Waddell, Neal, McKenna, Bernard
The colour of rhetoric in the contemporary agora
WADDELL, Neal; MCKENNA, Bernard. “The colour of rhetoric in the contemporary agora”. Revista Alicantina de Estudios Ingleses. No. 22 (Nov. 2009). ISSN 0214-4808, pp. 271-291
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10045/13825
DOI: 10.14198/raei.2009.22.16
ISSN: 0214-4808
Abstract: 
Rhetoric has three colours: white, black, and grey. White rhetoric is the Grecian Agoric ideal and black rhetoric is its mockery in the form of cheap point-scoring and open deceitfulness. Both are commonly used and obvious. A third, grey, rhetoric, however, is the most pervasive and devious kind of rhetoric in contemporary political discourse, which has developed in response to changing patterns of journalistic inquisition in the 24/7 news and public affairs era. This paper describes the three types of rhetoric, and argues that the Fourth Estate has an important democratic role in counteracting black and grey rhetoric.
Keywords:Rhetoric, Persuasion, Contemporary political discourse, Media interviews
Universidad de Alicante. Departamento de Filología Inglesa
info:eu-repo/semantics/article