Rhetorical Discourse Analysis Research Articles

Trust and distrust toward online health information in nurse–patient communication and implications for eHealth literacy

ABSTRACT Background In Norwegian hospitals, patients with newly diagnosed inflammatory joint disease are offered consultations with nurses, to address health issues related to their diagnosis and treatment. This study examines how issues of trust manifest in the communication between nurses and patients in clinical encounters; of particular interest are the accounts of trust and distrust toward online health information (OHI) linked to patients’ eHealth literacy. Methods Video-recorded observational data were collected from 16 primary nurse–patient consultations and 10 follow up consultations in a Norwegian hospital setting. Rhetorical discourse analysis was applied to examine the conversations, focusing on the rhetorical devices that were expressed by the nurses and the patients, such as justifications, contrasting, character work, and reported speech. Results The nurses acknowledged patients’ references to online search activities related to health information while expressing their own reservations about OHI. The nurses explicitly and implicitly advised patients on specific eHealth literacy strategies, namely, to consult trustworthy sources, such as patient organizations; to trust the medical knowledge conveyed by health personnel; to distrust non-professional health advice online; and to avoid self-diagnosis based on health information sought on the Internet. Conclusions Through the use of rhetorical devices, the nurses implicitly addressed eHealth literacy strategies in their communication with patients, including the importance of critically assessing the trustworthiness of health information. This complex communicative task requires a sensitivity toward patients’ eHealth literacy levels.

Retoriske konstruksjoner av ansvarlighet

Rhetorical constructions of responsibility: Service users’ accounts in their digital dialogues with the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration The goal of the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV) for increased user participation and active service users entails a responsibility for NAV service users to participate actively in planning and carrying out activities. This implies that the service users are assigned a responsibility to share information about their personal limitations and needs. They do this through accounts in the interaction with their NAV counsellor. To an ever-increasing extent, the interaction between service users and counsellors in NAV takes place in a digital communication channel. Using rhetorical discourse analysis of written digital user dialogues in NAV, I explore how service users and counsellors negotiate responsibility for planning and decisions related to the service user’s activities. Through rhetorical accounts such as character work, legitimization, and excuses, service users position themselves as more or less responsible users. The analysis shows that the service users express both a moral and a legal responsibility, and they balance this responsibility by extending the category of ”service user” in their accounts. The way that service users balance their responsibility can be understood as an expression of uncertainty related to their duties and their rights in relation to NAV. The article shows that a pathway to understanding service user participation may be to investigate in greater depth how moral and legal responsibility is expressed in digital interaction.

Education as a co-developed commodity in Finland? A rhetorical discourse analysis on business accelerator for EdTech startups

ABSTRACT Education business and the actors involved in it have gained increasing global attention. However, little is known about the commercial actors participating in mainly publicly maintained comprehensive schooling in Finland and how the roles of teachers and schools are seen in this edu-business. In this article, we analyze ‘edu-business acceleration’ by a Finnish company, xEdu, that develops EdTech startups for the global education market. Using rhetorical discourse analysis, this case study identifies and analyzes xEdu’s aims for EdTech business in Finland, focusing particularly on the role assigned to teachers and schools in the business. Through these discourses, xEdu wishes to ‘scale up’ Finnish comprehensive schooling by utilizing both the reputation of Finnish education and the expertise of Finnish teachers. Building on a framework of the global education industry, we discuss the dominant EdTech discourses surrounding Finnish comprehensive schooling and how they are legitimized and promoted by versatile rhetorical means.

Visual humanization of refugees: A visual rhetorical analysis of media discourse on the war in Ukraine.

This study examines how news images of refugees in the context of the war in Ukraine mobilize intergroup relations. A visual rhetorical analysis is used to examine the rhetorical strategies employed in news images of Ukrainian refugees in a mainstream Finnish national newspaper from February 25 to May 31, 2022. The data consisted of 465 images. The study constructed four humanizing visual rhetorical strategies based on the visual expression in news images: maternalizing, fragilizing, agonizing, and activizing. The rhetorical strategies constructed four subject positions for Ukrainian refugees: vulnerable victims, innocent victims, suffering Ukrainians, and persistent/resilient Ukrainians. All rhetorical strategies implicitly communicated the subject position of evil to Russia. The paper contributes to the current knowledge of the humanization of refugees in media discourse and the potential of media images to mobilize intergroup relations. Methodologically, the paper elaborates visual rhetorical analysis as a means of social psychological study of refugee discourse in the context of war.

Rhetorical Value of Russian Inserts in the Posts by Lithuanian Politicians on “Facebook”

The article presents the study of political communication on social network “Facebook”. The object of the study is the motivation of using Russian inserts and potential influence on the effectiveness of the discourse. Effectiveness is related to the persuasion, the goal of the addressee in the communication process and the main concept of rhetoric, therefore, a rhetorical discourse analysis was used for the research. The focus of the presented research is on Russian language inserts in the posts by Lithuanian politicians published on the social network “Facebook”. The purpose of the research is to discuss the rhetorical value of Russian inserts. Inserts are elements of another language inserted into the main language, in this case Russian words (both authentic and adapted form), parts of words, text fragments. After examining over 100 Russian language inserts in the records of native Lithuanian politicians, two trends have emerged: 1) Russian language inserts in politicians’ records are deliberately used as means of stylistic expression, helping to imitate natural, informal speech, as well as creating contextual discourse; 2) Russian language is used as a way to express political attitudes and value positions.

Afrika'nın ilk kadın başkanı olan Ellen Johnson Sirleaf'ın Açılış konuşmasının retorik analizi

This study intended to analyze Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s presidential inaugural speech as the first
 female president in African to see how she persuaded and convinced the people of Liberia on
 political, social and economic policies in an effort to make them believe in her content to
 consolidate power. Specifically, this study focused on rhetorical and persuasive strategies she
 applied in her speech. To achieve the intended goals, rhetorical discourse analysis methodology
 was used, and Ellen’s textual inaugural presidential speech was quantitatively analyzed by both
 Neo-Aristotelian and feminist methods of rhetorical analysis to discover, identify and describe
 how Ellen used rhetorical devices, rhetorical appeals and other rhetorical tactics. Results indicate
 that various rhetorical tactics were found in her speech, and were well applied which helped her
 to effectively accomplish her intended objectives as an orator.

The Rhetorical Impact of Polylingualism Employed by Lithuanian Politicians on Facebook

The aim of the research presented in this article aims to determine the impact of polylingualism on the effectiveness of political rhetoric in Lithuania. The study focuses on elements borrowed from other languages and used by Lithuanian politicians in their Facebook posts. In addition, the motivation behind such use is explored, aiming to establish whether polylingualism is part of a conscious effort of political communication in order to build a positive image. Within the scope of this research are Facebook posts containing cases of polylingualism, specifically, English-language inserts. The authors of these posts are prominent politicians who are native Lithuanian speakers engaged in active communication on social media. Collected during the period of 2018–2021, the research material was examined using the method of rhetorical discourse analysis, resulting in the identification of characteristic instruments of persuasion, i.e. the tools which help enhance the effectiveness of certain discourse. The researchers aimed to determine the general patterns and dominant tendencies of mixed speech within the political discourse on social media. The research reveals the use of polylingualism as a stylistic tool imitating informal speaking and creating contextual discourse.

Rhetoric and prosody of judicial discourse in mass media

We inevitably deal with the spread of the legal practice to the masses to inform the population about current criminal cases and their court decisions. There are few works dedicated to the studies of the rhetoric and prosody of the judicial discourse both in domestic and international science space. This article is devoted to the study of the rhetorical function of prosody in judicial discourse. It is known that the interest in the study of the language prosody has begun to manifest with the advent of new computer programs that allow analyzing the prosody, especially, the temporal variables, such as speed, duration, intonation, and pause of speech. Accordingly, this article aims to work on the study of the rhetorical function of prosody in judicial discourse. Taking into account the complexity of the polyfunctionality of prosody as a subject of research, the study of the prosodic function of judicial discourse in mass media in the context of rhetoric allows understanding the meaning of prosodic processes in speech and determining the intention of news. The study was based on the news coverings of the criminal case of Ezra McCandles, which was considered in the United States from 2018 to 2020. The article used research methods such as rhetorical discourse analysis, as well as acoustic analysis using the Praat computer program. The prosodic analysis of judicial discourse in the context of rhetoric revealed the prosodic narrative techniques such as alternating intensity, rise, and fall of the tone, speech pauses, which aimed to impact the perception of the case by the listeners.

Rhetoric and prosody of judicial discourse in mass media

We inevitably deal with the spread of the legal practice to the masses to inform the population about current criminal cases and their court decisions. There are few works dedicated to the studies of the rhetoric and prosody of the judicial discourse both in domestic and international science space. This article is devoted to the study of the rhetorical function of prosody in judicial discourse. It is known that the interest in the study of the language prosody has begun to manifest with the advent of new computer programs that allow analyzing the prosody, especially, the temporal variables, such as speed, duration, intonation, and pause of speech. Accordingly, this article aims to work on the study of the rhetorical function of prosody in judicial discourse. Taking into account the complexity of the polyfunctionality of prosody as a subject of research, the study of the prosodic function of judicial discourse in mass media in the context of rhetoric allows understanding the meaning of prosodic processes in speech and determining the intention of news. The study was based on the news coverings of the criminal case of Ezra McCandles, which was considered in the United States from 2018 to 2020. The article used research methods such as rhetorical discourse analysis, as well as acoustic analysis using the Praat computer program. The prosodic analysis of judicial discourse in the context of rhetoric revealed the prosodic narrative techniques such as alternating intensity, rise, and fall of the tone, speech pauses, which aimed to impact the perception of the case by the listeners.

A Discourse of Renewal: Higher Education Leadership and Crisis Communication during Black Lives Matter

This case study examines ethical leadership responses and crisis communications at a public institution of higher education in response to the Black Lives Matter movement, which occur concurrently with the COVID-19 pandemic and institutional financial crises. The Discourse of Renewal framework requires a focus on what is best for the entirety of the community, rather than simply being a strategic response that only benefits a few. The framework provides a structure for conceptualizing and considering an optimistic discourse in response to crises. A rhetorical analysis of leadership discourse examined four renewal characteristics: overall organizational learning, ethical communication, prospective visioning, and effective organizational rhetoric. Surveys and subsequent analyses of faculty, students, and staff responses provide a feedback mechanism from institutional stakeholders. Subsequent discussions explore issues of navigating stacked crises and how an ethical leadership response can help build beyond crises for the future of the organization.

The Role of Pragmatic Strategies on University Campaign

This paper aims to provide information that pragmatic strategies is needed to offer university campaign and branding. Researcher used Aristotle’s argumentation, ethos, logos and pathos to gain target audiences at Universitas Raden Mas Said Surakarta website. The advertisement in the form of word organization that was distributed with Google Ads. It is perceived that this practical application will improve attention and awareness of google users. Narrative design was conducted to find the answers associated to the research problem and the result was analyzed using rhetorical discourse analysis. It revealed that the word form, word organization, and context are able to influence the audience. All of these techniques use a pragmatic strategy approach where the advertiser does not invite the target audience directly, but the university and the target audience are brought together based on core of (word organization) supply and (audiences’ need) demand. This way is very efficient and effective to use during the covid-19 outbreak. This is also a reflection that conventional advertising has begun to be replaced by digital advertising. If compared to the previous year, there will be a 41% increase in registrants in 2021. This strategy has a significant impact and is very influential.

Ecological Rhetoric: Topics of Newspaper Headlines

The media perform not only the function of information but also of ecological education: it forms the ecological identity of its target audience. The media help to present the topics of ecology, climate change, and sustainable development for the public in a more understandable and persuasive language. Also, the discourse of ecology in the media is bidirectional: it is created not only by the representatives of science and social actors but also by the media themselves, which form the concept of ecology in their desired direction. Rhetorical analysis of ecological discourse allows us to identify the components of this ecological worldview and to elucidate their mechanisms of persuasion and proof. The present research was focused on the logical and rhetorical topoi in the headlines of articles on ecology. The aim of this research was to identify and analyse ecological topics in headlines. The research material was analysed using the method of rhetorical discourse analysis, which allowed us to distinguish and define the categories of the research object. The method of rhetorical analysis was combined with critical discourse analysis that investigates real cases of social interaction in authentic media-broadcast persuasive discourse and their mechanisms of persuasion. The analysis of the headlines helped to identify the dominant logical topics, the recurring themes: sustainable development and consumption, climate change, environmental protection. The logical topics in the headlines is verbalised by a role model, example, cause and consequence, and novelty topoi.

The Discourse of Propaganda: Case Studies from the Persian Gulf War and the War on Terror

The Discourse of Propaganda: Case Studies from the Persian Gulf War and the War on Terror

A Deconstructionist Reading of Populist Claims Related to Covid-19: A Rhetorical Discourse Analysis

Rhetoric at the ontological level—for instance, the way in which hegemony is structured like speech—is a tool that can be used to give meaning to narratives such as the medical populist claims that arose in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Although these populist claims ranged from explicitly trivial conspiracies to rational demands about healthcare, outside the truth–falsity binaries we can explain how the narratives functioned metaphorically to gain acceptability. While guarding against linguistic reductionism, but considering that hegemony works like grammar, rhetorical discourse analysis, inspired by the work of Ernesto Laclau, is used to read the metaphorical transformation of disinformation into “rational” demands and the construction of enemy outsiders to stabilise this populist hegemony. Through a metaphoric mechanism, disinformation is converted to information and linked to rational demands, which enables what is otherwise irrational to become believable. This linking is achieved through disinformation and rational demands metaphorically substituting each other to become what they are not in their literal form. Thereafter, the metaphorical meaning loses its metaphoricity, allowing the disinformation to become catachrestic and to be taken as literal or genuine knowledge. Several cases are cited to illustrate concrete examples of knowledge generated through metaphorical contamination of rational demands with disinformation.

Pandemijos retorika: argumentavimo strategijos socialinio tinklo „Facebook“ komentaruose

An analysis of the public COVID-19 discourse reveals how the public responds to the crisis and what kind of communication is actualized during a pandemic. The object of this research is the argumentation strategies in the comments of the articles about coronavirus on social media “Facebook”. The aim of the research is to expand the argumentative level of discourse: to analyze rhetorical and eristic arguments. The comments were collected from the accounts of the most popular Lithuanian news portals on “Facebook” (alfa.lt, Delfi, 15min, lrytas.lt). The analyzed comments were published during the first and second pandemic waves (from March 2020 to January 2021). The research material was analyzed by means of the rhetorical discourse analysis method to isolate and define the categories of rhetoric characteristic to rhetorical appeals models. The chosen method of rhetorical analysis was combined with content analysis. During the research, the respective rhetorical categories of the researched phenomenon were identified and classified, and the content of these categories was expanded – a rhetorical content analysis was performed. The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented situation in which the rhetorical analysis of the communication element is a whole new area of research. The identified dominant models of rhetorical and eristic reasoning not only reveal the regularities of media “consumption” but also help to understand the tendencies of choosing communication strategies in critical situations.

Internal crisis communication and the social construction of emotion: university leaders' sensegiving discourse during the COVID-19 pandemic

PurposeThe paper explores university leaders' employee-focused sensegiving discourse during the COVID-19 health crisis. The aim is to reveal how leadership sensegiving narratives construct emotion in the rhetor-audience relationship.Design/methodology/approachA social constructionist, sensemaking approach centres on the meaning-making discourse of university leaders. Using rhetorical discourse analysis (RDA), the study analysed 67 emails sent to staff during a three-month period at the start of the global pandemic. RDA helps to reveal how university leaders help employees make sense of changing realities.FindingsThree core narratives: organisational competence and resilience; empathy, reassurance and recognition; and community and location reveal a multi-layered understanding of leadership sensegiving discourse in which emotion intersects with material and temporal sensemaking dimensions. In supporting a process of organisational identification and belonging, these core narratives help to mitigate audience dissonance driven by the antenarrative of uncertainty.Research limitations/implicationsAn interpretivist approach was used to analyse qualitative data from two UK universities. While focused on internal communication, the employee perspective was not examined. Nevertheless, this paper extends the human dimension of internal crisis communication, building on constructionist approaches that are concerned with emotion and sensegiving.Originality/valueThis paper expands the domain of internal crisis communication. It integrates the social construction of emotion and sensemaking with the underexplored material and temporal dimensions in internal crisis communication and applies RDA.

Policing language in the world of new work: the commodification of workplace communication in organizational consulting

Abstract This paper examines how the shift to knowledge and innovation economy has created new sites for the commodification of language and communication in the context of organizational consulting. The data come from a consultant-led development and training program of the management teams of a Finnish educational organization. In the study, the year-long training was videotaped (45 h) and followed ethnographically. By using rhetorical discourse analysis as a method, we examine how the consultant-led training activities present the role of language and communication in changing working life. The results show how the activities factualize the transformation of work and the centrality of language in this transformation. They conceptualize language and communication as key elements of professional competence and resources for organizational improvement. Moreover, they construct causal relations between organizational success and the ability to assess and modify one’s own communicative behavior. With its focus on language awareness and contextual variation the training differs from settings examined in previous studies where the mechanisms of commodification are based on standardization practices. In conclusion, we reflect the training programs both as indicators and vehicles for social change and discuss how they act as spaces where the new worlds of work are discursively construed.

The Rhetoric of Lithuanian MeToo Discourse

The great spread of the phenomenon of MeToo, a global movement promoting the publicity of the facts of sexual harassment, has also received a response in Lithuania: anonymous stories in blogs have grown into a provocative discourse that has attracted a great deal of attention. The aim of the research presented in this article is to characterise the discourse of MeToo in terms of rhetorical expression that has not been discussed yet: to identify and elicit the dominant elements of rhetorical argumentation. The empirical research was conducted using the method of rhetorical analysis that allows distinguishing and defining in rhetorical categories the models characteristic to rhetoric appeals. The method of rhetorical analysis combined with directed content analysis, as well as with critical discourse analysis. Following the methodology of provocative narrative research, it was analysed the material published at the time of maximum intensity and involvement in the discourse, such as testimonies, publications, interviews, and comments of women who have been subjected to sexual harassment. The results of rhetorical discourse analysis allow us to discuss the culture of accusation in which the normalization of victim condemnation is prevalent, and logical reasoning gives way to prejudice-based emotional appeals.

Place meanings and national parks: A rhetorical analysis of social media texts

Many national parks now use social media to communicate their special qualities of place and guide visitors’ experiences. But, how do they actually construct effective social media messages that resonate with their audiences? To answer this, we used rhetorical discourse analysis to examine a one-year sample of texts from the Facebook posts of three large U.S. national parks. Rhetorical discourses are persuasive; their contents, forms and styles of organization can be studied to understand how social and cultural practices of meaning-making are enacted by communicators in an effort to influence audiences. In this study, we applied Aristotle’s three modes of argumentation (ethos, logos, and pathos) to guide the rhetorical analysis. Results show that agencies primarily provided emotion-laden and informational materials for social media followers in making claims about place and about visitor experiences. Four rhetorical themes about the uniqueness of park places, the management of people, parks and significant life moments, and time and timelessness, were identified. These contributed to an overall discourse about parks and spirituality that seemed intended to reaffirm the perspectives of existing audiences of park visitors. Understanding the rhetorical-discursive qualities of social media messages, however, can help agencies adjust their communication strategies to reach more diverse audiences while deploying a wider range of rhetorical approaches. For park managers the following aspects are of high relevance. - Social media presentations can extend and enhance a national park’s relationship with publics. - Park management agencies use emotion, logic and organizational credibility to construct social media claims. - Parks’ social media texts are rhetorical (persuasive), relying primarily on emotional claims and information dissemination. - Visitor-generated stories re-posted on a park’s social media site can expand both park’s and audiences’ social and cultural perspectives. - Study parks’ social media texts presented rhetorical discourses of spirituality that reinforced traditional place relationships and ways of engaging with national parks. - Social media postings are often directed to people who already visit the park; wider use of rhetorical ideas for more diverse audiences are needed.

New Rhetoric and the Socio-Rhetorical Method: As a Modern Approach to Biblical Literary Criticism

The new rhetoric studies the discursive practices present in a text and tries to understand them as a literary method to persuade a specific audience to accept a new law or change their behavior, assuming a worthy moral, philosophical or religious truth. The new rhetoric covers the literary or rhetorical analysis of discourse while analyzing the elements proper to the social and cultural milieu of its intended audience. The aid of the human sciences, especially cultural anthropology and the sociology of religion, is necessary to capture better the world the loci of the speaker and the audience of the text. The method, which combines social and anthropological analysis with the new rhetorical analysis, is called social rhetoric. The social rhetoric analysis aims to hit the socio-cultural context in which the texts were conceived, especially when the text does not give any clues of it. In Biblical interpretation, these two forms of literary analysis will help to understand the relationships existent between the author of a discourse and its readers (the intended audience). Such an approach will not only study the social history and social aspects where the books of the Bible were born, but will also see the rhetoric of the texts as an essential component of the text’s social, political, cultural, and ideological context. After all, the Word of God became flesh and dwelt in a particular culture, with a specific language and in a precise historical time.