Month: May 2025

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Rhetorical Methodologies

In this week’s unit about communication research we explored how communication researchers conduct their research. Similar to last week, methodologies are also categorized into paradigms. I will talk about rhetorical methodologies. Rhetorical methods of research are sophisticated and refined ways of evaluating messages. Performing this kind of research tells us a lot about the ways people communicate and how to challenge and transform messages to create social change. Rhetorical messages help us understand why certain messages are effective or ineffective, and how messages affect audiences.  

The editorial cartoon above shows a person in charge praising their employee for their good work. They say, “Great ad campaign. Now all we need is a product!” This is a great example of how rhetorical methodologies are performed and how they evaluate messages. Advertisements are used to persuade audiences to act a specific way, they tend to be used to persuade audiences to buy a service or product. The effectiveness of advertisements is measured by the amount of products sold. In addition to the measurement of products sold, the effectiveness is also evaluated by the response form audiences in relation to the social and cultural contexts of the time. In that respect, advertisements are similar to rhetorical research methodologies. 

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Critical Theories Paradigm

In this week’s chapter we learned about theoretical paradigms. Theoretical paradigms are broader categories that are used to simplify the understanding of complex theories. A paradigm is a collection of concepts, values, assumptions, and practices that constitute a way of viewing reality for a community that shares them. The theoretical paradigm that caught my interest the most was the critical theories paradigm. This type of paradigm helps us understand how communication is used to oppress, thus provides us ways to foster positive social change. The theories in this paradigm are different from other paradigms because they seek praxis, which is a combination of theory and action. This means the theories seek to understand power structures while simultaneously seeking to charge these oppressive power structures in positive ways. 

An example of critical theory would be Marxism. Which is why I chose the cartoon. In the cartoon we can see a man who represents Karl Marx beating a rich man with a copy of one of his major works, the Das Kapital. In the book, Marx describe how capitalism works and how it will ultimately destroy itself. The cartoon also demonstrates the idea of praxis, which combines theory and action, a strength of the critical theories paradigm. Similarly, it demonstrated a weakness, the crowd backing up Marx is necessary to incite change because social values are necessary to incite change.

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Media Literacy

The image above displays fear-mongering messages on a newspaper, television, and a computer. The title “Weapons of Mass Communication” demonstrates why media literacy is important. Being able to think critically about, comprehend, access, and use mass communication is important because mass communication is always motivated by political, profit, or personal factors. For example, publicists, editors, and publishers have their own agendas and experiences, thus they present information based on their perspective which may not be the same as everyone’s. The media may be presented with a minimal spin on the actual story or the motive may be pure, but there will always be a bias because of one’s own experiences. 

An example in my personal life that demonstrates why media literacy is important involves my older relatives. They tend to take everything they see on social media as the truth. Then, they proceed to share this false information with other relatives or their friends. I noticed that this is a common thing with older generations. A lot of my friends tell me that their older relatives also share fake posts on social media. This can be dangerous because then people will begin to believe the shared false information. Therefore, being able to think critically about the mass communication you consume is important.