The idea of public rhetoric, the first term in this journal’s new subtitle, might seem self-evident. The language of political campaigning and party platforms, the arguments that formulate (or justify) policies and institutional practices, the calls for voter participation — all of this surely is what we might think of as public rhetoric writ large. It involves masses of people, national and international media, and well-known—or soon-to-beforgotten—public figures. It is, as Phyllis Ryder so deftly puts it, a “battle to make one view seem inevitable.” Citizens all over the world encounter that level of public rhetoric almost daily. It claims a special importance — a right to dominate the press coverage — that, say, a small neighborhood organization or local women’s interest group could never hope to claim.
A Journal of Community-Engaged Writing and Rhetoric