5 Responding Rhetorically
This chapter will help you develop tactics and strategies for writing within spaces that might be unpredictable, if not hostile or hectic. In particular, you’ll learn what it looks like to be responsive (not necessarily reactive)—especially in emergent media contexts.
Learning Objectives
- Reflect on the hostile, unpredictable, and often hectic nature of writing in and for profit-driven publics.
- Develop tactics for responding rhetorically to marketplace chaos by honing an ethic of responsivity. That is, you will practice what it might look like to be both addressable and response-able.
- Practice responsible messaging tactics in emergent media contexts.
Market logics ask workers to communicate “clearly, concisely, and cohesively.” Implicit in these expectations is that communicative certitude between two or more persons could be achieved, if only we were more clear, concise, or our message was more cohesive. Real-world example after real-world example demonstrates, however, that the sender-receiver model of communication vastly misunderstands the complexity of a rhetorical situation. Our rhetorical response to this misunderstanding is to expect and embrace uncertainty, complexity, and miscommunications through a posture of responsivity. What responsivity looks like in practice is that you are, (a) addressable/available, and (b) response-able. In so doing, we do not eschew clarity, concision, and cohesion. But we don’t stop there, either—especially on social media.
Genres You Might Practice
- Social media plan (“spreadable media“)
- Emergent media plan
Contemporary Conversations
In the following examples, consider and critique how messages are responsive and/or reactive.
- How to spot fake news
- “Pharma CEO jacks drug price 400%, citing ‘moral requirement to make money‘”
- Maria Batali, sexual harassment, and cinnamon rolls [source: tweet]
Professional Writer Spotlight
Below is a quote from our interview with Kyle, who writes professionally in a nonprofit organization. We don’t necessarily endorse Kyle’s opinions, but we think it’s worthwhile for you to know how an actual professional writer thinks about responding rhetorically in hectic, if not, chaotic professional situations. Kyle’s perspective comes from having worked as a professional writer in the world for several years.
Kyle, on communicating externally
“I am the director of the department that manages our social media accounts, and what we try to do is to be human. So when it comes to managing the actual brand accounts, we really try to make sure that we’re not falling into the traps of typical corporate speak. We don’t do a lot of pre-written posts. Most of what we do is reactionary. We have a calendar planned, and we know what we’re gonna do, but we try really hard to make it relatable. To treat social media for the organization the same way that an individual would, because we’re trying to connect with individuals in the community who have an affinity and a love for this organization. So we really try to stay human with the way that we do that, and keep it simple and tell the story.”
Tactical Questions
- As your team works within the official genre expectations associated with designing an emergent media plan, how can you anticipate and embrace uncertainty, complexity, and the potential for miscommunication?
- For each of the stakeholders involved in and implicated by your emergent media plan, what are the consequences of certain forms of emergent media responses?
- What barriers, institutions, and/or structures might make it difficult for your team to compose an emergent media plan that ensures its content is accurate, ethical, and truthful?
A unique, localized, context-specific approach to a problem.
The rules of efficiency, productivity, austerity, and competition that inform corporate behaviors in a free market economy. These logics permeate other institutions when we take up their values in our practices and behavior.
An early theory about how communication between two or more people worked; specifically, the speaker was known of as the “sender” and the audience was characterized as “receivers.” This theory has been proven to be terribly reductive and incorrect, as it doesn’t account for varying contexts, audience needs and expectations, among other things.
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. – the privately owned, for-profit digital platforms we publicly post on. These are also mobilized by organizations for marketing, branding, and communication reasons, which can lead to overlaps in who you represent on your personal profile — yourself, or your organization.
Flyers, buttons, and laptop stickers are just a few examples of media produced by an organization to advertise an initiative, raise brand or mission awareness, or otherwise convey information externally to an audience. Can be presupposed, or designed participatorily.