Kandice McKee

Date of Graduation

Fall 2013

Degree

Master of Arts in Writing

Department

English

Committee Chair

Lanette Cadle

Abstract

This thesis will explore the technological developments that have afforded unprecedented interactivity between journalism producers and consumers and what affects such a shift in and negotiation of roles has had on the industry's rhetoric and ethos. New technologies are challenging and forcing the industry to stray from its conventional rhetoric of lecture in exchange for a new rhetoric of conversation. While the rhetoric of lecture and its corresponding ethos of objectivity were practical in the twentieth century, now, as networked individuals take advantage of the social construction of onespelf, the rhetoric of conversation invites consumers, turned prosumers, to construct a dialogue with the journalists. To bridge the gap between these two rhetorics, this thesis will assert that a new ethos is necessary—one in which the audience will be prompted to take advantage of its granted agency. Rather than adopting an ethos of objectivity, as is the current trend within the industry, this thesis argues that print journalists must adopt an ethos of perceptivity.

Keywords

rhetoric, ethos, lecture, conversation, objectivity, perceptivity, print journalism, multimedia, postmodern, social construction, networked individualism

Subject Categories

Creative Writing

Copyright

© Kandice McKee

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