30 review for The Rhetorical Power of Popular Culture: Considering Mediated Texts

1. 

   5 out of 5

   Erika – Nov 23, 2020

   Pretty good book with detailed descriptions. It had some flaws in the feminism chapter with the word choice and explanations. I feel like that needs to be updated or adjusted so that it doesn't sound so political. Pretty good book with detailed descriptions. It had some flaws in the feminism chapter with the word choice and explanations. I feel like that needs to be updated or adjusted so that it doesn't sound so political.

2. 

   4 out of 5

   Monica (is working the heck out of – Sep 07, 2019

   In the Rhetorical Power of Popular Culture: Considering Mediated Texts, author Deanna D. Sellnow posits a, not entirely new but nonetheless, important theory of the text, one that admits the nontraditional text to the arena of analysis, rhetoric and argumentation. The book examines the messages and controversies that, in “mediated texts,” or “the everyday objects, actions, and events we experience through a media channel (e.g., movies, TV programs, songs, comic strips, advertisements), may influ In the Rhetorical Power of Popular Culture: Considering Mediated Texts, author Deanna D. Sellnow posits a, not entirely new but nonetheless, important theory of the text, one that admits the nontraditional text to the arena of analysis, rhetoric and argumentation. The book examines the messages and controversies that, in “mediated texts,” or “the everyday objects, actions, and events we experience through a media channel (e.g., movies, TV programs, songs, comic strips, advertisements), may influence us to believe and behave in certain ways” (n.pg). “Mediated popular culture texts,” she explains, “communicate to and for us regarding what we believe we ought to and ought not to believe and do during every waking moment” (n.pg). Explicit in her explication of the “mediated text” (n.pg) is the notion that the text, as it has traditionally been defined, is not and should not be regarded as the most important site and source of meaning. Non-traditional texts should not be precluded from the classroom but subjected to traditional modes of analysis and evaluation. Critics of non-traditional texts in the writing class assert that such readings neither facilitate the teaching of college writing nor provide students with sufficient models of rhetoric and argumentation. More importantly, such texts negate the cognitive processes and intellectual engagement that traditional texts demand. This source supports my contention that non-traditional texts can and should function alongside thesis-based articles in the writing class. Sellnow’s assertion that nontraditional, "mediated popular culture texts” (n.pg) generate ongoing, critical conversations and require of "readers" a different but, nonetheless, academically significant mode of critical thinking and rhetorical analysis. Sellnow’s contribution to conversations about what constitutes rhetoric are essential to this project. Her discussion of the rhetorical power that inheres in formative, non-traditional units of discourse explicitly challenges traditional definitions of appropriate reading. The author defines and explicates various rhetorical lenses through which students can analyze and critique a text, effectively invalidating the notion that only nonfictional and thesis-based texts are emblematic of rhetorical significance and worthy of analysis and critique.

3. 

   4 out of 5

   Ebony – Aug 05, 2009

   This is a lovely textbook. With the exception of TMI from Sellnow's private life, it's accessible and interesting. It's probably a better text than Foss for teaching rhet crit because it's so applicable to everyday undergraduate lives. Even I learned something, but I would not assign the sample essays. They are super unsophisticated. I wouldn't want my students to read them and think I had lowered my expectations. This is a lovely textbook. With the exception of TMI from Sellnow's private life, it's accessible and interesting. It's probably a better text than Foss for teaching rhet crit because it's so applicable to everyday undergraduate lives. Even I learned something, but I would not assign the sample essays. They are super unsophisticated. I wouldn't want my students to read them and think I had lowered my expectations.

4. 

   4 out of 5

   Miranda – Oct 20, 2017

   WGS 255: Gender & Pop Culture

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