RHETORICAL CRITICISM:

Ideology:

A pattern or set of ideas, assumptions, beliefs, values, or interpretations of the world by which a culture or group operates. With any dominant ideology, there are other viewpoints that are suppressed and human potential that is thwarted.

Ideologies usually permeate everything produces in the culture or group it is present in, thus rhetorical artifacts embody and express that ideology. They are primarily recognized when manifested as moral or normative beliefs

Ideological Critics:
Discover and make visible the dominant ideology embedded in an artifact (as well as those being muted by it) Essentially, critics try to divulge the human potential being suppressed by a dominant ideology by looking at the things it produces.

INFLUENCES

• Structuralism
• Marxism
• Semiotics- the science of signs

FOUR STEPS TO ANALYZE

• Formulating a research question and selecting an artifact
• Selecting a unit of analysis
• Analyzing the artifact
• Writing the Critical Essay

1. Formulating a research question and selecting an artifact:

First, critics develop a question to ask about a rhetoric and find an artifact that provides an initial answer to the research question. Critics are primarily concerned with the ideology expressed by the artifact and what it says about the values of a particular group

2. Selecting a Unit of Analysis

The critic chooses an aspect of the artifact to study. Most often it is the part that most expresses the traces of the ideology embedded in it- the dimensions that reveal said ideology.

Rhetorical artifacts are treated as textual evidence of ideology

3. ANALYZING THE ARTIFACT

• Identification of Nature of Ideology
• Identification of Interests Included
• Identification of Strategies in Support of Ideology

4. WRITING THE CRITICAL ESSAY

• Introduction
• Description of artifact/context
• Description of the unit of analysis/evidence
• Report of findings
• Discussion of the contribution of the analysis

LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN

This critique uses the platform of a late night talk show (the program on Nov. 2, 1994) to illustrate how its structure and content embody the ideology of consumerism and knowledge of the show business lifestyle. There is a clear economic motive, and viewers/audiences are treated as commodities.

SUGGESTIONS

• A "typical" movie of a particular country
• A religious artifact, such as a Mayan temple
• Signage in different cities/countries
• Speeches, especially in presidential campaigns
• Hegemonic tendencies of mass media