Contemplating Symbolic Action Through the Prism of Mass Media - Research Paper Example

Contemplating symbolic action through the prism of mass media Kenneth Burke’s notion of “identification” is a way of explaining how individuals react to division, to being separate. People seeking consubstantiation are looking for a means to bridge the gaps inherent in social hierarchy. "Identification is affirmed with earnestness precisely because there is division. Identification is compensatory to division" (Burke 22). In this era of manufactured realities and personal “reinvention,” Burke’s idea of identification has been altered by mass media, a “delivery system” for a largely deceptive modern visual rhetorical symbolism. Messages that play out constantly through the media seek to influence people, encouraging them to buy things, to dress in certain styles, to listen to various forms of music, and so forth. People seek inclusion by identifying with current trends and, for instance, with the way celebrities behave. Through it all, the media acts as Burke’s rhetorical “persuader,” imbued with an assumed mantle of authority, bearing all the prestige and mystique of symbolism and metaphor. “In (such) cases, the figure of thought allows a persuader to evoke powerful identifications that are strongly resistant to translation into literal language” (Enos 509). The evocative power of the persuader is largely dependent on its credibility. Aristotle asserted that a speaker’s stature depends upon his ability to make the most of his intelligence, (Name) 2 appearance and other personal advantages in communicating a message intended to encourage a specific response. Credibility, then, is a product of ethos and is transitory in that it can be eclipsed by many factors that affect the listener. The omnipresence of mass media in our modern-day lives has, to a great extent, negated ethos as a means for gauging the credibility of both persuader and message. In his essay on identification, Brooke Quigley says the repetition of message has become a primary means of rhetorical persuasion. “In our media-saturated environment, we are repeatedly exposed to messages that are not just mundane but are sometimes irritating and obnoxious. As Burke states, ‘And often we must think of rhetoric not in terms of some one particular address but as a general body of identifications that owe their convincingness much more to trivial repetition and dull daily reinforcement than to exceptional rhetorical skill’" (Quigley1998). In the 21st century, repetition brings to mind 24-hour news broadcasts during which we might hear people making the same statement multiple times. One of the most notable examples in recent years was the coverage surrounding the death and funeral of Princess Diana. Quigley points out that a surprising number of people, of both sexes and all ages, not only came to admire Diana but to closely and personally identify with her. Quigley cites Burke’s assertion that people may identify vicariously with a leader or spokesperson (Quigley 1998). Quigley notes that Diana was able to reinvent herself over time, an accomplishment admired by many and which presented the public with a means of identification. “The possibility of transformation is an interesting prospect, and for many would present an attractive (Name) 3 invitation to identification. Thus, Princess Diana may have represented others through her highly visible lifestyle and work as well as through her ability to transform herself” (Quigley 1998). It is difficult to imagine the mass outpouring of grief and sympathy that unfolded after Diana’s death without the influence of the media. Playing on pathos, the media acted as a powerful persuader working very fertile territory. Quigley notes that this dramatic example illustrates Burke’s assertion that “the human need to identify provides a rich resource for those interested in joining us or, more importantly, persuading us” (Quigley 1998 ). In this light, the mass media can be seen as governing the way in which mass opinion and emotions are manufactured and manipulated in modern society. Enos notes that the media “have become both extraordinarily pervasive and interpenetrated with other institutions, all of them large, enduring social collectives empowered by customer or law to perform important social functions” (Enos 511). She adds that rhetorical persuasion from this perspective is increasingly originated by industries designed specifically to influence opinion, affect behavior and create empathy across a truly massive audience (Enos 511). Burke’s A Rhetoric of Motives would become the truly groundbreaking work in this media-centric milieu. In his 1950 book, Burke introduced the rhetoric of symbolic action, opening the door for a widespread examination of rhetoric as it came under the influence of new modes of communication, changes in language and the advance of communications technologies. In the 1970s, “rhetoric scholars recognized that traditional definitions of and approaches to rhetoric were much too limited to account for contemporaneous endeavors to influence beliefs and actions in public life” (Olson 2007). (Name) 4 In his book Shades of Loneliness: Pathologies of a Technological Society, Richard Stivers considers emerging trends in visual symbolism, which he describes as symptomatic of a technological society. Stivers claims that the media has a deleterious effect on the normal function of symbolism in language by creating an artificial construct that pairs words and images in essentially meaningless ways. “Visual images in the company of atomistic words are meaningless, yet function as ‘symbols.’ They are in effect false symbols whose meaning is instinctual power. Technology symbolizes itself with these false symbols” (Stivers 134). Stivers offers, as an example, a Coca-Cola commercial in which children stand in a circle holding hands and singing about peace and harmony. Images of people enjoying Coke are interposed. In spite of this non sequitur, a powerful image is created in which the words “peace” and “harmony” and “Coca-Cola” come to be identified with each other. Stivers explains that this symbolism has no real meaning because it represents an arbitrary material association (Stivers 134). This, of course, is a far cry from Burke’s belief that rhetoric should be a resource people can use to help guide them through life. He reminds us that language has an important role to play but must have some basis, some meaning, when he says “even if any given terminology is a reflection of reality, by its very nature as a terminology it must be a selection of reality…” (Burke 45). Advertising, public relations, polling and other disciplines that seek to utilize symbolism (Name) 5 in order to elicit a sympathetic (and planned) response are suspect sources from which to draw objective, scientific conclusions. Nevertheless, Quigley points out that Burke would not have us ignore all messages that are mundane and repetitive. They can, after all, still tell us about how people respond to significant events, political messages, personal tragedy and other external stimuli that impact their lives (Quigley 1998). Future studies of symbolic action in the age of mass media must take into careful account that modern development, the presence of false, or synthetic, symbolism. Mass media may have produced, as some have suggested, a symbolism too dependent on manipulation and vague meaning to perform the social function that Burke foresaw. But during his decades of work, Burke established a unique vocabulary and frame of reference from which a study and understanding of the changes in rhetoric, including those wrought by the media, could proceed. “Burke encourages us to look at processes that are semi-conscious, less than obvious, mundane, and representative, processes that invite us to collaborate in identification and transformation” (Quigley 1998). Burke’s legacy must lead us to conclude that the art of rhetoric of which Aristotle wrote, the art of persuasion based on reality and the presentation of facts, has not truly “evolved” but has been swept up in the technological revolution that governs not only how people receive information but the nature of the information itself. (Name) 6 Works Cited Burke, K. A Rhetoric of Motives. Berkeley: University of California Press. (1969). Enos, T. Encyclopedia of Rhetoric and Composition: Communication From Ancient Times. Routledge. (1996). Olson, L.C. “Intellectual and Conceptual Resources for Visual Rhetoric: A Re-examination of Scholarship Since 1950.” The Review of Communication, 7.1 (2007). Quigley, B.L. “’Identification’ as a Key Term in Kenneth Burke’s Rhetorical Theory.” The American Communication Journal. 1.3 (1998). Stivers, R. Shades of Loneliness: Pathologies of a Technological Society. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc. (2004). Read More