Ernest G. Bormann

Fantasy and rhetorical vision: The rhetorical criticism of social reality

The process by which small groups fantasize to create a common culture can be extrapolated to the way dramatizations in public messages spread out across larger publics. The composite dramas which catch up large groups of people in a symbolic reality can be termed a rhetorical vision. Once we participate in a given rhetorical vision, even if we keep an esthetic distance, we have come to experience vicariously a way of life that would otherwise be less accessible to us. The discovery and appreciation of rhetorical visions are useful functions of criticism.

The Eagleton affair: A fantasy theme analysis

To win in 1972 the Democrats needed a unified rhetoric. Their strategy was to emphasize persona. The breaking news of Senator Eagletons mental health, coming at a strategic time, created a fantasy that chained through the electorate and presented the McGovern persona as inconsistent, inept, and untrustworthy.

A Fantasy Theme Analysis of the Television Coverage of the Hostage Release and the Reagan Inaugural.

This essay explores the usefulness of fantasy theme analysis for the study of live coverage of breaking news events by making a critical analysis of the televised reports of the hostage release and the Reagan inaugural address of January 20, 1987. The critical analysis reveals similarities between rhetorical fantasies and televised news by comparing the subliminal impact of the enactment of the transfer of power and end of the crisis by the coverage of the inaugural and hostage release to the way Reagans speechwriters used the fantasy type of restoration to meet the needs of a conservative political movement in the 1980s.

Political Cartoons and Salient Rhetorical Fantasies: An Empirical Analysis of the '76 Presidential Campaign.

A Q‐analysis of cartoons published during the campaign provides evidence of the complex patterns of shared fantasies among various types of voters, and the relationships between these fantasies and those dramatized by various groups during the political campaign.

An expansion of the rhetorical vision component of the symbolic convergence theory: The cold war paradigm case

This study focuses on the expansion of the rhetorical vision component of Symbolic Convergence Theory (SCT). The Cold War rhetorical vision serves as a paradigm case illustrating the emerging theory of group consciousness that is part of SCT. Through this extended example, we explain that, prior to their decline and terminus, three streams of communication (consciousness creating, consciousness raising and consciousness sustaining) characterize the life cycle of a rhetorical vision. We also demonstrate that rhetorical visions exist along at least four continua and that a number of distinct rhetorical principles operate in the creation, development, maturity and decline of a rhetorical vision.

Power, authority, and sex: Male response to female leadership

Diaries, recordings, and analyses by participants and nonparticipant observers were used in this extensive case study of a developing organization. The study led to the inference that an important element influencing the organization was female dominance and male response to that dominance.

Three Decades of Developing, Grounding, and Using Symbolic Convergence Theory (SCT)

For 30 years, good fortune has enabled us to contribute to the development of symbolic convergence theory (SCT). SCT is a general theory of communication that helps explain broad aspects of interpersonal, small group, public, organizational, mass, and intercultural communication. SCT explains the communicative force of fantasy-sharing on human action as stemming from its ability to forge a symbolic consciousness that is constitutive of reality. In this chapter, we first depict SCT’s heuristic value. Next, we highlight its historical development and grounding research. Then, we set out its anatomical elements providing a clear view of the relationship among its 18 technical concepts. Specifically, we highlight its basic, message, dynamic, communicator, medium, and evaluative concepts. Then, we depict its utility by describing its use in solving real-world problems ranging from physician recruitment to relationship building to creating a new corporate identity and culture. Thereupon, we synthesize the answers to its major criticisms. Finally, we discuss potential avenues for future research and development. We highlight the need for researchers to develop a propensity to fantasize scale and work toward the unification of the force of fantasy and the other communicative forces.

Why do people share fantasies? An empirical investigation of a basic tenet of the symbolic convergence communication theory

This study investigates the features of an individuals preference for certain kinds of narratives and the resulting shared fantasies. We studied the following features of narratives, whether the stories were happy or sad, set in the past or the present, implied moral or immoral values, and were bizarre or realistic. Fifty‐four original dramas were created using different combinations of the four characteristics and were presented to American subjects in an interview situation with a Q‐sort methodology. The Quanal factor analysis found five different subject types. Members within each subject type exhibited similar fantasy sharing and rejecting patterns. These findings help fill in an important gap in the symbolic convergence theory by addressing the question of why people share fantasies.

Defending symbolic convergence theory from an imaginary Gunn

(2003). Defending symbolic convergence theory from an imaginary Gunn. Quarterly Journal of Speech: Vol. 89, No. 4, pp. 366-372.

Rhetorical visions of committed voters: Fantasy theme analysis of a large sample survey

This study uses the presidential campaign persuasion and media coverage in the 1980 election to develop and validate a method for making empirical connections between messages and audience responses. The study applies the research method that synthesizes fantasy theme analysis, small sample Q‐sorts, and large sample survey techniques to the shared fantasies and rhetorical visions of voters in a midwestern city. The study documents and describes the extent and nature of five rhetorical visions among committed registered voters in the target city and provides a brief humanistic rhetorical critical analysis of the visions.