Public Messages
Public Messages = Cultural Power
Should you care or pay attention to public messages? Hmmmm. Good question. Since Trillions of Dollars (that's “Trillions” with a Capital “T” and ending in an “s”) are spent on public messages around the globe each year, perhaps we should ponder on them for a while. Businesses, sports events, teams and leagues, candidates and political campaigns, entertainment and education producers, news, publishers, and individuals (among many, many others) all create public messages in an attempt to reach or influence you and me.
What’s your favorite type of public message? Meme? Tweet? Movie? Streaming program?
Let's try memes. (It’d be hard NOT to if you’ve been near a phone, pad, or laptop in the past decade.)
Do memes have to use words (and do those words HAVE to be in IMPACT font)?
(Bernie doesn’t think so.)
Do meme characters have to look straight at you?
(Willie W. doesn’t think so.)
Do memes have to be funny?
(Well . . . it helps. If you’re following moth/lamp, or brother may I have some oats, or cats wanting fruit loops memes on reddit, you may not always think so.)
Memes, almost by definition, are quick AND ephemeral. What causes a public message to last longer, or be seen by more people? Surely the content and the design of a public message have something to do with that, but what other factors come into play? Where might we find an example of a public message creator who's had extended success? Maybe Tik-Tok or YouTube?
Tik-Tok and a broomstick (and a long board?). Why not?! Originally from Portland, Oregon, Zach King, has had 2.2 Billion (that’s “Billion” with a “B”) views of his video of “riding” a broomstick on a street (ala Harry Potter). No doubt views (and re-views) of the work of a talented illusionist can be attributed to wanting to try and better understand how he pulled off the illusion. But we’ve got other magic at work here. When I wrote (“We can simply turn to Tik-Tok . . .”) very few of you said: “Tic-WHAT”? Tik-Tok has been available outside of China only since 2018, yet caught established social media platforms sleeping so much that Apple, Google, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, etc. really offered no equivalent to the popular video sharing app. The influence of Tik-Tok grew so rapidly that then President Trump threatened, in Aug. 2020 to ban the service in the USA. The stodgy New York Times in an attempt to introduce the app to its readers, calls Tik-Tok “charming” and “very funny.” But we’ve encountered other public messages that were charming and very funny, and few of those gained over 2 Billion users or audience in less than three years.
So, we’ve made it to another worthy question: With millions of public messages, which ones deserve our attention? Part of the obvious answer will be public messages that reach the largest audience. Not that long ago (way back in the ‘80s and ‘90s) prior to web-driven media messages, the simple answer was the highest rated television programs.
For instance, in 1983 50 million plus viewers tuned in for the final episode of M*A*S*H, whereas in 1993 42 million plus viewers tuned in for the final episode of Cheers, whereas 40 million plus viewers tuned in for the final episode of Seinfeld in 1998. Do you detect a trend in those audience figures? Do also note that as DVDs, streaming services, social media messages, and other means of enjoying public messages emerged we no longer have such large broadcast TV audiences. Even a mega-popular streaming series such as GoT in 2019 achieved only audiences in the 13-19 million viewer range.
Should we still better understand how a series such as GoT used powerful storytelling to gain an audience? Yes. But, we should also evaluate public messages on a basis other than simple audience size.
What about quick, culture-wide awareness, focus, and use? Have you heard of the terms, or concepts, or services, or movements such as “BLM,” or “Me Too,” or “CRT,” or “TRUMP,” or "Let's Go Brandon,” or “I Can’t Breathe,” or “LGBTQ,” or “Thin Blue Line,” or “Juneteenth,” or “Cybercurrency,” or “Latinx,” or “Global Emergency,” or “Pandemic,” or “AI,” or “Locovore”? Of course you have. And, your direct, everyday life has likely been changed in some way by some or all of those public messages. When humans, individually, or collectively, decide that necessary change, or adaptation to circumstances, is needed often a catch-phrase or designation becomes vibrant in social or cultural groups. Such public messages, names, or designations become a shorthand means we use to quickly share insight, designation, or stance within our culture.
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Since we've only scratched the surface of investigating public messages here, make sure you can continue your exploration of public persuasion. Follow up and do more reading and thinking about public messages, find below some important sources to choose from.
Explore Sources
Alexander, Jonathan and Jacqueline Rhodes, eds. Sexual Rhetorics. Routledge, 2017.
Buchanan, Rebekah J. Writing a Riot: Riot Grrrl Zines and Feminist Rhetorics. Peter Lang, 2018.
Campbell, Karlyn Kohrs. Man Cannot Speak for Her. Praeger, 1989.
Cisneros, Josue David. The Border Crossed Us: Rhetorics of Borders, Citizenship, and Latina/o Identity. University Alabama Press, 2014.
Crick, Nathan, ed. The Rhetoric of Social Movements: Networks, Power, and New Media. Routledge, 2020.
DeChaine, D. Robert, ed. Border Rhetorics: Citizenship and Identity on the US-Mexico Frontier. University Alabama Press, 2012.
DeLuca, Kevin Michael. Image Politics: The New Rhetoric of Environmental Activism. Routledge, 2012.
Edgar, Amanda and Andre E. Johnson. The Struggle over Black Lives Matter and All Lives Matter. Lexington Books, 2018.
Goldthwaite, Melissa A., ed. Food, Feminisms Rhetorics. SIU Press, 2017.
Johnson, Janet. Political Rhetoric, Social Media, and American Presidential Campaigns: Candidates’ Use of New Media. Lexington Books, 2020.
Martin, James. Politics and Rhetoric: A Critical Introduction. Routledge, 2014.
McCloskey, Deirdre N. The Rhetoric of Economics. 2nd ed. Univ. of Wisconsin Press, 1998.
Pierce, Dann L. Rhetorical Criticism and Theory in Practice. 4th ed. River Kishon, 2019.
Rowland, Robert C. The Rhetoric of Donald Trump: Nationalist Populism and American Democracy. Univ. Press of Kansas, 2021.
Van Meter, Jan R. Tippecanoe and Tyler Too: Famous Slogans and Catchphrases in American History. Univ. of Chicago Press, 2008.
Whalen-Bridge, John. Tibet on Fire: Buddhism, Protest, and the Rhetoric of Self-Immolation. Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.
Knowing how public persuasive messages are designed, constructed, built, and arranged can add much to your understanding of cultural persuasion. Learn more by clicking here:
A Step Deeper
If you'd like to go a step deeper into pondering about rhetoric and public messages: