Rhetorical Arena
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Abstract
The “Rhetorical Arena Theory (RAT)” has been embraced as a new and more exhaustive approach to crisis communication. The article under review focused on the communication crisis through the lenses of RAT network analysis with the influence of news media put into consideration. The study was guided by three main research questions which were, overall actor prominence, relative rhetorical standing, and rhetorical relations among actors. The case selected for the study was that of the Volkswagen emission cheat-test. The data used in the analysis were retrieved from four prominent newspaper channels originating from the US and Germany. The most prominent actor was identified as the Volkswagen Company. Volkswagen was also noted to have a low relative rhetorical standing. The company, however, dominated as the central actor. The findings of this study were consistent with those of the public relations sector, especially publications on the behavior of companies in a financial crisis. While the study is said to have been quite exhaustive in its approach, it is clear that not all media facets were considered. This can, therefore, be recommended as an area for further research.
Key Words: Rhetorical Arena Theory, Volkswagen, Crisis Communication
Research on crisis communication is mainly focused on unraveling the underlying complexities and acknowledging their existence. With advancement and growth in understanding of the complexities, authors have noted that the traditional organization-centric view is insufficient in explaining interconnectedness available in a communication crisis. It is out of this limitation that a new and more exhaustive approach of representing a crisis in communication was born. This approach is known as the “Rhetorical Arena Theory (RAT)” and was developed by Frandsen and Johansen. Juliana Raupp, in her article, “Crisis communication in the rhetorical arena,” extends and applies the RAT of communication crisis through network analysis. This paper, therefore, provides an in-depth review of the article.
The main assumption in the RAT approach is that a rhetorical situation gets co-constructed by various parties. Stemming from this assumption, it can be deduced that RAT is not limited to the response strategies of the crisis but rather the interaction patterns created by different voices (Frandsen &Johansen, 2017). Every source of communication is, therefore, important when considering the RAT approach. Raupp, in her article, however, noted that previous studies did not account for the effect of the news media. This, therefore, formed the research gap for the study conducted since the media represents an important source of information to the public arena.
The main focus of the article was to examine rhetorical patterns as influenced by the media while drawing on RAT key assumptions. To assess this scenario, the author chose the Volkswagen emission crisis. The case was suitable for a relational perspective because it had many stakeholders and voices in it, and additionally, it had the aspect of a cross-national crisis. The study used two US-based and two German newspapers to bring in the aspect of both news media and cross-national analysis. The research questions that guided the study were, who was dominating the discourse? Where did the rhetoric power lie? Which of the actors have some form of relationship? In what ways are these actors related? (Raupp, 2019).
The term arena has been defined as spaces where matters of great importance are discussed and negotiated. Rhetoric, on the other hand, was traditionally associated with persuasion, but nowadays, it is more inclined to dialogue. The rhetoric arena has various defining attributes. One such attribute is that of multivocality. This means that different parties not only talk to each other but also about one another. Another attribute is that of the Narrative approach where different characters in crisis communication can be distinguished into antagonists, protagonists, and news media (Seeger & Sellnow, 2016). It has also been noted that in the news media arena, there is a struggle for rhetoric power. One can, therefore, not assess the rhetoric aspect of news media without considering the rhetoric power and drives it.
As depicted in the article, the case under study was about Volkswagen, which is a major car manufacturing company based in Germany. The company was claimed to have featured an ecological sustainability image in their car. It was however, discovered in 2015 that the organization had cheated in the emission tests carried out in the US. A device had been installed that lowered emission detections in a laboratory, which was not the case in real-world conditions. The company admitted to the “Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)” about the cheat-test device and its presence in hundreds of thousands cars that consumed diesel. This revelation drew the attention of the media which grew into a huge crisis for the company.
The author of the article used a qualitative analysis approach in her study.
The two-step sampling procedure was used to identify the newspapers used. After newspaper selection, relevant articles were selected within the news outlets with dates ranging between September 18, 2015 and October 31, 2015. The first date selected was when EPA announced the cheat-test violation by Volkswagen. The second step after identifying the articles to be used for the study, was to identify actor statements. Articles were searched for communication-based activity such as “announced”, “pointed to”, “said” and “explained” among others. The third step of the study was operationalization of the key concepts.
With regard to the first research question, it was noted in the results of the study that Volkswagen was the most prominent actor. The company had a 61% frequency of occurrence. It was followed by regulator at 19% frequency of all statements. The regulators included categories such as politicians and public authorities. With regard to the second question, two roles of speech were distinguished. One was the actor’s role and the other was the addressee role which was rather passive. It was also noted that Volkswagen had a 41% less voice. On the third research question, it was noted that Volkswagen was the central actor given it was the protagonist in the case.
From the study, it is evident that the choice of an organization in the midst of a crisis was the best way of representing RAT methodology. The organization stood out in terms of being the most prominent actor when considering the media discourse. It was also noted that the claimants are least featured in reporting. The company however lacked rhetorical power which in this case was represented as a relationship between visibility and voice. Volkswagen was featured more as the addressee than the active speaker in the statements. The regulators and commentators possessed much higher rhetorical power. The media discourse actively represents them especially regarding their interpretation of the problem at hand and their concerns.
The findings of this study are consistent with those published on financial crisis. While it is expected that the media will dominate in a crisis situation since the company will be consumed with protecting it’s reputation, that has never been the case in a financial crisis. In this study for example, powerful institutions dominated the coverage. A similar finding was noted by manning, (2012) and Olsson & Nord (2015). The RAT is a new approach to crisis communication that aims at exploring
The article was quite exhaustive it it’s analysis of the RAT model with the news media overlay. Though the RAT has proved to be an effective tool to use in crisis communication, there is still no evidence that it is exhaustive in its approach. The article fails to mention other variables and attributes that RAT does not consider when analyzing in crisis communication. In as much as the study is quite scientific in its approach, there is still room for error since indirect approaches were used to quantify the variables under analysis. There is also the possibility of biasness in the study since the data used does not account for other media facets such as television, radio and social media. I would therefore like to recommend the consideration of other media facets as areas for further research.
References
Frandsen, F., & Johansen, W.(2017). Organizational crisis communication: A multivocal approach. London: Sage. 280 pp.
Manning, P. (2012). Financial journalism, news sources and the banking crisis. Journalism, 14(2), 173-189.
Olsson, E. K., & Nord, L. W. (2015). Paving the way for crisis exploitation: The role of journalistic styles and standards. Journalism, 16(3), 341-358.
Raupp, J. (2019). Crisis communication in the rhetorical arena. Public Relations Review, 45(4), 101768.
Seeger, M., & Sellnow, T. L. (2016). Narratives of crisis: Telling stories of ruin and renewal. Stanford University Press.