"Situations do not exist without rhetors"

In "Rhetorical Situations and their Constituents", Vatz challenges Bitzer's assumptions that rhetor's responses are controlled by the situation. He argus that "situations do not exist without rhetors" and that rhetors create rather than discover rhetorical situations. This is a bit of a "which came first, the chicken or the egg?" situation. Vatz' argument then means that rhetors do not react. Rather, they control and create the dialog.

Scott Consigny's response is right in the middle, and that is where I find myself as well. Rhetors definitely have control over the dialog, but to have that dialog in the first place, there must be a rhetorical situation. Rhetors are most definitely just as much a part of a rhetorical situation as the audience, as rhetors have a huge responsibility and job to be a part of the direction in which a rhetorical situation goes.

Political speeches are a great example of the whole scope of a rhetorical situation. The exigence is the issues, whether they politicians are talking about health care, gun control, immigration reform, social issues, etc. It is the issue politicians take a stance on, and in turn hopefully articulate a powerful argument to persuade voters. Political speeches are used as the forum in which politicians set forth their agenda for their upcoming campaign for term in office. The issues they see as the most pressing, the issues they are most passionate about and the legislation they choose to sponsor/co-sponsor forms their narrative for their campaign or term. It is not just one issue, one topic, or one speech that represents them, but rather the compilation that in turn creates a mood and a theme for their campaign moving forward. For example, the issues that Obama spent the most time discussing during his campaign in 2008 forged the narrative of "hope" and this "yes we can" attitude that was extremely apparent in the 2008 campaign.

The audience is much more than the voters, and much more than political pundits and news anchors. However, presently much of the power is with the political pundits on cable television because it has turned into a much more biased, much less qualified conversation that spews opinion and packaged propaganda rather than an attitude in which open debate and discussion is encouraged.

In the book, Presidential Power and the Modern Presidents by Richard Neustadt, the issue of the office of the presidency is further explored. Although personal qualities of the individual president contribute to the success or failure of that president, usually the analysis goes no further than examining the individual. What should be focused on more, is the executive branch as a position. The ability for the president to influence others is what makes a president powerful, just like the constraint division of rhetorical situations. The ability to influence the audience can either be positive and negative, just like the constraints in rhetorical situations can lead to modifications and action or halt the action for a change in exigence.

In Geiser, et al, it described rhetoric as a "goal-directed activity similar to engineering and architecture in its regard for practical effects in the future and in its need to be socially responsible and ethical. Now, I don't think that everyone who writes writes to achieve a specific goal. Unless, however, the goal is for school or work. Often writers write to practice the art form of filling up sheets up paper with words that they love, whether it be poetry, short stories, or fiction or non-fiction writing. To think of it as a a field similar to engineering and architecture is both exciting and daunting. However, good writers hone in on their skills in order to create something with practical effects in the future. As discussed in class and by Fish, the correlation between observation and rhetoric I believe are closely related. Rhetoric is often direct observation, because, just as Vatz argues, the rhetor's response is controlled by the situation, thus, the observation is only made by examining the situation.