Analysis of My Rhetorical Situation

The rhetorical situation consists of the context,the audience, the purpose and the subject. The audience is one of the key components in suggesting in what form to mold the content.

1. So, what can you assume about people who might be interested in your topic? Describe them as specifically as you can - what other kinds of magazines, websites, or newspapers might they read regularly? What other kinds of media might they comsume? What demographic factors - like e1conomic class, race/ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, political affiliation, religious beliefs, geography, etc. - might you be able to guess broadly about your audience? What kinds of things are likely to be important to them? What might they value? What things are likely to be unimportant to them? What might they not value?

geralt "Person Men Theater" 2015 via Pixabay
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I expect my audience to be a young demographic who primarily consume social media. I expect them to be dominantly Caucasian males who are from middle class backgrounds who probably value issues that are relatable in some way to them. I believe they value stories that more likely involve social issues as opposed to say nonsocial issues like say a new technological method to debug a calculator. The audience might not value topics where there is no clear protagonist or antagonist since that could potentially be dull to them.


2. Analyze your purpose. So, now that you've thought a little harder about your audience, what do you want your project to do to them? To do for them? How do you want to make them feel? What are the most important elements of this controversy that your audience might miss or misunderstand that you want to be sure to make clear to them? What do you want to make sure your audience knows about the key stakeholders? What should they know about the setting's effect on the controversy? What about the time period's effect on the controversy? What about other key 
contextual details that you're worried the audience might not understand?

Peggy_Marco "Friends Trust Friendship" 11/3/14 via Pixabay
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I want my project to make the audience feel that in the United States, a nation that is considered a "first world" country, there are still problems that you would expect to happen somewhere in a developing country such as the lack to access to clean water. Also, I hope they feel that our government is not perfect and they can tend to mess up, big time. I hope they don't miss that the controversy of Flint, Michigan has left an impact on the citizens of the town on their trust with their governing officials. 



I hope the audience understands the effects that people of Flint have felt by the water crisis and the motivations behind the governing officials who decided to switch the water source for the worse. The setting is obviously key in this controversy because it serves as a key in the creation of the controversy. That is the primary thing I want the audience to understand that the setting has more of an impact on the controversy than one might think.

3. Analyze your author (that is, yourself). What do you bring to this project that no one else in any of my classes could bring to it? How specifically does this story intersect with your own interests or passions or worldviews? How are you the perfect fit for this story you've selected. Really sell yourself!

I can bring to this project a nice blend of seriousness with some lightened tones here and there (to not overkill the audience with grimness). The story of Flint water crisis connects with my view that most governing officials of any nation are very tempted by power and greed and can sometimes put the people's best interests second to benefit their own pockets. This story fits in perfectly with that opinion of mine and so, I think I'll have a blast in the park with this controversy!

cherylholt, "boy player baseball pitcher short" 09/02/14 via Pixabay.
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