Communication: A Critical/Cultural Introduction, 2e Warren & Fassett
Chapter 3: Public Advocacy: Commitments and Responsibility
Lecture Outline
Overview:
In this chapter, the authors’ use the classroom as a space to discuss public advocacy. The
authors’ argue communication creates community. As such the student and teacher have
needs and responsibilities within the community. The chapter begins by exploring the
works of Paulo Freire, an advocate for people who had very little power. Through the
exploration of his theory and practice, the authors’ provide a model for public advocacy.
The chapter ends with a look at structuring sound and trustworthy arguments.
Chapter Goals:
Identify what public advocacy means
Describe the role of power in communication, in general, and in advocacy, in
particular
Identify the responsibilities of speakers and listeners
Identify common errors in reasoning and how to avoid them
I. Advocacy happens within and beyond the classroom.
a. Public advocacy is engaging the public through careful, thoughtful, and
responsible communication toward an end that seeks a better world for our
communities and our families.
i. Communication with others has effects.
ii. We have an ethical responsibility to advocate for a world that
desires the best of us.
b. The classroom is a space for us to start working toward social justice and
to start changing the world.
II. Paulo Freire
a. A Brazilian educator, who was imprisoned and exiled in 1964 for teaching
literacy to people with little power.
i. He taught them how to advocate for their own rights.
ii. He taught them how to talk back to the power structures.
b. His work in the aforementioned is an exemplar of public advocacy.
i. Problem-posing
1. A sort of agency that allows an audience to imagine
possible answers, without assuming a right or a wrong.
a. Gives an audience the tools to work toward change
by working together to draw out possibilities.
b. In public speaking scenarios, this method is a useful
form of advocacy by allowing a speaker to creating
meaning with her or his knowledgeable audience.
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Communication: A Critical/Cultural Introduction, 2e Warren & Fassett
2. An alternative to “banking,” which is a method of
providing (depositing) information or skills into an
audience’s mind (account).
a. The audience passively awaits an expert to fill its
mind.
ii. Reflexivity
1. Insight that helps us understand how we participate in
social systems.
2. It implies a process of thinking about how we act, why we
act, what that means, who it enables, who it hurts, and so
forth.
a. For the public advocate, this means being
thoughtful and transparent about her or his stake
and relationship to a topic is; it means thinking
about how a topic might empower an audience.
b. A public advocate engaging in reflexivity is
situating her or himself with the phenomenon she or
he is describing.
iii. Praxis
1. Combining reflection and action to transform the world.
2. Praxis helps the public advocate to understand how what is
said impacts an audience.
a. Language helps shape and define out realities.
c. The audience has power to critically and respectfully interrogate the
message of a speaker.
i. Hegemony is a process of granting some groups with more power
and privilege.
1. Listening as advocacy is a process (of hegemony) that
attempts to reveal how groups with less power, participate
in power structure creation.
a. Listeners ask questions about whether a group
intends to dominate others.
b. Listeners balance a speaker’s intention against the
content of a message in order to determine the
consequences for others.
ii. Engaging in compassionate critical communication is an
important step for a listener.
1. Recognize and compensate for what might affect our ability
to listen.
a. Take advantage of strengths and minimize
weaknesses in listening.
iii. Respect the relationship between the speaker and the listener.
1. I-thou relationships consider each others’ perspectives.
iv. Critical thinking is about being a cautious and discerning
communicator.
1. “Critical” has at least two dimensions:
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Communication: A Critical/Cultural Introduction, 2e Warren & Fassett
a. It can identify the flaws in a situation.
b. It can identify a possibility for change.
2. Critical thinkers can take something apart in order to help
build it up.
d. Integrity in Argumentation
i. Speakers should structure sound and trustworthy arguments.
1. Avoid fallacious reasoning:
a. A speaker should be ethical in her or his persuasive
efforts.
b. The message of a speaker who is considered
malicious, stupid, or irresponsible will suffer; thus,
a speaker should be conscientious of her or his
credibility.
ii. Interrogate reasoning by understanding the structure and by
checking reasoning against common errors.
1. Toulmin’s model is one of the more useful approaches to
thinking through logic of our reasoning.
a. Look for a claim.
i. Something we assert to be true or false, right
or wrong.
b. Seek evidence to support the claim.
c. Link the evidence to the claim
i. This is known as a warrant.
2. Reasoning
a. When a speaker shares evidence first and then
reaches a conclusion, she or he has used inductive
reasoning.
b. When a speaker shares the conclusion and then the
evidence to support it, she or he has used deductive
reasoning.
3. Speakers should also avoid logical fallacies during public
presentations.
a. Slippery slope reasoning suggests that if one thing
happens, then a whole set of other (positive or
negative) things will also happen.
b. Questioning a speaker rather than her or his ideas
are known as ad hominen attacks.
c. When a speaker sidesteps the issues that matter
most and focus on those that are easy for an
audience to challenge, she or he is using
strawperson arguments.
d. The non sequitur fallacy functions to redirect an
audience’s attention from the issues at hand to
something unrelated.
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