Rhetorical Situation

I really liked how in Bitzer's article he explained that the relationship between a situation and discourse is a question/answer relationship; the situation is the question and the discourse is the answer, or at least the response. He gives examples like JFK's assassination and the Battle of Gettysburg as events that triggered the need for rhetorical discourse.

It was interesting to me that with Bitzer, we get yet another definition of rhetoric. He defines rhetoric as "a mode of altering reality, not by the direct application of energy to objects, but by the creation of discourse which changes reality through the mediation of thought and action" (4). The first time I read this, I was hesitant to agree with this theory because I associated negative images with someone who "alters reality." However, Bitzer does not mean this to be a negative thing. In this case, altering reality can be used to call people to action or help spread a sense of calm. This definition of rhetoric plays into the rhetorical situation that Bitzer describes.

For example, after the shooting in Aurora, Colorado, President Obama appeared and gave a short speech. He speaks at some moments about being shocked and being unsure what makes someone want to take the life of another, but he also calls all of us the "American family" and asks that as a nation, we embrace the families of Aurora who have lost their loved ones. Immediately, it can be said that as a rhetorical situation, Obama's speech is in response to the shooting, which makes the shooting the exigence.

Obama's speech also follows Bitzer's definition of rhetoric that alters reality because, despite the tragedy of what's happened, the president is attempting to call everyone together and reassure the nation that the government is going to do everything it can to bring the perpetrator to justice. He is playing the role of a strong yet sympathetic leader. His audience is not just the people at the convention that was currently gathered, but the entire nation, possibly the entire world. The shooting was during his campaign for president, and he makes it explicitly clear that he has no interest in being political that day, another technique used to demonstrate to his audience that he is determined to pull the nation together to stand against such a horrible event. As far as a constraint goes, the only people who might be against Obama's speech or find fault with it would be those few members of the opposing part who are determined to never like anything he does. This could be the reason he mentions prayer as many times as he does, as well as calling for a moment of silence; not that liberals aren't Christian, but most extreme right wing Conservatives are, and by calling for prayer, he could attempt to appeal to those who claim to be against him based on religious beliefs.