![]() CATEGORIES: BiologyChemistryConstructionCultureEcologyEconomyElectronicsFinanceGeographyHistoryInformaticsLawMathematicsMechanicsMedicineOtherPedagogyPhilosophyPhysicsPolicyPsychologySociologySportTourism |
Speech as an Interactive ProcessTo overcome the objection that a man could hardly understand the problems of women, you need to introduce expert testimony to strengthen your perception as a fair, informed, and credible speaker [overcoming psychological noise]. When listeners look puzzled or shake their heads, provide an example or show what you re talking about on the chalkboard [reacting to feedback]. Finally, on such a warm spring day, be more energetic in your presentation and use more colorful language [adapting to the setting]. Identification Community Identification Identification Identification Identification Speaker Listener Listener Listener Listener Figure 1.3 Public Speaking as a Dynamic Process: Successful Moment identification The feeling of closeness between speakers and listeners that may overcome personal and cultural differences. Public Speaking, Eighth Edition, by Michael Osborn, Suzanne Osborn and Randall Osborn. Published by Allyn & Bacon. Copyright © 2007 by Pearson Education, Inc. 16 Part One The Foundations of Public Speaking it, we see a mythical speaker and group of listeners as they are before the successful speech has worked its magic upon them. They are separate from each other and vaguely defined. Their pastel colors hint of their weakness in isolation from each other. But during the dynamic process of successful speaking, they are drawn together by the speaker s identification appeals. They are joined finally in a larger circle of inclusion, a community, in which they enjoy both definition and expanded power. Note the use of the power color, royal blue, to reinforce this impression of greater collective strength (see Chapter 11 for more about the meaningfulness of color). The speaker also shares in this new sense of identity and power. When this new group takes action, following the speaker s leadership, they will have a much greater chance of achieving their purpose than had they acted alone. Burke s concept of identification is one of those rich conceptions we draw upon throughout this course, because it explains so much. For example, it helps explain the power of the appeal offered in Anna Aley s speech protesting slum housing in her town of Manhattan, Kansas: . . . What can one student do to change the practices of numerous Manhattan landlords? Nothing, if that student is alone. But just think of what we could accomplish if we got all 13,600 off-campus students involved in this issue! Think what we could accomplish if we got even a fraction of those students involved! [See Anna Aley s speech at the end of Chapter 16.] Anna, a Kansas State student, helped her listeners realize that they were victims of slum housing. In other words, she pointed out their identity. And she offered a new, dynamic vision of themselves acting together to correct these abuses. Similarly, much of the power of Vanderbilt student Ashlie McMillan s tribute to her dwarf cousin is that Tina is so small physically but so large spiritually. Tina becomes an example listeners can identify with, and listeners themselves become larger as they take her life as a lesson: The next time a large obstacle stands in your way, remember Tina, my small cousin who has achieved such noteworthy things. You too may seem too short to grasp your stars, but you never know how far you might reach if you stand upon a dream. [See Ashlie McMillan s speech at the end of Chapter 17.] Finally, identification helps us explain the power of public speaking on the wider stage of public affairs. Effective politicians typically offer voters new visions of themselves. They may have been victims of bad policy, but now they can become a force for change. When Martin Luther King Jr. strove to change racial practices in America, he offered an answer for the legacy of humiliation and segregation that continued to divide Americans in his time. In his celebrated speech, I Have a Dream, King offered a vision of identification as an answer to the old racial divisions: I have a dream that . . . one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today.16 Throughout the course of the civil rights movement King led from 1956 to 1968, he repeatedly identified himself with Moses as a leader. He spoke as though he had been destined by God to lead his followers out of their Egypt of semi-slavery. Those who responded, many of whom had suffered from degrading identities Public Speaking, Eighth Edition, by Michael Osborn, Suzanne Osborn and Randall Osborn. Published by Allyn & Bacon. Copyright © 2007 by Pearson Education, Inc. Chapter 1 Public Speaking and You 17 assigned to them for generations, were redefined by his rhetoric as the Children of Israel. 17 Through the many battlefields of the civil rights movement, where they would be beaten, jailed, and some of them killed, these people saw themselves as moving toward a new Promised Land. King was still offering visions of that land on the night before he was assassinated. As his leadership emerged over those years, King s own image seemed to grow and expand. And his followers were also transformed into heroic figures as they marched through one ordeal after another. These transformations indicate how people can grow and enlarge when they interact in ethical communication that inspires and encourages the humanity of listeners. In contrast, deceitful and dishonest communication that is designed to manipulate or browbeat listeners or that misuses source material can reduce the humanity of listeners. Plato, of course, told us long ago in the Phaedrus that ethical communication that respects the humanity of listeners and nourishes it with responsible knowledge encourages the spiritual growth of both speaker and listeners. This connection between Kenneth Burke and Plato, identification and ethical communication, leads us into the next section. Date: 2015-02-16; view: 2063
|