Appraisal of Persuasive Messages

Chapter 14 introduces the topic of appraising persuasive messages with a case study involving former First Lady Michelle Obama and then-First Lady Melania Trump’s speeches at the 2020 Democratic National Convention and Republican National Convention, respectively. The content of the chapter begins by defining persuasive appraisal and rhetorical criticism before detailing the elements of a persuasive appraisal; this section introduces the four fundamental questions of a persuasive appraisal and introduces the ex post and ex ante processes. Next, the chapter explains the purposes of a persuasive appraisal by detailing key components of persuasion and how they relate to the appraisal; these components include the persuasive message, perceptions of credibility, purpose (immediate and long-term), situation and constraints, and outcomes. Then, the text explains the relevance and selection of a theory—including cognitive dissonance, elaboration likelihood model, identification, social judgment theory, theory of planned behavior, and uses and gratifications—the importance of researching one’s chosen theory, and then evaluation using Fishbein’s theory of planned behavior as an example. The chapter then details the application step by discussing different types of analysis: counterfactual reasoning, audience differentiation, and audience refutation. Finally, the chapter explains the evaluation step by detailing pragmatic evaluation, ethical evaluation, and implications.