Communications Question

Hi please Read the detailed case study in the textbook Chapter 1 attached below. Use the economics concepts learned in Chapter one to answer the following questions: Maya earns $50/hour. John earns $45/hour + 5% commission + bonus (commission and bonus are based on his performance).

(Note: Some economics concepts you may consider — opportunity cost, law of demand and supply, preferences, price of alternative products, budget, price elasticity, etc. You will only receive 5 points if no economic concept is used in your explanation. )

1. What do you think about John’s decision to save money by fixing the car by himself?

2. What do you think about John’s comment on gasoline price?

3. What do you think about Maya’s plan to reduce their budget on gasoline?

Podcast 4:
Contextual Analysis
COMS 430: RHETORICAL CRITICISM
DR. STEPHEN HEIDT
Contextual Analysis Assignment
• Describe the circumstances – context – that led to X
(Emma) Gonzalez’s speech at the March For Our Lives
Rally
• Brainstorm & research: what was the immediate context;
the cultural context; the political context?
• 1 page in length
• Attempt to summarize and not describe in detail
Presentation 1 Assignment
• Podcast 1: identify a rhetorical artifact for investigation
• This is the subject of your first presentation
• Choose an object worth investigating
• 3-5 minutes presentation
• Guidelines:
• What is it?
• Brief descriptive analysis
• Brief contextual analysis
• Some assessment of it
Zarefsky, 4 Sense of Rhetorical History
• Define context:
• the circumstances that form the setting for an event, statement, or
idea
• Aristotle: context derives from the speech; Isocrates: context derives
from the speech & what happens prior to the speech
• Why study context?
• We cannot take motives for granted
• We must, instead, delve into controversies to understand how they
shape and are shaped by the rhetoric we examine
• All criticism is interpretive & historical: historians don’t merely report
facts, they filter facts to construct narratives based on the available
evidence
Context and Criticism
• Good criticism is reflective: it offers reasons to sustain
judgment
• Wichelns directed our attention to the situational
components of rhetoric – that assessment must be made
in context
• History & criticism exist in overlapping circles – rhetorical
history occurs where they overlap
The place of criticism
History
Criticism
Rhetoric
Context: how much?
• Key question: what should history/context contribute to
rhetorical theory/criticism?
• Guidepost: relevance
• The context/history we tell must fit into the conversation we want
to have about the rhetoric
• There are always more facts that are interesting, but they don’t
always belong
• The context/history must inform and influence our discussion of
the rhetoric in ways that alter how we analyze the rhetoric
Context & Distinctions that Matter
• Identify the value of an individual case to theory/history
• Expose atypical cases
• Provide a “theory of the case” – explains unusual situations
• Demonstrate/explain history
• Resist direct effects claims – hard to draw a line from
rhetoric to action
• Your task is to explain not to demonstrate causality
Types of Contextual Inquiry
• History of Rhetoric:
• Explain the development of effective discourse
• Trace development of theories/concepts
• Builds the discipline
• Studies of history must contribute to theory
• Rhetoric of History:
• Historical discourse emerges from interaction between historian and
the record
• Studies inventional and presentational practices of historians as a
specialized discourse
• Explains how history is used
Types of Contextual Inquiry
• Historical Study of Rhetorical Events
• Rhetoric as a force in history – alters ongoing social conversation
• Index/mirror history
• Suggests a rhetorical trajectory
• Need more sophistication and discovery of primary sources – it’s
interdisciplinary
• Study of historical events from a rhetorical perspective
• Same subject matter as historians but with different perspective
• Views history as a series of rhetorical problems – situations calling
for persuasion or advancing a cause
Benefits of historical context
• Articulate rhetorical climate of an age
• Explain how people defined a situation
• Explain what led them to justify or persuade
• Explain what knowledge they drew on
• Explain the themes and styles they produced
• Show how identification and/or confrontation succeeded
or failed
Polysemy
• Definition: multiple viable readings available for most
rhetorical acts
• Examples:
• Tough fights
• Negotiations
• Shape economy
• Revitalized
• Hard decisions
Polysemous words
• About 40% of English words are polysemous
• Arms
• Arms bend at the elbow.
• Germany sells arms to Saudi Arabia.
• Once:
• Boil the solution once with salt and once with sugar.
• Once Germany had surrendered, the Soviets were free to enter the
conflict against Japan.
• Subject:
• Is economics an arts subject or a science subject?
• All income is subject to tax.
Polysemous words
• While:
• While the family was in the garden, an intruder entered the house.
• While your answer is correct, it is not complete.
• Solution:
• Work out the solution in your head.
• Heat the solution to 75° Celsius.
• Key:
• The key broke in the lock.
• The key problem was not one of quality but of quantity.
• Pupils:
• There are many non-native pupils in the class.
• Pupils’ size changes according to the brightness of light.
When both meanings are present at
once
• Man:
• the human species as a whole
• male of the human species (gender)
• adult male of the human species (versus boy)
• Bank:
• a financial institution
• the building where such an institution is located
• a synonym for “to rely on” (“you can bank on that”)
Consequences:
• Impacts human communication in generation and reception of
messages and drives computer programmers nuts
• Can be used as an instrument of the oppressed: makes available
subordinate readings of text by subordinate audiences – it enables
resistance
• Ex. Beast Mode – “I’m just here so I don’t get fined” can be read as either
subordinate or as resistant – as one player’s resistance to the NFL’s
paradoxical policy of caring about certain cosmetic things while ignoring
broader issues like player health, domestic violence, etc.
• Tool of the rhetor –
• as strategic and serving the purpose of the author
• a strategy for bringing audiences to converge on the acceptance of a text –
can be resistant, but not necessarily
Related Terms
• Polysemy: more than one meaning present
• distinct and identifiable meanings – it’s not indeterminate
• Nor is it open or limitless – it’s a bounded multiplicity
• Polyvalent: shared meaning but no agreement on the
valuation of meanings.
• Audiences either accept the text or they don’t
• The difference between a cognitive gap v. an attitudinal gap
Three types
1. Resistive reading: assumes more readings = reduced
hegemonic control and increased audience power. But
most of the time, this is about polyvalence, not polysemy
and audiences have less power or control over
interpretation
a) Read the speech/text differently = resistive reading and power
over the text = motivates perseverance
b) Audience inspired polysemy
c) Not all polysemous readings are liberating
Three types
2. Strategic ambiguity: planned by the author to result in
two or more conflicting groups converging in praise of a
text – power of author over audiences. Allows
subordinate and dominant groups to gain from the text
via different readings
a) Three possibilities: Rhetor gives hope to oppressed audience,
tool of domination for maintaining domination, or an effective
way for increasing the popularity of the text
b) Context key to judgment: not always subversive
Three types
3. Hermeneutic depth: polysemy requires thinking about
how audiences actually receive texts. Close reading of
text and response to text provides unique insight
a) Show how audiences should read a text
b) Parsing contradictory messages within a text and for how
they’re not fully supported by the text = appreciate the larger
truth of the text
c) Example: A speech parsing the struggles in America that
highlights all of the bad things, like slavery and discrimination
and genocide, can still direct audiences to value and praise
America via the production of a central truth of progress
CASESTUDY
eyears,theyhavebeenlivingin
MayaandJohnareacouplethathavebeenmarriedforthre
rning,Mayafindsaflat
mo
nny
rysu
dina
nor
Ina
ino.
Enc
rsin
yea
our
astf
hep
fort
ent
rtm
anapa
ewakeupJohnandtakesthekeyofhisJeep;herworkschedule
d,sh
icke
.Pan
olla
Cor
her
on
tire
isnotflexibleatall!
sence.Frustration
Johncouldeasilyfeelthathisbosswasnothappywhenhecalledforanab
ttocallthetowingtruckandhe
aside,heneedstogettheflattirerepaired.Johndoesn’twan
withthespareisnosmall
knowshowexpensivethatcouldbe.However,replacingtheflattiresful
lofarecentcasehehas
taskgivenJohn’ssubparmechanicskillsandthefactthathismindi
fullyonthe
beendealingwithatwork.Twoandhalfhoursafterhestarted,thespareissuccess hour;John
lessforanotherhalfan
carasJohncollapsesinaheapintheirlivingroom.Asheisuseresh
op.Heendsupspendingthe
searchesonlineandfindsagooddealoftiresinanearbyti
wholedaytotakecareofthetireproblemforMaya.
jokingabout
MayaishappytoseehernewlyequippedCorollawhencominghome.Assheis
entalmost$85
thecarwashnotevenlettingJohn’sJeepin,Mayaseriouslycomplainsthatshesp
tofillupthetank.Johnadmitsthathemighthavesomemudonhiscarbutcommentsshewill
alwaysseeahighwaycongestedofcarsandSUVsinL.A.nomatterhowhighthegaspricewould
be.Mayadoesn’targuewithJohnconsideringittookheralmosttwohoursonthehighwayinthis
morning.However,shestartsthinkingseriouslyabouthowtoreducetheirbudgetongasoline.
Usetheeconomicconceptstoanalyzethecase:
WhatdoyouthinkaboutJohn’sdecisiontosavemoneybyfixingthecarbyhimself?
WhatdoyouthinkaboutJohn’scommentongasolineprice?
WhatdoyouthinkaboutMaya’splantoreducetheirbudgetongasoline?
CONSUMERRESOURCES:
U.S.CensusBureauEconomicStatistics:http://www.census.gov/econ/
ederalTradeCommissionBureauoEconomics:http://www.ftc.gov/be/index.shtml
FerdTheWordFactbook:
https:/www.ela-sup./i/rfe
bre/y/publ
.org/ ications/theworld-factbook/
urcesforEconomistsontheInternet:http:/
Reso