Panopticon's Subject Index Rr

Rr
Rationalization
Reception theory
Rhetoric
Romantic movement

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RATIONALIZATION

One of Max Weber's important conceptions was that of rationalization as a characteristic of Western capitalism. Practical rationalization, institutionalized through the market, defines the process of economic (capitalist) activity, while cognitive rationalization defines the process of institutionalized scientific enquiry and development.

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RECEPTION THEORY

Theory associated with Stuart Hall -- this is an approach to textual analysis that allows for a measure of "negotiated" or "oppositional" readings of the text by the audience. This means that audiences/readers don't simply take in a TV show, newspaper, etc., dumbly, accepting the textual meaning intended by the producer or editor. Instead, they negotiate meaning in the media text, that is, they take in some of the meaning supposedly embedded in the text, but they also infer some of their own meaning into the text. Depending on their cultural backgrounds, some people might accept most of the media text's message, while others reject it almost entirely, preferring an oppositional reading of the text.

To explain this further, Hall proposed a model of encoding-decoding of media discourses. In this the meaning of the text, which is located somewhere between its producer and the reader, is framed (or encoded) by the producer in a certain way, and the reader decodes the text's message slightly differently, according to his/her personal background, and the various different social situations and frames of interpretation. See, e.g., Denis McQuail, Mass Communication Theory: an Introduction.

This theory also links in with Eco's ideas on the nature of "open" and "closed" texts, and aberrant decoding.

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RHETORIC

Rhetoric means many things to many people, but at root it is both the study of oral (human) communication and the study of its skillful application.

Rhetoric is really the starting point for all communication studies (whether speech communication, mass communication, technical communication, media studies, cultural studies, whatever), and its origins lie squarely in Ancient Greece, and specifically with Aristotle.

For these Greeks, all types of communication existed for a purpose, and the present-day dichotomy between "fact" and "fiction" (or subjectivity versus objectivity) really had no meaning to them. To Aristotle, communication and rhetoric was simply the "effective use of all the available means of persuasion" (Aristotle, 1967, qtd. in Sreberny-Mohammadi, 1995). Thus there were three main forms of speech which could be employed by a speaker to get his/her point across:

• logos, or the use of rational argument, including use of "evidence" in supporting that rational argument.
• pathos, or an ability to hook into an audience's emotion, whether love or hatred or anything in between, in order to move them.
• ethos, or the use of personality traits and characteristics to claim authority and credibility (e.g., an ability to look and sound "honest," "approachable," or whatever, or an ability to empathize with the audience -- think Oprah Winfrey, or Bill Clinton "feeling your pain" -- or an ability to impress an audience through force, intimidation, or an innate sense of righteousness).

In tandem with these three forms of speech, there were three main purposes of communication as persuasion:

• forensic, i.e., informative, communication (e.g., as used in a court of law to persuade a jury)
• deliberative, i.e., mobilizing, communication (e.g., mobilizing a community for an election or a national war)
• epideitic, i.e., entertaining, celebratory, or ritual, communication (e.g., used at major occasions -- happy or sad, such as weddings, national holidays, funerals).

More to come ...

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ROMANTIC MOVEMENT

Late 18th - early 19th c.: Arguably the most powerful early expression in cultural terms of modernization in economy, society, etc. after Industrial Revolution; set the tone for modern notions of 'self' and the role of the artist.

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CT. Subject Index Rr