Challenges an ideology hidden within the history of rhetoric that privileges one form of the art over another--one approach moves outward toward the social world of public affairs, the other inward toward the center of the human soul. Recounts several "moments" in the creation, repression, and eventual recovery of a rhetoric of the…

Continues the process of questioning what is taken for granted in communication research and expanding the views of rhetorical processes. Explores how and where texts are created, and how texts interact with each other, especially in terms of "intertextual interanimation." (RS)

Proposes an alternative to the patriarchal bias in most traditional rhetorical theories--invitational rhetoric, grounded in the feminist principles of equality, immanent value, and self-determination. Argues that its purpose is to offer an invitation to understanding and that its communicative modes are the offering of perspectives and the…

Responds to an article in an earlier issue of this journal. Argues that, rather than attempting to promote theory construction based on an artificially limited field of communication, an effort should be made to unify the field by assimilating its diversity, and to bridge the broad span between interpersonal communication theory and classical…

Uses the Cold War rhetorical vision as a paradigm case illustrating the emerging theory of group consciousness, part of Symbolic Convergence Theory. Explains that three streams of communication (consciousness creating, consciousness raising, and consciousness sustaining) characterize the life cycle of a rhetorical vision. Demonstrates that…

Approaches the issue of whether rhetoric and science are incompatible through a historical narrative of the speech tradition. Draws morals and applies them to the ever-emerging communication discipline. (RS)

Tests Walter R. Fisher's claim that all forms of discourse can be viewed as types of narrative by applying the narrative paradigm to three works that cannot traditionally be considered stories. Finds that the narrative approach is of little use when applied to discourse that does not tell a story. (SR)

Argues that "goodwill," the third of Aristotle's three elements of ethos, is ignored by many contemporary researchers because of misanalysis and/or misinterpretation of data. Reports empirical research indicating the existence of the goodwill dimension as part of the structure of the ethos/source credibility construct, and provides a…

Proposes that empirical disposition toward the dialog of informal discourse (the Vernacular Rhetoric model) provides a deeper understanding of public opinion than either the Rational Deliberation or the Opinion Poll models. Discusses an outsider's experience witnessing vernacular discourse, the rhetorical locus of public opinion in vernacular…

Discusses George Gallup's crusade to establish polling's scientific and cultural legitimacy that mythologized its history of "progress"; deflected doubts about its accuracy and technical procedures with a rhetoric of scientific of mystification; and celebrated the collective wisdom of "the people." Shows how Gallup's…

Examines the depth and denials of the past as well as the present relationship between rhetoric and the social science of communication. Argues for a broader, unitary view to replace the fragmentation strategy. Argues that the greater question is what might be gained from the marriage of rhetoric and communication science. (KEH)

Sketches a key mechanism called "Substitute Vocabularies" whereby practitioners of democracies seek to reconcile contradictions between democratic political principle and repressive political action. Illustrates this by identifying the Richard Nixon administration's political principles regarding Native Americans as articulated in…

Uses the 1913 murder trial of Leo Frank to examine the ways in which "characters" are developed in legal discourse. Focuses attention on the ways in which race, class, and gender are constructed in discussions of Leo Frank's guilt or innocence. Highlights the rhetorical dimensions of direct and cross-examination, closing statements, and…

Contributes to rhetorical scholarship by analyzing the life and work of the intellectual, quiet, enigmatic civil rights leader Robert Parris Moses. Analyzes Moses's substantive message, personal persona, and second persona as synergistic and reciprocal elements of reconstitutive identification by understanding his rhetorical goals and the…

Argues that the legitimacy crisis in Iran in 1978-79 arose from the contrasting views of authority espoused by the Shah and the Ayatollah over 25 years and describes how their rhetoric expresses the two impulses of the progressive and the traditionalist orientation of authority. Employs a critical perspective to analyze various rhetorical…