Pentadic Analysis Research Articles

Fireside chats in the age of social media: a pentadic analysis of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Instagram stories

ABSTRACT Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has received attention for utilizing the social media platform Instagram to connect with her audience. This paper applies Kenneth Burke’s pentadic analysis to Ocasio-Cortez’s Instagram stories as she communicates the transition process into Congress. I argue that there are competing ratios that frame her message: scene-agent and agent-scene. This paper attempts to extend scholarship by expanding pentadic criticism to include dueling ratios within one pentad as well as a secondary agent as crucial to Ocasio-Cortez’s agent-scene ratio.

Depiction of Oppression of the LGBTQ+ Community in the Dialogues of the Youtube Film Series “Sakristan”

“Sakristan” is a 20-minute film series with eight episodes directed by Darryl Yap; it shows that love goes beyond religion and gender. The research analyzed if there are sources of inaccurate portrayals that may have harmful repercussions such as hatred, oppression, and stereotypes toward the LGBTQ+ community. The study employed a qualitative content analysis method wherein the researchers observed the film’s mise-en-scene in relation to its dialogues to better understand how ‘Sakristan” portrayed the LGBTQ+ community. By utilizing Burke’s (1945) Pentadic Analysis, Green and Brock’s (2000, as cited in Green et al., 2004) Narrative Transportation Theory, and Queer Theory, results show that there is a pervasive presence of stereotyping and mockery as prominent ideologies within the series, the portrayal of oppression through the mise-en-scene of Sakristan (2020) varied across different scenes, and negative implications constructed various forms of oppression that were evident in the whole series which were powerlessness, exploitation, violence, and marginalization. Within the context of globalization and expanding reach of media, cinematic productions possess the capacity to transcend geographic and cultural limitations, diffusing LGBTQ+ identities to a global audience. Furthermore, this serves as a reference to develop a deeper understanding toward the community and how society can promote inclusivity worldwide. This also allows the media to know their potential to exert influence on international perceptions and attitudes toward queer individuals.

A pentadic analysis of TikTok marketing in tourism: The case of Penang, Malaysia

Several destinations have jumped on the TikTok bandwagon to explore consumer reactions and motivations towards visit intentions, though these are largely limited to point-in-time surveys. Using the example of Penang, Malaysia, this research contributes to the paucity of knowledge surrounding TikTok in tourism by analysing contents generated from the destination management organisation, travel influencers, and other tourists participating in a TikTok competition for the destination. Drawing from Burke’s Pentadic analysis, the findings reveal the sociological interactions where the performativity of the short videos are staged by different users with the destination as the backdrop. Theoretical and managerial implications are highlighted to inform current and future practices of TikTok (re)presentation in tourism, and how the platform can be used distinctively to socially interact with various target markets and stakeholders.

The power of language to influence people: Mary Kay Ash the entrepreneur

PurposeAs a business executive and philanthropist, Mary Kay Ash is legendary as a glass-ceiling breaker. With the belief that Mary Kay Ash is both modern and relevant, while simultaneously legendary, the overall purpose of this paper is to explore the role of Mary Kay Ash as an influential entrepreneur. This research responds to the call by Cogliser and Brigham (2004) for an increased understanding of how entrepreneurial leaders influence, challenge, inspire and develop followers.Design/methodology/approachFollowing on research by Hoppe (2013), this objective was accomplished via a pentadic analysis of Mary Kay Ash’s rhetoric aimed to influence the mental mindset of readers (followers) over the course of generations. Burke’s pentad was the sense-making tool used for examining Ash’s rhetoric of influence as an entrepreneurial leader. The data used in the pentadic analysis were also analyzed via Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) and IBM Watson Emotion Analysis to see where analyses might converge or diverge.FindingsBased on the analysis of her written work, Mary Kay Ash resided at the intersection of leadership and entrepreneurship and, in so doing, was an influencer. Her primary rhetorical approach to influencing was idealism. Interwoven in her writings, she also exhibited both pragmatism and realism. She knew that she had to start the business to have the future she desired and that she needed to train her team appropriately for success to be forthcoming. The motivation in Mary Kay Ash’s rhetoric was that of influencing people so they would be the best that they could be.Research limitations/implicationsQualitative research brings with it an array of inevitable research problems. Pentadic analysis cannot be judged by the basic objective standards of reliability and validity because objective reality does not exist in personal interpretation. That is, one person as a critic cannot be impartial because the interpretation is only one personal way of viewing the data and another critic might view the same pentads and come up with different ratios. With this subjectivity in mind, however, the data used in the pentadic analysis were also analyzed via LIWC and IBM Watson Emotion Analysis to see where analyses might converge or diverge.Practical implicationsThe findings from this research denote clearly that Mary Kay Ash was a forerunner of the modern day influencer. As a primogenitor of the influencer marketing phenomenon, Mary Kay Ash’s entrepreneurial legacy is expected to continue through generations of followers. This finding speaks to the importance of today’s entrepreneurs using the spoken and written word to influence others and create a lasting organizational legacy.Originality/valueCountless scholars have used pentadic analysis, with a variety of artifacts, to examine the motives behind the rhetoric. However, rhetoric as a means of persuasion and influence has received little attention within the context of the written works by management gurus (Jones et al., 2009), and, aside from the exploration by Berglund and Wigren (2012), the narrative of entrepreneurial influence has not benefitted from close examination.

Domestic Terrorist Acts as Cultural Texts: A Pentadic Analysis

Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher once said that publicity is the oxygen of terrorism. It is our position that mass-mediated terrorism, white supremacy, and doctrines of racial superiority that justify discrimination, segregation, domination, and even extermination of persons of color should be deprived of the oxygen of publicity. At the same time, we believe that analysis, discussion, confrontation, and condemnation of terrorism and hateful ideologies is painful but necessary. The hate speech and radical ideologies of today’s web-based terrorists reach far beyond traditional means of communication. The purpose of this paper is to use Kenneth Burke’s pentad to analyze acts of domestic terrorism while removing the names of the perpetrators — the oxygen of terrorism in the Internet Age. We begin our analysis of three recent acts of domestic terrorism with a short analysis of The Turner Diaries, written by William Pierce under the pseudonym Andrew Macdonald, as a critical exemplary narrative that continues to drive hate speech, radicalization, and physical violence.

Joel’s Self-Redemption in the Unnatural Narrative Structure of Charlie Kaufman’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

This essay discusses the significance of the unnatural narrative structure in Charlie Kaufman’s screenplay Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004). Oftentimes, the screenplay’s reverse chronology is studied as a backdrop to accentuate its thematic values of personal identity and memory. However, this study argued that the reverse narrative was caused by the protagonist’s self-redemption journey. To achieve this objective, two components of Kenneth Burke’s dramatism theory, dramatistic pentad and guilt-redemption cycle were utilized. The pentadic analysis explored the connection between the main characters’ actions and motives with the structure of the text while also interpreting the implication of its reverse narrative from the framework of guilt-redemption cycle. From the findings, the study affirms that the screenplay’s unnatural narrative structure i.e. reverse chronology integrally founded the narrative structure of the text by representing Joel’s regret in a sequence of guilt-redemption cycle. As a result, it showcases the versatility of dramatism theory as one of the analytical tools for narrative studies particularly on the unnatural narrative structure of screenplay texts.

POLITICAL PROPAGANDA, MASS MOBILIZATION, AND NARRATIVE OF HABIB RIZIEQ SHIHAB IN THE AKBAR 212 REUNION

This study conducted a study of the rhetorical text of Habib Rizieq Shihab's (HRS) speech at the 212 Grand Reunion in 2019. This research was trying to map the elements of rhetorical motive construction through Burke's Pentadic analysis. However, this research also found gaps in political propaganda by figures and religious groups' leaders with Propaganda Theory. This interpretive research includes five contents of the HRS speech. This study's main conclusion shows that the rhetorical motive is aimed at agent and agency elements that show gaps in political propaganda in mass mobilization nationally and sympathy for HRS religious leaders and acceptance of ideas and ideas in agency elements apolitical political emotions.

The Rhetorical Construction of the American Intervention in Libya: A Pentadic Analysis of President Barack Obama’s Address to the Nation on March 28, 2011

The article focuses on the rhetoric of President Barack Obama regarding the US intervention in Libya in 2011. It challenges the view that Obama was changing the course of US foreign relations and shows that his words worked to represent actions that made it impossible to shift the direction of US foreign policy. Analysis reveals that the president spoke of alternatives to military action but his language served to justify the use of force in the region. He called for action through an integrated international framework but his message was designed to diminish the US profile in public opinion and not deem the US as a controlling power. Consequently, the article suggests that mysticism provides the structural basis for Obama’s perception of reality and presents options for reactions to an international crisis.

Casting Roles to Stakeholders – A Narrative Analysis of Reputational Storytelling in the Digital Public Sphere

ABSTRACTThis article presents a narrative study of stakeholder positions, storytelling agency, and power in the digital public sphere as seen by organizational actors. According to the institutional approach, corporations and their reputations are enacted, sustained, and altered by their external stakeholders. This article posits that, in the online public sphere, corporate reputations are formed by narratives, in which stakeholders take different positions on intended actions. Using a qualitative data set derived from seventeen interviews with communication and risk management professionals, these positions were analyzed using a Burkean pentadic analysis combined with the Stakeholder Saliency Model. Using pentadic ratios, seven different narrative stakeholder positions were identified: Information seeker, Influencer, Pressurer, Communicator, Mender, Monitor, and Intermediator. These positions were taken by different actors, such as individual users, communities, online media and the organization itself. Analyzing the attributes of power, legitimacy and urgency related to these positions three transformations were identified: mobilizing crowds, issue recognition, and scene transformation. The proposed model helps to identify the different stakeholders in the digital communication sphere and to understand their agency through their narrative positions.

The Construction of Authority in Finnish Lutheran Clerical War Rhetoric: A Pentadic Analysis

Finland's Winter War (1939–40) against the Soviet Union had been defensive, but the so-called Continuation War that broke out in June 1941 was not. This offensive operation demanded thorough justification, because neither the troops nor the public were unanimous about embarking on an offensive campaign in alliance with Nazi Germany. The Lutheran clergy were important in legitimizing the war because priests had formal power deriving from the peculiar relationship between the Finnish state and the Lutheran Church, whereby they were de jure officials of the state as well as of the church. Drawing on Christian and biblical imagery to support the war, they reached a receptive audience, as nearly 96 per cent of Finns belonged to the Lutheran Church. This article uses Kenneth Burke’s dramatistic pentad to analyze how the Lutheran clergy constructed their authority rhetorically during the Continuation War 1941–1944, strategically shifting the grammatical and theological foundation of that authority as the war progressed.

Telling the Fracking Truth: A Pentadic Analysis on the Rhetoric of the LNG Expansion in British Columbia

This paper presents an exploratory study that investigates the latent motives in the public reasoning and rhetoric of hydraulic fracturing expansion offered by the current government of British Columbia. A pentadic analysis was conducted on a policy strategy report titled British Columbia’s Natural Gas Strategy. The results of the analysis demonstrate how rhetorical devices are applied for legitimizing the exploitation of the natural gas resources in BC.

From Counter-Strike to Counter-Statement: using Burke's pentad as a tool for analysing video games

As video games increasingly become an important frame of reference and as they are more and more taken seriously in education and research, there is a growing need for a methodological tool for video game analysis. In this paper, rhetorical theory in general and pentadic analysis in particular are introduced as useful means to stimulate a critical approach to video games. A case study is presented in which a popular video game (Bioshock) is analysed using this rhetorical approach. It is argued that pentadic analysis can overcome a number of binary discussions within the contemporary field of video game criticism, thus offering interesting perspectives for research and education (e.g. as a reflection tool).

(Re)Charting the (Dis)Courses of Faith and Politics, or Rhetoric and Democracy in the Burkean Barnyard

In recent years, scholars in rhetoric and composition studies have given increased attention to the various ways that rhetoric and religion intersect. To explore this relationship further, this article employs Kenneth Burke's dramatistic pentad and the methods of pentadic analysis proposed by Floyd Anderson and Lawrence Prelli in order to analyze two texts, Crowley's Toward a Civil Discourseand Obama's “Pentecost 2006 Keynote Address.” In our analysis, we aim to reveal the motives locked within Crowley's and Obama's texts to demonstrate how their attempts to open the universe of discourse—that is, to provide ways of bridging the divide between political liberals and religious conservatives—shut down the possibility for dialogue. We then offer counterstatements—what Anderson and Prelli refer to as “expressions of alternative orientations toward social reality” (90)—that may serve to open the universe of discourse.

“Risks Both Known and Unknown”

The idea of situation has gained increased attention in HIV/STD prevention research and practice. In the context of prevention, situationdoes not simply connote settingor placebut also incorporates meanings people attached to the physical setting and how the complex interrelation of setting, meaning, and behaviors influences decisions regarding sexual behaviors and prevention measures. Kenneth Burke's pentadic analysis provides a means to illuminate how situation influences decisions regarding sexual behaviors and risk taking. This manuscript describes the pentadic method, its application to situation and sexual risk behaviors, and its utility through content analysis of transcribed interviews (or texts) with men who patronize bathhouses, bath house staff members, and release forms from bathhouse establishments in three geographic areas. In this case, the analysis reveals that bathhouse patrons and policies perceive bathhouses as situations that privilege expedient sexual release rather than individuals and over how those releases occur. This predominant perspective impedes, but does not preclude, risk reduction. The authors provide recommendations for promoting condom use for anal sex in the bathhouse setting as well as for the utility of pentadic analysis in related research.

A Significant Shift: A Pentadic Analysis of the Two Rhetorics of the Post-Vatican II Roman Catholic Church Regarding Homosexuality

This paper argues that, since the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II), there has been a significant shift in the rhetorical stance of the Roman Catholic Church toward homosexuality in which the pre-council rhetoric, which condemned both act (i.e., homosexual behavior) and actor (i.e., the homosexual) has been replaced by two distinctly different rhetorics: a moral rhetoric, which continues the Church's long-standing condemnation of homosexual acts as sins, and a pastoral rhetoric, which argues that homosexuals should be ministered to and embraced. A Burkean pentadic analysis is used to define how the two rhetorics differ from each other and from the earlier rhetoric. The three major influences (i.e., Scripture, Tradition, and Catholic theology/philosophy) that have shaped, and continue to shape, the Church's position regarding homosexuality are described. Some of the socio-political implications of this shift are emphasized.

The 1984 campaign rhetoric of representative George Hansen: A pentadic analysis

This essay employs Kenneth Burke's pentad to examine rhetorical choices made by former U.S. Congressman George Hansen of Idaho as he dramatized two situations: his felony conviction in April of 1984 and his subsequent reelection bid. Hansen's rhetoric was designed to eliminate any personal responsibility for his conviction and to encourage voters to support his reelection on the basis of his past record as a defender of their rights and as their protector from harassment by the federal government. The essay concludes speculatively, suggesting that although Hansen did not win the November, 1984 election, his rhetoric was largely effective because it resulted in substantial identification with the voters of Idaho's Second Congressional District.

Ronald Reagan on Lebanon and Grenada: Flexibility and interpretation in the application of Kenneth Burke's pentad

The pentad is most useful when critics take a flexible approach to the five terms, preserving the inherent ambiguity of act, agent, agency, scene, and purpose. Experimentation with different pentadic root terms will produce different readings of any given text. In most cases, such experimentation will result in the identification of a single term that coordinates a critic's understanding of a text. A pentadic analysis of Ronald Reagan's address of October 27, 1983, on Lebanon and Grenada, demonstrates the critical value of employing multiple pentadic frames. Reagan's speech reveals a formulation of American character incompatible with a thorough multinationalism.

A pentadic analysis of ideologies in two gay rights controversies

The application of Kenneth Burke's pentad in rhetorical criticism can reveal ideologies at work in a controversy. This paper is an example of how to use the pentad to understand ideology. Rhetoric in favor of gay rights is informed by an ideology that features agents as primary and acts as derivative. Rhetoric opposed to gay rights features acts as primary and agents as derivative.

A pentadic analysis of senator Edward Kennedy's address to the people of massachusetts, July 25, 1969

Using Kenneth Burke's concept of the pentad as the principal tool for content analysis? an examination was made of Senator Edward Kennedy's address of July 25, 1969. That analysis suggests that the speech depicted Kennedy as the victim of a scene he could not control and as the potential victim of other agents, the people of Masachusetts.