Rhetorical velocity, or the derivative of rhetorical displacement for us science folks, is a strategic approach of the means by which your audience will receive your approach. Many factors come into questions such as speed, time, and distance your idea has to go. It is important to note that writer and the people that put these pieces out there for you to see, such as the media or writers, all have taken these factors into consideration. We see this a lot in politics, such as with press releases or news articles. Press releases are often middle afternoon, when the media is in full swing and able to fully report on it with all resources. Even media outlets, as spoke about in a previous class, release the better stories early in the week to allow for maximum coverage time. All of these follow a simple idea, getting the story to the audience as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Now that the author has released the idea to the crowd, there are an array of things that can happen, whether expected or unexpected. Sometimes the idea amplifies and becomes larger. In the world today, amplification comes in to play often due to the social media aspect. Although it is not mentioned in the reading, think about how many people, inventions, and new stories have “blown up” due to social media. People have become famous solely off of Vine or Twitter. This would not have happened fifty years ago. Therefore, amplification is an important aspect to reaching the audience. Another thing that could happen is recomposition, or as we like to call it, remixing. Chances are, when people release something, there are no intentions of remixing it. They plan to release their work to the audience, remixes can come from admirers or adversaries. These remixes can be simple or even more complex, either way it is the method of taking old work and combining to form new work. The example of Wikipedia is interesting because of the allowance of “remixing” the articles. Remixing allows for others to also amplify the message.
How can this help with our campaigns? Well, for my campaign, amplification will play a larger role in allowing the water crisis to reach all the millennials. Internet presence and amplification go hand in hand; therefore, hoping that it will allow my idea to expand quickly. Focusing on creativity and audience interaction allows for the idea to expand with the rhetoric velocity desired. The more that the audience is allowed to have fun and play with the idea, the more of the chance that they will amplify or remix it.
Both text and video have become so readily remixable with the invention of YouTube and Photoshop. These have given way to a new thing called “memes.” This has dramatically influenced the campaign of many large companies and could even improve our campaigns. The options are limitless to how you can design our campaign to allow for maximum coverage.