–120. The Hague: Eleven International Publishing, 2012.
Classic rhetoric according to Cicero has the speaker (rhetor) employing five devices to successfully persuade an audience:
- Inventio – You should choose content, arguments, examples and anecdotes appropriate or your objective and your public. And be sure that what you choose matches the circumstances and the time (kairos is perfect timing).
- Dispositio – You should be smart in how you structure the content of your speech and your arguments.
- Elocutio – You should express the content with great feeling for style, with humor, or with unusual examples of language use, such as comparisons, repetitions and plays on words.
- Memoria – You should make sure you are familiar with the story by practising well – maybe with PowerPoint, Prezi or autocue – and check whether it reads well and flows smoothly.
- Actio – Finally, you should present the text. You can increase the impact of your speech by maintaining eye contact with your audience, by effective use of your voice, being convincing and employing appropriate gestures.
"[...] images of things that are not actually present made so visible in thoughts, that it appears as if we can see them with our eyes and have them close by us. Anyone who empathizes will in this way also achieves the most emotionally."A renewed interest in persuasion arose in the 1950s and 60s following World War II, with Hitler and Mussolini as subjects, in a bid to understand how they employed persuasion. This coincides with an increase in media, photography, radio and television—the rise of mass communication and mass media.
Who is the rhetor (speaker)?
In traditionally rhetoric, the rhetor was more clear—it was usually the person speaking. In visual communication the speaker is less clear. Using the example of news journalism, the speaker may range from the journalist or photographer, to the editor or photography editor, editor-in-chief, or the publisher. In advertising agencies, is the speaker the subject of a photograph, the designer, copy writer, photographer, illustrator, senior designer, creative director or the client and the values they represent?
"The relation between the viewer and the rhetor remains more abstract and impersonal than in a speech situation with a speaker who makes gestures and seeks eye contact."Ethos, pathos and logos in images
"A speaker makes use of ethos (to increase credibility) if he refers directly or indirectly to his own qualities; pathos relates to appealing to the emotions of the public, and logos to the arguments he uses to try to persuade his audience."
- Ethos is "the credibility of the rhetor, the person or institution who wants to persuade the viewer of a message by means of an image" which may be employed using signs within the advertisement, such as lab coats on scientists, or using brand ambassadors to align themselves with a particular value. Sports brands use elite athletes to demonstrate the performance and value of their products, for example, or when charities use celebrities as their ambassadors. Those may also be established through more subtle design elements, such as a professional looking website as opposed to one which looks outdated or tacky.
For example, see the Space Jam and Marvel websites below, and note the various design techniques and how they differ between the two.
- Pathos is an appeal to emotions such as sympathy, happiness, anxiety or joy, and which doesn't necessarily rely on substance or factual evidence. For example, an image of a juicy looking tomato may make the mouth water but is not evidence of its taste or juiciness (and may have been falsified in production) and an image of a leader holding a small child doesn't necessarily mean they care for that child at all. And, when these attempts at appealing to our emotions are unsuccessful they are easier to identify, such as footage of PM Scott Morrison's recent handshake attempt during the recent Australian fires of 2019/2020 as opposed to Russian President Putin high-fiving the Saudi Prince at G20.
- Logos is about establishing rational arguments. This is more easily achieved using photographic evidence and illustrations incorporating statistics which are seen to present factual information. A photo "can show that something exists (probability) and that it is attractive (desirability). Before and after photographs are a good example of this, where unflattering lighting and angles may be used to highlight the undesirable qualities of an person while flattering light and angles may be used to highlight the now desirable qualities of the same person after a particular treatment such as hair or weight. Deducing the argument and effectiveness of images is not simple as "the scope for interpretation is greater than with language, but very often text from the environment provides sufficient points of contact for an argumentative interpretation."
For example, the illustration below is a 3D rendered design of the new restaurant Chao Chow on Gouger Street. The photographs below are photographs I have produced of the same venue. While the photographs look gorgeous, it took hours to set up the restaurant to ensure that it matched the vision of the original designs. In reality, the restaurant feels incredibly busy and cluttered when there are people sitting in the space. And compare it to this the image below from AdelaideNow of restaurant owner in the busy space.
Kairos: the right moment relates to the way "the speaker modifies his message to suit perfectly the present circumstances and the present time" and "the sense that this ist he moment; not in a couple of months or year, but now." Especially important to photography, "kairos is selecting that one perfect photo from all the instants he has shot." This can also be referred to in photography as the decisive moment as stated by Henri Cartier-Bresson, famous French street photographer. Kairos in advertising might be able taking advantage of a particular feeling, sentiment or movement in popular culture or recent event. The idea of "reading the room" or "missing the mark" in the case of campaigns which should have been withheld. For example, after the recent volcano eruption on White Island, New Zealand where 19 people died, my Facebook feed promoted an advertisement to climb volcanoes in Vanuatu. As a country mourning the death of citizens in a volcano eruption, this is incredibly inappropriate. This reflects negatively on Flight Centre Australia and on Facebook.
And, sometimes you can get the timing right but completely botch the argument and tone, eroding credibility of the argument. For example, this iconic image was captured at the Baton Rouge Protest as a reaction to the shooting of young black man Alton Sterling. And the advertisement by Pepsi was released in response to the image shortly after, though the tone missed the marked.
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