Digging Past the Bells & Whistles

As the semester is wrapping up I am immersed in my scholarship, in reflective moments about my courses, and in reflective moments about my teaching. 

For example, in my work for the paper for this class I am seeing how argument in ads is less based on substantive learning about issues (not to dismiss this completely, because there is learning potential) and more about sensationalism and bells and whistles. This quote below highlights this issue more generally.

"When differences of opinion are polarized and sensationalized....the emphasis in argument shifts from the issue to the skills and personalities of the combatants and the formal structures of argumentation" (Lynch, George & Cooper, 1997,p.76).

Some of the seemingly more persuasive ads I am studying, are not persuasive because they are so much critical, rational, or logical- or because they dive deep into issues and contexts- but because they are sensationally layered with multiple texts building upon one another to reinforce key messages. 

Also, the effort into bells and whistles, and sensationalism over the complexity of issues is problematic, not only for the viewer of an ad, but in general. The practices of evading, of covering up, and of reframing through sensationalism poses problems not only for the issues and people at the mercy of these practices, but for our ways of life and understandings of peoples and issues. 

"Focusing on stark controversies at the expense of the complexities of an issue is also a way of evading or covering up the painful and complex problems that face us and that we must  
resolve if we want to have a society that's worth living in" (Lynch, George & Cooper, 1997, p. 76)

Last night President Obama took the birther issue head on by holding a press release and releasing the "long version" of his birth certificate, in an effort to end discussion and attention to the issue, and also in order to redirect discussion and attention to more important issues.

I think that the birther issue is one of those issues that has become sensationalized both in practice and in theory and has been a way to "evade and cover up" complex problems that we are facing today. 

As a general ending note, not only in politics do we see the bells and whistles of sensationalist arguing, but as was noted by Lynch, George, and Cooper (1997) we see this in the classroom all the time. Providing alternative ways to think about arguing, about important issues, is not only important for debate and argument practices, but it is important for us to be critical consumers of information, it is important for our livelihood, and it I think has emancipatory potentials.

Lynch, D. A., George, D., Cooper, M. M. (1997). Moments of argument: Agonistic inquiry and Confrontational Cooperation. College Composition and Communication, 48(1). pp. 61-85.