Week 3- Audience Analysis, Persuasion and Ethos

Having read the articles by Rodman/Adler, Larsen and Goffman, I saw the connections between audience analysis, persuasion and ethos.

In the Rodman/Adler reading, it states “… smart communicators alter their approach depending on the situation”. I found this very interesting because I see this almost everyday. When a person is trying to persuade someone to agree about certain subject matter, he/she might “adjust” his/her own beliefs or morals and have that connection in order to persuade the other person. Is a communicator still “smart” even though his/ her morals and beliefs are adjusted or distorted just to get the message across?

In the Larsen reading, he talks about the search for cultural premises. He talks about looking at two cultural premises which are: number 1 “cultural images and myths” and number 2: “the American value system”. Does Larsen mean comparing the American culture to other cultures in order to understand cultural premises better?

Finally in the Goffman reading, there was a bit about the expectation of consistency between manner and appearance. Most of the time, we correlate a person’s appearance to their manner. For example, if a girl looks and dresses gothic, she might be depressed when in reality maybe that’s just her style. How else could this relate to a recent situation or event that we are dealing with in the present?