Blog Post #9

As defined by Bitzer, rhetoric work is purposed to produce action and change in the world. Works based on rhetoric come into existence for the sake of something else or a situation. It is a mode for altering reality by creating discourse that changes reality through the mediation of thought and action. Bitzer broke down his view of rhetorical situations by describing constituents, components, of rhetorical situations. The first constituent was exigence. Exigence is an issue, problem, or situation that causes or prompts someone to write or speak on something. If an exigence can not be modified it is not rhetorical. And an exigence that can be modified by ways other than discourse is also not rhetorical. An example of exigence is speaking on the abundance numbers of abortions taking place in America and aiming to get your audience to view it the same way you are and not take part in abortions. The second constituent is audience. Audience of rhetorical works are made up of people that can be influenced by discourse and able to be mediators of change. An example of this type of audience would be a jury. The people on the jury are pounded with different amounts of facts and they are looked to to make the ultimate the decision of whether someone is innocent or guilty, changing lives. The last constituent is constraints. Constraints are typically people, events, facts, etc that have the power to constrain decisions and actions needed to modify exigence. An example of constraints would be religion and beliefs affecting a politician views on a certain situation or topic, like abortions.