Rhetorical Audiences for Wikis

Adapted from work by Toby F. ColeyAnd Andrew O’Baoill

Wikis and the Rhetorical Audience---Fluid and Dynamic, Multifacited

Single Audience Limited Audience Undefined Audience Fictionalized Audience Addressed Audience Invoked Audience

Single Audience—Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca

Teacher/grader figure Author/Authority figure—wiki

member with more expertise whose words carry more weight

Self/Author figure – also referred to as “universal audience” by Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca. Enacts the greatest influence on individual author

Limited Audience—Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca

Wiki community Academic community

Class members Wider academic community

Undefined Audience—Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca

World or cyber audiences May represent the “imagined

audience”

Fictional Audience—Walter Ong

Constructed by Writer Based on past fictionalizations of

previous audiences for previous authors (genre considerations)

Wiki author knows what audience/authors need to continue wiki conversation

Audience Addressed--Ede and Lunsford

Rhetoric’s traditional concept of “real life audience”

Aristotle’s Rhetorical Triangle

Ethos Pathos

Logos

Audience Invoked-Ede and Lunsford

Similar to the fictionalized audience of Walter Ong

Building Rhetorical Knowledge on a Wiki

Consensus through Difference—Trimble Produces socially constructed knowledge Wikipedia’s NPOV (Neutral Point of View)

Habermas’ Public Sphere & BlogsO’Baoill

1. Inclusivity of Access--open to all A list bloggers Digital divide Time commitment Financial resources

Habermas’ Public Sphere & BlogsO’Baoill

Disregard for Rank—all participants considered equal

A list bloggers Personal networks Problem of Google ranking

Habermas’ Public Sphere & BlogsO’Baoill

Rational Debate to build Consensus Concentration on superficial issues Derivative of stories from main stream news Ignores the local Write too often about blogosphere Popular themes dominate; limited topics

discussed With RSS feeds, less opportunity for interaction

Habermas’ Public SphereWikis vs. Blogs

Blogs Inclusivity of Access--

open to all Disregard for Rank—

all participants considered equal

Rational Debate to build Consensus--

Wikis