The rhetoric of mobilization: Implications for the study of movements

Abstract

The rhetorical situation of movements, unlike other rhetorical forms, contains exigencies of mobilization. Rhetorical movements can be defined as the set of acts which includes mobilizational appeals. This definition reconstitutes critical categories, excluding from consideration as movements groups of spokesmen who are alike only in responding to similar motivational exigencies, and including studies of individual speakers who respond to mobilizational exigencies. Methods for studying mobilizational appeals are suggested in order to (1) guide the critic toward appropriate rhetorical acts; (2) clarify requirements for successful mobilizational appeals; and (3) specify the relationships between mobilizational appeals and the total rhetorical action of the movement. Methodology is exemplified by application to early American evangelism. Emphasis on the rhetoric of mobilization creates new lines of analysis and research both for rhetorical theorists and for critics of public communication.