PUBLIC RHETORICS

an area in social life where individuals can come together to freely discuss and
identify societal problems, and through that discussion influence political action—
how public opinion becomes political action in a democracy
◦ Quintessential modernist: Believes in rationally motivated
agreement/consensus.
◦ Interested in the communicative ideal of the bourgeois public
sphere from its origins in the 18thcentury salons, coffeeshops, etc.
(white, male, upper-middle class, intellectual, rational)
◦ inclusive critical discussion, free of social and economic
pressures, in which interlocutors treat each other as equals in a Jurgen
Habermas:
cooperative attempt to reach an understanding on matters of
common concern.

coined
◦ Theory of communicative action: It appeals to what would be
the most probable decisions reached by democratic discussions
among equals, in which all participants had access to relevant
information, were honest and avoided deception when
communicating with one another, and no participants were “public
sphere”
more influential than others, unless it was due to the relevance of
their contributions to common interests.
◦ Systems colonize the lifeworld. Systems: capitalist economies
and bureaucratised legal and political power structures and
mass media (instrumentalize citizens—turn them to consumers).
Lifeworld: oases of rational communication that have managed
to survive in parliaments, courts, universities, other branches of
education, and elsewhere in public and private life.
Warner: Publics & Counterpublics
1. Self organized: exists by virtue of being addressed (not enforced by formal institution)
2. Relation Among Strangers: assumed circulation to indefinite others (+ expansion)
3. Personal & Impersonal: “With public speech, by contrast, we might recognize ourselves as addressees, but it is
equally important that we remember that the speech was addressed to indefinite others; that in singling us out,
it does so not on the basis of our concrete identity, but by virtue of our participation in the discourse alone, and
therefore in common with strangers”
4. Constituted through Attention: “Our willingness to process a passing appeal determines which publics we
belong to and performs their extension” (62)
5. Reflexive Circulation: Always call and response, Burkean parlor, no single-voiced public + always meant to
undergo circulation (see “rhetorical velocity”)
6. Act historically according to the temporality of their circulation: publics are not forever, they exist in time and
online insofar as they continue to circulate among texts—since conversations can stop so can publics.
7. Poetic Worldmaking: poetic in contrast to rational deliberation. “Public discourse says not only: “Let a public
exist,” but “Let it have this character, speak this way, see the world in this way.” It then goes out in search of
confirmation that such a public exists,
MEME AS
THE UNIT
OF A
PUBLIC
Henry Jenkins’
Participatory Culture
An opposing concept to consumer culture, is a culture in which private
individuals (the public) do not act as consumers only, but also as
contributors or producers (prosumers)
1. With relatively low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement
2. With strong support for creating and sharing one's creations with others
3. With some type of informal mentorship whereby what is known by the
most experienced is passed along to novices
4. Where members believe that their contributions matter
5. Where members feel some degree of social connection with one
another (at the least they care what other people think about what they
have created).
◦ Civil Argument (rhetoric is a call to self-consciousness):
“Arguments be adapted to the assumptions of one’s
interlocutor in order to reveal the contradiction in that person’s
position…forcing the interlocutor to confront the logical
requirements of her position and the consequences that follow”
(19).
◦ Public sphere: “I take public sphere to refer to a discursive
space in which individuals and groups associate to discuss
matters of mutual interest and, where possible, to reach a
com- mon judgment about them. It is the locus of

Civic vs. Civil

emergence for rhetorically salient meanings” (21)
◦ Public: those who are actively engaged by public problem,
in considering their interest and how it bears on them, and in
forming an opinion shaped by this process of
engagement…not necessarily a group in consensus Society
◦ The impartial spectator (Smith): “Before we can make any
proper comparison of those opposite interests, we must
change our position. We must view them, neither from our
own place nor yet from his neither with our own eyes nor yet
with his, but with the eyes and from the place of a third
person, who has no particular connection with either and
who judges with impartiality”
◦ Civic Virtue: We’re all working for the good of our citystate with
deep similarities—there’s nothing but the good of the state/polis
(both inside and outside the house/oikos).
◦ Contemporary liberal democracy has to balance two
traditions:
◦ Classical liberalism: rule of law, the defense of
human rights and the respect of individual liberty
◦ Democratic theory: equality, identity between
governing and governed, and popular sovereignty Chantal
◦ Radical democracy: the agonistic practice of valuing
and sustaining dissent in the democratic process as a
more important goal than consensus.
Mouffe’s
◦ Agonism: "The aim of a pluralist democracy is to Democratic
Paradox
provide the institutions that will allow them to take an
agonistic form, in which opponents will treat each other
not as enemies to be destroyed, but as adversaries
who will fight for the victory of their position while
recognizing the right of their opponents to fight for
theirs. An agonistic democracy requires the availability
of a choice between real alternatives."
BOWLING ALONE:
ROBERT PUTNAM
◦ the attitudes of political liberals and conservatives
are likely to serve important self-expressive functions,

Red, White,
acting as vehicles for conveying ingroup identity and
core ingroup values.
◦ “Show you love your country by joining the fight to
protect the purity of America's natural environment.
and Blue
Take pride in the American tradition of performing
one's civic duty by taking responsibility for your- self
Enough to Be
and the land you call home. By taking a tougher
stance on protecting the natural environment, you
Green: Moral
will be honoring all of Creation. Demonstrate your
respect by following the examples of your religious
Foundations
and political leaders who defend America's natural
environment. SHOW YOUR PATRIOTISM!”
 Moral Foundations
individualizing

◦ 1) Care/harm: This foundation is related to our long evolution as mammals with attachment systems and an ability to
feel (and dislike) the pain of others. It underlies virtues of kindness, gentleness, and nurturance.
◦ 2) Fairness/cheating: This foundation is related to the evolutionary process of reciprocal altruism. It generates ideas of
justice, rights, and autonomy.
◦ 3) Loyalty/betrayal: This foundation is related to our long history as tribal creatures able to form shifting coalitions. It
underlies virtues of patriotism and self-sacrifice for the group. It is active anytime people feel that it’s “one for all, and
all for one.”
◦ 4) Authority/subversion: This foundation was shaped by our long primate history of hierarchical social interactions. It
binding

underlies virtues of leadership and followership, including deference to legitimate authority and respect for traditions.
◦ 5) Sanctity/degradation: This foundation was shaped by the psychology of disgust and contamination. It underlies
religious notions of striving to live in an elevated, less carnal, more noble way. It underlies the widespread idea that
the body is a temple which can be desecrated by immoral activities and contaminants (an idea not unique to
religious traditions).
◦ #YesAllWomen and #YesAllWhiteWomen.
◦ counterpublics are characterized by the role
they play in constructing and maintaining
Digital
knowledge shared by members of marginalized Standpoints:
communities while simultaneously working to
make visible issues specific to marginalized Debating
experience, thus serving a key role in attempts to
integrate and democratize the dominant public
Gendered
sphere (Asen, 2000). Violence and
◦ standpoint theory: knowledge is situated within Racial Exclusions
systems of power and that groups holding less
power, like women, have a unique and valuable in the Feminist
stand- point through which to assess social
relations.
Counterpublic