George Carlin, rhetorical critic extraordinaire. Hints of Foucault, echoes of Burke, with a dash of phonetic analysis thrown in for good measure…
Carlin on PTSD
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Author Archives: Ben
It Was a Little Pitchy, Dog: The Science of Delivery
From the latest issue of WIRED comes this dispatch on speech analysis research conducted at University of Michigan, which concludes that faster pacing, regular breathing, and control of pitch (less varied for men, more for women) is the key to persuading your listeners. And somewhere from the beyond, Demosthenes smiles…
Breaking: Photojournalism Isn’t Entirely Objective
Via PetaPixel comes this post linking to a short documentary by Ruben Salvadori on the techniques commonly used by photographers in framing, staging, and otherwise embellishing conflict photography. Those readers interested in visual rhetoric, citizen journalism, rhetorical ethics, and related topics will likely find this video a useful critique:
Here’s a fascinating video in which Italian photographer Ruben Salvadori demonstrates how dishonest many conflict photographs are. Salvadori spent a significant amount of time in East Jerusalem, studying the role photojournalists play in what the world sees. By turning his camera on the photographers themselves, he shows how photojournalists often influence the events they’re supposed to document objectively, and how photographers are often pushed to seek and create drama even in situations that lack it.
The More The Easier: Persuadability Scales Inversely
From ScienceDaily comes this report out of RPI, concluding that the tipping point of shifting public opinion is surprisingly low:
Scientists at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have found that when just 10 percent of the population holds an unshakable belief, their belief will always be adopted by the majority of the society.
The implications for rhetorical practice, teaching, and study are intriguing.
Buy This Junk: Spatial Design as Persuasion
Not an entirely new idea, but this Australian video explores the notion of “scripted disorientation” as a technique used in places like shopping malls, supermarkets, and even Ikea to subtly persuade (trick) you into buying things you didn’t intend to:
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The single word creates a pivot…
From the Disinformation website comes this post that illustrates the “micro” level of persuasion: two AP stories five decades apart reporting on two similar examples of unanimous parliamentary votes, using two different descriptors to characterize the event…
What institutional pressures determine these choices in diction?
Rhetoricus Algorithmica: Persuasion in the Age of the Database
The latest issue of WIRED has a column by Eli Pariser called “Mind Reading: The new profiling technique that learns exactly what makes you tick–and buy.” In it, Pariser explains how internet advertising is moving beyond the state of simply suggesting products you’re likely to be interested in (determined by browsing habits, purchase history, and so on); soon, thanks to folks like Stanford communications grad student Dean Eckles, we’ll be subjected to targeted advertising pitches for those products. Swayed more by appeals based on ethos (your favorite author endorses this book, so buy now!)? A sucker for argumentum ad populum (hey, everybody else is getting one, so how about you?)? Easily influenced by emotional appeals (buy this DVD or the kitty gets it!)? Now marketing execs won’t have to trouble themselves with the hard work of figuring out the complexities of effective ad pitches… computers will do it for them. Wasn’t this how Skynet got started?
Now You’re on the Trolley: An Introduction to Carny Rhetoric
I’m always on the lookout for examples of rhetorical instruction and performance that occur outside of the academy proper–rhetorics of the wild, if you will. Oftentimes, the purpose, scope, and motivations behind these rhetorics of the wild are quite different than the situations we teach in a college or university context. Case in point, venerable carny “talker” (and performer) Ward Hall has some videos out there explaining the tricks and tips of hooking rubes to get them to pony up for the various shows, games, and attractions of the carnival midway. It’s a fascinating look behind the curtain into the philosophy, strategies, and lingo of the carny underworld. “What Makes a Good Sideshow Talker?” (Link courtesy of BoingBoing).
(As a follow-up, I recommend watching the great 2007 Alison Murray documentary Carny, a gritty and sobering look at the hard lives of carnival workers.)
Fairey, AP Settle Their Copyright Fracas
In a somewhat deflated postscript to my “Annotated Obama Poster” piece from 2009, Shepard Fairey and the Associated Press have apparently come to a workable solution to the copyright dispute surrounding Fairey’s “Hope” poster. I say “deflated” because this was an out-of-court settlement, and that settlement apparently entails a sharing of rights (and, by extension, any $$$ generated by the image). While that mediation might work for the principle parties involves, those of us wanting a clear legal precedent pertaining to digital-era IP/copyright issues will have to wait a bit longer. Read WIRED‘s coverage of the story here.
Stephen Fry, On Language (Kinetic Typography)
For all you staid and stodgy grammarians out there, take that: