Analyzing Public Discourse

This lesson will further develop your understanding of the rhetorical situation as a critical perspective to use in analyzing public discourse. To effectively analyze public discourse, you must listen strategically. To be a citizen-critic, you must attend to what speakers say and how they say it so that you can properly draw on speeches as resources for taking part in public decision-making. Ultimately, you will then be in a better position to prepare your own speeches as part of the deliberative processes in public life.

What Is Criticism?

In Chapter 4, the author defines rhetorical criticism as "the analytic assessment of messages that are intended to affect other people" (p. 89). We can extend this definition to include texts, cultural artifacts, and other symbols that have persuasive effects. Again, almost all messages—even those that are meant simply to inform or to entertain—have some persuasive element and are therefore rhetorical. Insofar as messages influence how we think, how we act, and what we believe, they have consequences in our public and private lives and, therefore, we listen to them as citizen-critics.