Oral Persuasion (Ong.1982)

1. Oral Persuasion (Ong.1982) • Needs special consciousness • requires memory aids • involves less abstract thought • is more redundant • is best when the audience knows you and vv • involves story-telling or oratory skills

2. Literacy • 3000 years after speech/1st ABC - Greek - 1500BC/1440s - literary age begins • Print=linear • Abstract thought = possible • sende-receiver relationship=remote • persuaders use evidence

3. Electronic Age • TV dominates • Electronic communication reunites sender+receiver • Audiences are larger, more diverse • Audiences have more control • Information is decontextualised • Visuals play a decisive role

4. With electronic communication, persuaders can... • enter the home • restructure the audience’s sense of time, space and identity • (and must) make the audience feel present

5. Interactive Age • Chatrooms • Video-conferencing • The persuader has a purpose • The persuader establishes and develops interpersonal relationships

6. Internet • Interactive • user power • communication through ‘virtual’ time/space • we know people ‘virtually’ • the audience feels it has the power of influence

7. Post-Modern Society • The audience can access more information • Persuasion is audience-oriented • Persuaders need sophisticated audience analysis • Persuasion is no longer cause/effect

8. The modern persuader ... • Has to remove ‘audience barriers’ • has to use irony • has to use identification • has to tell the audience what to think about, not what to think • has to tell the audience about the idea

9. Persuaders in contemporary society • 4 objectives • forming relationships • repetition • electronic eloquence • commoditization

10. Effective persuaders ... • Intimate ongoing relationship with audience • to • communicate the value of product, service, idea

11. Challenges • Information overload • understanding process - gatekeeping, filtering • self-concept: influenced by persuaders