Blog 11: We must Face Our Fears

As we conclude Toye’s short introduction to what we define as rhetoric, we end in the present. Toye talks about how rhetoric has developed with us and we dove into an age of instant communication and connection to one another. The introduction to these new technology came along with a lot of anxiety and suspicion. In some aspects rhetoric took a turn for the worst. Psychological manipulation is now at our fingertips and we must be aware of how and when we use and listen to it. Personally, I think rhetoric is a very powerful tool that we should be teaching our kids from a young age. One of the reason our society struggles so much with the concept is because we have a hard time identifying it, and when we do we are offended that someone would try to manipulate us. If we could take this stigma out and teach ourselves to understand, identify, and acknowledge rhetoric I think we could have an easier time. I think rhetoric has entered into a darker time, but it is something that can be fixed through education and understanding. If we can identify it we can take away the “shock”

After reading this last chapter my questions are:

1. How can we take steps to educate ourselves about rhetoric before we feel it is an intimidating thing?
2. What is the next thing that will change the way we use rhetoric like technology did?

Picture:https://www.pinterest.com/BookOblivion/visual-rhetoric/?lp=true

Toye, Richard (2013). Rhetoric: A very short introduction. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. [Chapter 4 & conclusion]

Blog 10: Intent is Everything

In chapter two and three we learned about the three branches of oratory, the five canons, about the intentions of rhetoric. Toye explains the three branches of oratory as 1. forensic/judicial rhetoric, 2. epideictic/display rhetoric, 3. deliberative rhetoric. I was personally most interested by the deliberative rhetoric because of its close connection to legislators and voters. One of my possible job aspirations is to be a lobbyist where a huge part of the job is being able to participate and accurately use deliberative rhetoric when defending or pushing a bill. Being able to persuade someone in a very useful skill, and while some people may feel a little uneasy with it, there is still very much good to be said about someone who can effectively get their message received.

Next Toye talked about the five canons of rhetoric which are 1. invention/discovery, 2. arrangement, 3. style, 4. memory, and 5. delivery. these five canons reveal the elements of rhetoric that when hit on and delivered properly help to drive any message you are trying to deliver home. In order to effectively use these five canons one must focus on the nature of the audience. By focusing on questions like, who is your audience and what do they value you most? You can really take advantage of what rhetoric has to offer.

Lastly, a point that was really driven home by Toye is how not only do the fundamentals of rhetoric matter, but most importantly what your intentions are. Rhetoric has often been viewed in a negative connotation and mostly because people will use rhetoric, but also pepper it with lies. If you are completely honest with your audience and are strong, confident, respectful, and also 100% believe in your cause you should have no reason to doubt the intent of the argument.

After reading these two chapters my two questions are:

1. Is there a way we can detect a bad intention when someone is using rhetoric?

2. if there was a 6th canon what would it be?

Sources:

Reading: Toye, Richard (2013). Rhetoric: A very short introduction. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. [Chapters 2 & 3]

Picture: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristotle

Blog 9: The Power of Rhetoric

In the introduction of Richard Toye's Rhetoric: A very short introduction Toye talks about the power that the Nazi regime held and the ways they used rhetoric to retain it and recruit other members. The Nazi rhetoric involved everything down to their sentence structure and word choice. Every word was chosen specifically to build the party and take down a common “enemy”. Toye goes on in the introduction to talk about how influential rhetoric is on our current society and how it has always played a role in our lives. Even though rhetoric can carry this negative connotation we have to accept the place it has in this world. In our everyday conversations we are constantly taking positions on right versus wrong and using rhetoric to tell others why we think this way and why they should to. Rhetoric in its simplest form is translated to “the art of persuasion” and is used to express ideas and show the way they are generated.

In Chapter 1 Toye talks about the first signs of evidence of rhetoric. He took it all the way back to the Sophists. They were brilliant minds who used rhetoric through their teachings while also focused on identifying and developing it in other writings. These professors were very opinionated and therefore rhetoric went hand in hand. As the chapter goes on Toye talks about the impact that rhetoric had on many different generations on many different aspects. Rhetoric was used in education, governing, and rule making. He talks more about how important it is to understand rhetoric and distract it when trying to understand complex topics in government and and social atmospheres. These arguments identify what significant issues are to a community and how to control and attack them.

After reading these two chapters some questions I had were:

1. How can we change rhetoric to have a positive connotation? There are many positive outcomes of rhetoric, so how do we bring those to the front line?
2. If rhetoric is so powerful, powerful enough to make other people kill other people, where do we draw the line between inappropriate mind manipulation and rhetoric.

Sources:

Image: http://christopherrichards.com/2016/11/11/rhetoric-art-persuasion-1/

Reading: Toye, R. (2013). Rhetoric: A very short introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Bonus Blog 3: Experiencing the News

In the next class following our initial interactions with the Google Cardboard our class took a more in depth look at what these cardboards could do. We looked at comparing a digital newspaper, a normal newspaper, and then the news apps used by google cardboard. We looked for similarities and differences, and the positives and negatives. With the google cardboard apps we saw a lack of options and a tough time with usability. It was hard to scroll and read, it almost hurt your eyes to try to focus on these words while also moving your head to scroll. While there are good intentions behind the news app for google cardboard it fell very short to a hard copy print or even a news website. After testing all three of these I came to the conclusion that google cardboard is meant for experiences, it helps to transport you to somewhere else. So, while this is not the most effective way to communicate news it would be cool if it could transport you to where the news is happening. I think it would be interesting if we could watch the news from this source as well.

After using the news app for google cardboard my questions are:

1. What is the best kind of information and/or learning tools that we can utilize through google cardboard? How do we develop them? 
2. What is the next step for google cardboard? Adding buttons? Speakers? Sounds? How do we take this product to the next level? 

Bonus Blog 2: Untapped Potential of Google Cardboard

We continued our search into these interactive technologies from the latis lab in our class in the next section. This time we analyzed Google Cardboard a little further in depth. Megan and I spent our time in class trying to find the most realistic apps and features that would really make the most of these plastic goggles. Eventually, we determined the apps that made you feel the most like you were moving or really emerged in the game were the rollercoaster games that almost gave you motion sickness. In the mission to find them though I did come across a couple hundred videos and movie previews that were compatible with google cardboard. While all of these applications were interesting, none of them were extremely interesting or well developed. I think if a company really invested time and energy there could be more of a use for them. I am honestly surprised google hasn't tried to make more of a market out of them and try to develop games of better images. I mentioned in my blog about the VR headsets how amazing it would be if you could somehow facetime with the headsets, but I think it would be a really good start with these google cardboard. If they could develope an app that would allow you to feel more emerged in your conversation. Ultimately, I think this is a very underrated product for the price that it is offered yet and I would even go as far as to say that it has a lot of untapped potential.

After experimenting with the Google Cardboard my questions are:

1. How can we make this product an everyday necessity and something that people really need? What kind of apps and development would take it to the next level? 
2. Why has no one put more time into this? What are the limitations that I may not be seeing? How can we overcome those? 

Bonus Blog 1: A Day in the life of Virtual Technology

Through our class we had an extremely unique experience to actually get to put our hands on these technologies that are quickly reshaping our everyday lives. We go to use google cardboard, observe the 3D printer at work and even get to experience the best of virtual reality at the moment by using the the virtual reality headsets. By far, these headsets were my favorite thing to use during our time there. I have never got to actually use them, but have heard good things about it. However, you don't really realize how realistic it is until you get to get your hands on it. I think this technology is something that after a little more development you will start to see in classrooms, homes, and offices. I imagine that once there are learning games that allow children to be immersed into learning games or into history books we could see them popping up there. Or, if they could develop a way for pre-med students to get an opportunity to learn surgeries and operations through the VR system it could change the way doctors learn. Another cool idea I would like to see developed is the ability to FaceTime/ Skype people but be able to walk around their house with them or share a meal. All of these technologies, especially the Virtual Reality headsets, I predict, will soon be as common as computers in places where we work, study, and live.

My questions for this blog would be:

Some of this equipment could be super helpful to people, but can be extremely expensive. What would it take to bring those prices down?

How long will it take exactly to develop these programs that would be extremely