Chapter 6 "The Exercise of Critical Rhetorical Ethics"

Porter places himself within the locales of his postmodern map of theoretical positions:

My position is that problems are best worked out in terms of a situated and kairotic rhetorical ethics, which grants ethical authority to local practice and the conventions of particular communities, which accounts for the specific nature of the electronic medium, and which invokes a discourse ethic that is relatively pluralistic in its constitution and heuristic and rhetorical in its methodology. (134)

From this position, Porter shows us his own sense of praxis in three case studies. The first confronts the dilemmas of intervening in a newsgroup discussion that is disrupted by a student posting offensive jokes. The second deals with Paul Trummel and his infamous postings on multiple Listserv groups (material based on his unhappy experiences in a rhetoric/composition doctoral program). The third case grapples with Jake Baker's newsgroup posting of a graphic short story depicting a fellow student's bondage, torture and sodomization. By confronting these three "real world" examples, Porter is able to contextualize what he sees as a critical rhetorical ethics that involves (1) recognition of the social-power dimensions of discourse, (2) understanding that discursive acts reside within an economic system, (3) accepting that rhetorical acts are situated within a network of intersubjective, human relations (145).

Main Page | Porter's Previous Work | Guiding Questions | Rhetorical Ethics | Internetworked Writing | Internetworked Classroom | Shaping a Future Ethics Table of Contents | Ch. 1 | Ch. 2 | Ch. 3 | Ch. 4 | Ch. 5 | Ch. 6 | Ch. 7