The Future of Rhetoric in the Electronic Age

To the obvious extent that rhetoric communicates recognized ideas and sympathetic depictions of a given culture and society, it is a form of social and professional navigation, a symbiotic currency containing the requisite information and cues. Rhetoric is embedded through experience, through education, and through media referencing. At the conscious level of popular rhetoric, the fundamental cultural landscape is structured though language, a variety of academic and idiolectic associations, and even a basic moral equivalency that suggests that the specific rhetorical flourishes are derived from much deeper, and unquestionably reinforcing ethical and social touchstones. Rhetoric honeycombs the vast spaces of basic perception and casual cultural identity; it is the etymology of social and ethical consciousness. Rhetoric is also broken down into categories, and fluencies that both inform and simultaneously invest. Rhetorical signatures fill the news and political oratories.

With the onset of the information revolution, the scale and quality of rhetoric have undergone a rapid transformation, from guarded political and socially relevant rhetoric to a kind of tech-sweep rhetoric that resonates with impersonal and highly specialized definitions and applications. A significant part of the disorienting nature of the new rhetoric is the calculable distancing from classical rhetoric. At the outer levels of the new rhetoric are attenuated structures that essentially link the user to the IT template. The recognition factor apparent in these memes is the extent to which they have been digested by the culture. The new rhetoric has been progressive, and the cumulative impact is a web of conscious channels through which social and professional avenues cross, connect and overlap. The younger, tech-savvy generation comfortably assimilated this alternative rhetoric however the previous generations are caught in the transition between the classic rhetorical model and the pervasive wave of tech-rhetoric.

The rhetorical schism can be understood from several different perspectives. It is no less a departure from outdated rhetorical models that no longer seem relevant in an age where information and connectivity have been radically transformed. This generation has adopted a specialized vocabulary that seeds the consciousness with ideas of terminal efficiency and time-sensitive factors that are specific concomitants of the dramatic shift into an enveloping electronic culture (Velasco & Lehn, 2011). There is also the degree to which tech-oriented rhetoric has merged with media-fluff, a stream of personality profiles and gossip that have the effect of instilling a residual information authority the longer and more forcefully they are directed at media audiences. The distillations of popular rhetoric are considerably more reinforcing to the extent that they are circulated in 24/7 entertainment and news cycles and occupy a prominent place in more aggressive commercial advertising strategies such as with Nike and Adidas.

Where the components of classical rhetoric were translated through a kind of nationalist prism anchored in western historical narratives, this new electronic rhetoric is perhaps less notably political or cultural in the sense that the primary aims are language efficiency as an outcome of tech efficiency. The newer language corridors are both impersonal and weighted in the authorities of interconnectivity and information channeling, colorfully imbibed by tech-derivative slang and terminology that invokes corrected meanings for all things. The culture is sped up and refined, and the rhetoric reflects the ideas that are generated by critical data and resource referencing. Perhaps the relative speed with which these changes took place—in a single generation—has left some feeling disoriented. Electronic communication, not unlike other radical revisions of human exchange, entails both minute and overt alternations in language, attitudes and the behavioral variables that form in the wake of outdated models. Because the rise of electronic culture was so sudden, the impact has been substantial (Brooke, 1997).

Rhetoric is widely defined as the art of persuasion, or more correctly the politics of persuasion. It forms a reliable backdrop for conversation and diligent cultural punctuation. Where populist rhetoric admits supple variations or modifications, the essential structures have not changed dramatically for centuries. Rhetoric is the applicable conflation of religion, politics, and nationalism into a coherent collective identity. At its interior is the well from which everyone drinks however to the extent that it forms a direct reference for more complicated matters or propositions there are vast areas of inadequacy. Therefore rhetoric is at once self-reflection—in the collective sense—and emersion (Lucaites, et al., 1998). How subjective the experience is depends upon a conscious discipline for acquiring different levels of contemporary rhetoric, and utilizing them for one’s own purposes. In a similar sense that a slang unit is widely circulated in the general population, so are the rhetorical cues that emanate from media or the studied interior of the tech-world, the unseen networks where cryptic vocabularies are minted and pressed into circulation.

To an extent, the transition into another rhetorical model is both deconstructionist and neo-constructionist. The shift in rhetorical consciousness explains how human behavior is subject to alterations whose catalysts are initially external. The presumptive future of rhetoric, are the processes that are currently unfolding. The sweep of the electronic revolution has left nothing untouched in its impact. Perhaps most significant of this transformation is the newer modalities of personal communication which contain a set of modifiers that over time entail big changes. Understanding what people talk about and exactly why drives the evolving rhetorical model of the 21st century (Poulakos, 1999). No longer weighted in stuffy traditions and staid narratives the rhetorical base is more concerned with the present, and the possibilities of the future, rather than the remote authorities of the past.

Where figurative and literal language constructs are primary components of traditional rhetorical models, the seamless transition into the template of electronic formulations and meanings has been distancing. Rhetoric posits a relationship between the individual and their environment, their heritage and how they express a common link with these considerations. Modern rhetoric is a kind of deceptive bridge that posits knowledge of things unknown through simulated attachments, enhanced semiotics and identity associations which are often very superficial or forced. The major arenas for rhetoric are media and the professions. Media often compounds the meme structure derived from the work/social experience, creating a playground of visible associations and links in which the individual finds a comfort zone, and a model for expression (Prelli, 2006). Prevalent attitudes are cultivated from rhetorical models to the extent that they are not consciously arrived at. In this respect, media is the catalyst for rhetoric. Media sets the boundaries for acceptable rhetorical discourse, simultaneously instilling a narrow range of debate that in itself constitutes a tacit authority.

Commercial advertising also exerts a considerable influence on contemporary rhetoric due to sheer saturation. Rhetorical memes are re-circulated in flashy or pseudo-intimate imagery that over time become psychological triggers. The triggers then reinforce other ideas associated with them. Perhaps more than any comparable area of the rhetorical models of the future the advertising industry constitutes one of the most aggressive forces. Commercial advertising has not only adapted to the swift transition in rhetoric but in many ways anticipated and shaped the present rhetorical model. This medium is an ideal playground for shaping rhetoric to fit the needs of mass-consumerism, and the cumulative effect is both placid and disorienting. This is the crossroads between self and media-cultivated self, the boundaries are often far too murky to define. In the same way, the attenuated political rhetoric of the post-9/11 west entails a dualistic identity that bleeds into other areas of experience (DeVelasco & Lehn, 2011). The culture of the west is juxtaposed with eastern culture and characteristics, but not in any substantive or detailed way, it is a form of modified patriotism that revises a set of nationalist or colonial associations. Critical to rhetoric is not only the objective but the subjective as well, the degree to which self-referencing reinforces specific external considerations that impact the collective. There are clear links here between the old rhetorical model and the new one.

To further explore the more compelling rhetoric of display, or graphic display, the commercial advertising industry stands alone. Because a significant effect of the new rhetoric is image-driven, or audio-visual, rather than print-oriented the seductive spell of ever-increasing appeals that emphasize appearance or surface considerations over content has gradually been embedded (Prelli, 2006). The psychology behind this phenomenon is to cleverly augment a kind of consumerism that transcends the traditional boundaries between consumer consciousness and the product, whether it is fashion, electronics, entertainment or beauty products. It is not unthinkable to envision a future rhetorical model shaped primarily by the advertising industry that incorporates other aspects of politics and culture into an overarching authority. Even at this present stage, the way that rhetoric is being shaped is both manipulative and consoling to the extent that it can steer consumer trends to an extraordinary degree. Rhetoric is ultimately an instrument for a vast amount of uses that can range from innocuous to politically ominous. Perhaps the most troubling aspect of the flighty and serene rhetorical model evolving is the common perception that it is not necessarily assimilative, that the ideas and attitudes it cultivates are somehow arrived at autonomously. Posing the question that asks how are attitudes and the opinions they engender arrived at would logically involve rhetoric, asking who shapes the rhetoric is another question altogether.

Rhetoric suggests values, and these values equate to identity. Determining the objective assessment of these values is the politics of rhetoric, the presumed extent to which anyone can attempt to objectify or explore the wide range of opinions and attitudes that they adopt, or why. Because rhetorical patterns have largely been established through historical or religious narratives, the electronics age departure feels more than sudden, at once a break-away moment that exaggerates and redefines certain ideas about the future, but also quite specifically a channel that is widely accessible. Common ideas and attitudes are a basis for benign social interaction and group dynamics. To this extent establishing a pared-down or highly attenuated rhetorical model introduces a wealth of benefits and applications that rival any previous form of authoritarian construct. The most revolutionary aspect of such a behavioral model is that it is largely undetected. A group of people can get together for a night out; invariably the conversation will be determined by some obvious component of the presiding rhetorical model without any of the participants recognizing the degree to which this happens.

None of this is intended to sound sinister or unduly conspiratorial however the degree to which popular ideas and attitudes are indebted to the rhetoric of the times is not in doubt. Consciousness is evolved within a cultural template, and the ideas and content that form the basis for this template are remarkably consistent. Current rhetorical models invariably inform the vast majority of cultural opinions and attitudes. This observation is consistent across the cultural spectrum, from country to country. While there are variations in political and social cues, the underpinning of the prominent rhetorical model exerts a considerable influence over the basic channels of otherwise acceptable opinion or attitudes (Lucaites, et al., 1998). Figurative language employs a number of perceptual devices, including metaphor and no small degree of stylized symbolism. These constructs are essentially non-discursive to the extent that they magnify or import other conscious areas of a given cultural template. A pervasive rhetorical model is basically a series of memes embedded over a period of time. This was certainly the deliberation behind the rhetoric of the last century. Today however the pervasive rhetoric is not nearly as generalized in the sense that the object is self-referencing and to a greater extent self-differentiation. The current rhetorical model is evolving, gathering circumstantial components as it exacts both its range of impact and its cosmology of detail. At the surface, the model subscribes to traditional ideas of American ingenuity and industry, however beneath the mundane and familiar exteriors are the active registries of a techno-consciousness as equally conditioned by environment, as they are advanced by subjective impressions.

The ingredients in today’s rhetoric are radically different from those of the mid-point in 20th-century self-consciousness. A demonstrable Cold War rhetoric pervaded American consciousness from the close of the Second World War until the last decade of the century. Only with the onset of computer-culture did the model begin a process of gradual alteration based upon the needs of an evolving electronically centered culture whose revised aims focused on such values as efficiency and information gathering and storage. The concentrated impact of this culture spawned rarified vocabularies that eventually transitioned into non-formal use. In spite of the lag-effect in political polarities that mirrored the past century, the neo-rhetorical model adopted a post-modern governance that embodied finance and aggressive technology innovation as guide paths to a future transformed by technological monopolies. The future of rhetoric is in many ways traceable from current patterns, less consumed by political dualism than by a prescient sense of technological optimism that envisions a world in which differences can be bridged by technology where politics have failed dismally. These sentiments themselves have been reduced to sound-bites and quirks within a swirl of circulating aphorisms (Prelli, 2006).

It is certainly notable that present-day rhetoric is considerably less canonical than that of the last century. Less burdened by the consciousness of nationalism and Cold-War polarities the shift in aims represents a significant break from the past. To the extent that canonicity is neither banished nor actively imparted through current rhetoric, the basis for a wider exchange of ideas begins to emerge, albeit bridled by relative cultural ballasts. Where the discarded—or radically altered—rhetorical model suffered from a conscious myopia, present rhetoric is less confining but also compounded by certain contradictions. No longer a prophetic rhetoric this reinvigorated rational discourse hints at tables of commerce and the innovative transformations that might be possible as old rivalries are subdued and replaced by competitive analysis and data-counseling. As the economies of nations are progressively merged into a more-or-less global economic order the modalities of division shift accordingly and common aims emerge. This is a significant facet of today’s rhetorical model; it is no longer isolated as a component of nationalism or political conviction. Present-day rhetoric is increasingly globalized, sparking a common perception gleaned from an overarching electronic-age.

Mass-media both translates and informs the external world, it posits ideological boundaries and arbitrary parameters for acceptable discourse. Mass-media also, and most critically, reinforces popular rhetoric. Today media dominance is leagues ahead of what it was in the infancy of television or print media. Both the scale and influence of mainstream corporate media are all but inescapable in the early part of this new century. Media has become the great leveler of rhetoric, extending its applications far beyond the impact of previous centuries and simultaneously reducing its complexities to an abridged commercial medium where politics and commerce are merged to a degree that alters both in terms of their appeal to consumers. Media truncates rhetoric and re-packages it to a new generation of technologically adept consumers.

The perceptual bridge between the old rhetorical model and the emerging one contains notes of resemblance mostly constructed around sharply modified political divides between the west and eastern cultures (DeVelasco & Lehn, 2011). Beyond this lag-effect, the evolving rhetorical model is comprised of figurative messaging that translates into a personalized context that may appear more immediate and lingering than the contours of the outdated Cold War rhetoric of the 20th century. Deconstructing the old model was actually a function of the evolving model, emphasizing technology in place of hyper-nationalist registries and ideology has the effect of transcending boundaries to the extent that technology is the great leveler of the 21st century. In this respect, the process of deconstruction was embodied in transformation, not consciously shaping the model to fit the needs and attendant concerns of an emerging tech-generation so much as following a process of assimilation.

Digital text is innocuous and familiar, and part of the broad appeal of the electronics revolution and its unprecedented transformation of multiple areas of human interaction and text-interpretation are the pathways that unite access and individual, the accompanying psychology of emotive balance that informs processes that are either benign or remote in perceptual terms. Figurative, or symbol-dominated language refines otherwise intimidating information units and converts them into consciously shaped popular memes, these memes then form the basis for the present rhetorical model to the extent that they are recognized and internalized (Prelli, 2006). Operating systems that parse and refine information contain soothing patterns that over time suggest a kind of tech-oriented harmony that is non-political. This perceptual harmony has gradually replaced the more overt and divisive rhetoric, establishing a clear point of transition that breaks down political divisions and converts them into a sympathetic culture of information that is specifically separate from, and even inimical to nationalism.

Conclusion

The obvious benefits of the present and future of rhetoric are the components that universalize information in a corporate sense. In this respect, the model has radically shifted from bi-polar to uni-polar tendencies that are non-political, or even superficially political. The world is evolving into a global information marketplace in which data-streams are shared and manipulated in digital-culture rather than political culture. In this respect, the evolving model has managed to dispel, or at least erode, the old Cold War suspicions and rivalries. Technology clearly has unintended benefits beyond efficiency and operational transformations. Technology-culture is inclusive to the extent that it foreshadows a future in which information commerce supersedes the reckless aims of individual states and economies. Understanding how the model admitted these deviations is crucial to charting the future of rhetoric in a digital-age of rapid innovation and startling efficiency. The relative speed with which this phenomenon has occurred suggests further alternation in the rhetorical model over a short period.

The dramatic difference is that rhetoric is now universalized and the collective psychology behind it has been reversed. Because behavior follows instilled attitudes the cumulative expectation is a presiding alignment of powerful nations joined in a self-reinforcing technology culture that rejects political division as incongruent or counterproductive to the economic aims of the whole. Because this state of affairs has not yet occurred, nevertheless the indications are difficult to ignore. The great achievement of technology could well mean not only a transformed and eminently rational rhetorical model, but a world that has eliminated hostile divisions as an antiquated relic of pre-stage technology and the established patterns of history. This is an exciting and revolutionary prospect.

References

Brooke, C. G., & Saul, P (1997) The Fate of Rhetoric in an Electronic Age/Enculturation,1(1).

DeVelasco, A., & Lehn, M. (2011) Rhetoric: Concord and Controversy, Waveland Press Inc.

Lucaites, J. L., Condit, C. M., & Caudill, S. (1998) Contemporary Rhetorical Theory, 1st edition The Guilford Press.

Prelli, L. J. (2006) Rhetoric of Display (Studies in Rhetoric/Communication) University of California Press.

Poulakos, J. & Poulakos, T. (1999) Classical Rhetorical Theory. Houghton Mifflin College Division.