Homework WK4

The interest of humans in rhetoric began in the fifth century and remained present throughout history until the modern era. As rhetoric can be defined as the ability to utilize particular symbols to affect the beliefs, attitudes, and feelings of others it is without a doubt a meaningful tool that media often use. Every song we listen to, movie we watch, or article we read contains a message that influences us either on a conscious or unconscious level.


An important structure of rhetoric is form which represents the way in which narration is constructed. It is based on a simple principle of a logical sequence of events or a typical character behavior expected by the audience. There are four different types of form that include progressive form, repetitive form, conventional form, and minor form. As well as form, genre is an important rhetorical structure. It refers to a set of distinctive features typical for a certain group of works. If we take movies as an example, there are clear differences in their content, characters, and messages which enable us to classify them as romantic comedies, horrors, or thrillers.


When discussing the power that media has to influence our standpoints due to rhetoric, it is important to mention the phenomenon of doxa. It denotes the ideas we comprehend as normal without any questioning, simply recognizing them as common sense or universal truths. The concept of the American dream is an ideology that claims that what differentiates the rich from the poor is only the amount of work they put in towards achieving their goal. On the basis of interpellation, ideologies tend to persuade us that we are not unique individuals, but only one of many 'social subjects'.


Another useful asset of media is othering which tends to normalize majorities, thereby marginalizing everyone who does not belong to them. The view of white as a standard race that needn't be pointed out serves as a perfect example.