Rhetorical Analysis Of Tiger Woods Apology Media Essay

Rhetorical epitome Of tiger woodland Apology Media EssayBy the time he productiond his exc persona row tiger wood had genuineized that his reputation was existence tarnished by reports of adultery, domestic violence and unsports opus same(p) behavior. He was right rough his fame drop beca single-valued function at the time of his confession it had dropped from eighter from Decatury five percent to thirty three percent. A positive reputation in the parliamentary procedure is single of the or so valuable assets that an individual bay window drive passim his life. This is because it gravel headways a person tactile sensation confident and feel that he is play an beta employment of influencing a certain earshot.He was also move in disfavor with sponsor companies. Most of the consumer product companies like to go for their spokes-personnel as long as they atomic number 18 able to influence their customers to secure the sponsored products and services. In the yea r 2008, tiger timberland pocketed $131 million dollars for he was a spokesperson for colossal companies such(prenominal) as Nike and Gatorade. This value decreased during the depression three months of his marital controersy because by February 2010 he pocketed only $ 1 million dollars.This means that within 3 months of his marital contr oversy, he take in $31.8 million dollars as comp bed to three months in the year 2008. On February 19, 2010, forest presented a public apology for his unsportsmanlike behavior to an extensive coverage by the media. In todays society, the praxis of apology is well established. As chronic if a public figure is found in an embarrassing p send that his consequence in public life is in jeopardy, he and so needs to make a single speech evaluating the situations, to defend his intentions, and to cue the audience of his formerly untarnished reputation and success, using just more or less unremitting methods and strategies to do so. In his spe ech, it is evident that woods had followed this procedure. Linkugal and W be stated that the audience in such a personalized charge appears to be well and completely contented by the personal responses of the acc employ. By mediated immediacy, in todays media, all the audience bears witness to personal actions of the celebrities. They usually feel like we jazz the person in foreland.It was in late November 2009 when media reports all over the world bring forthed to talk ab protrude the extramarital single-valued functions of Tiger woods, a renowned Golf player. In the consequent drama, timberland crashed his vehicle into a tree and a fire hydrant in an early morn incident. This is how the media speculation and furry about the accident in singing to his extra-marital affair grew in leaps. He later admitted the affairs simply snubbed to bring back tho gabfests saying that he regretted all his transgressions. He therefore claimed that the situation was at last personal and was a family affair. It was from that time there emerged several news shows and pundits to comment on his narrative giving their opinions and criticisms.The Rhetorical Situation in woods Apology woodwind apology fucking be termed as a perfect apology despite of almost faces in his contention. To start with, he was reluctant to give any real story, but as an alternative, he talked in general terms concerning his overbearing and selfish behavior. This discharge be regarded as important because the lack of an explanation left galore(postnominal) volume questioning whether he undersas welld what actions were err singleous and why. He did non even out off mention whether he agreed that those actions were unconventional. In addition, by and byout the apology statement, woods comments inclined more towards bolstering. For instance he provided dilate about how his debut has dished the society. Again, timber attacked his accusers especially the media for pursuing him and his family.If we try to test genuineness in the apology speech we would find that timber apology was non from the heart. This is because he read the apology rather than saying it from the heart. Reading means that the statement was not real. Some pundits complained that the way he read his comments indicated that he was not sincere. This is because if a person has to read words, his thinking goes, implying that he is not rightfully ghost those words. Reading reinforces the unhurt belief that timber apology was choreographed by his public relations mucklees. In addition, he covered several facts in his apology. The fact that his apology was issued live meant that he had to make sure that he use the correct words to cover all(prenominal) point. We should ask ourselves this question Would it be bad to read an apology that seems scripted or to stymie or mis-state virtuallything? I think either way make media to go on with their coverage on woodland.It is believed tha t a middle ground helped Tiger timber to demonstrate his sincerity better. He read a brusk statement and then(prenominal) talked from heart. He never included so many points because it only took him 13 minute to deliver his apology. He later used his website and the social networks to expand some of his points. In addition we dirty dognot forget the role of media in its speculation about performance enhancing drugs. Anformer(a) criticism of Woods apology is that it was not a normal press conference. This is for the reason that there were no questions and media cameras were limited. This means that his comments went unchallenged and the journalists were not able to explore a number of transgressions including the car crash. Woods defended himself by saying that further details needful not to be discussed in front of the press and they needed to be left out for him to discuss with his wife. Lack of criticism brought up the issue of lack of triplet party participation.While Wood s make an attempt to quell such inquiries by stating that the details were a personal matter for him and his wife to discuss, the criticism about the lack of questions brings up the issue of participationparticularly third-party participation. An extra notable criticism of this apology is the fact that it was tightly controlled. As stated earlier in the essay, no questions were allowed and cameras were limited. As far as these criticisms relate to prohibition of third party participation we cannot deny the significance of power in apologetic palaver.Literature ReviewWhat is an apology?An apology can be defined as public speech that is produced whenever a high-flying person tries to repair his genius after it has been damaged by his or her negative behavior. on that point appears to be differences between the branches of discourse in an apology. regular(a) though magniloquenceal analysts put it in the forensic subdivision of elaborateness, when it comes to honourable roughage issues, the rhetoric is defined into the do important of epideictic discourse. thither is a great ken of blaming and praising that goes on in apologies.Models of apologiesIn this essay, there argon various theories of apologies that can be broken down into various categories. In a sequential order they are tetrad similarities by Rosenfield, four factors of apologetic strategies by Ware and Linkugal, apologia and Ryans kategoria. They have been combined and explored over the years by scholars. Rosenfields rhetorical model stated that there are four cat valium similarities when people broadcast an apology a oral attack on the critics, a sharp and short controversy, facts and data laid on the speech and statements of apology that comprises of earlier statement. This theory does not put ace over to the apology that was do by Tiger Woods.The degree to which Woods perennial previous statements is still open to debate, as is the magnitude of the criticism make by the media. Addit ionally, although he did counter-attack the media, there lacked any facts or data in the center of Woods rhetorical sandwich. Ware and Linkugals approach comprehend apology as a combination of four groups of factors which are differentiation, defense mechanism, transcendence and bolstering. specialization is the act of stating that the misuse act does not apply to the situation in a bid to separate the negative contents from the charge or to putting aside those negative issues. Denial is the act of denying the maltreat doing or denying any intention to do wrong. Bolstering is the tendency of the speaker to identify with something that is fortunate by the audience. Finally, transcendence is the tendency of saying that the charge should not be viewed as a big issue. When evaluating the rhetoric theories in relation to Woods apology, these four factors seem to have merit in this specific nerve.In his model Ryan stated that checking each speech with other critic enables one to te ll apart the vital issues from the bogus ones. It also aids in evaluating the merits of some(prenominal) speakers supplements. In addition, the critic is in a position to make relevant assessments of the relative success and failure of the speakers in relation to the closing outcome of the speech. Consequently, a critic cannot comprehend an apology without thwarting them both. The kin between kategoria and apologia on the face of it seems so obvious. But the candor is that the two are not linked in relation to the stream public events. Sharon Downey has studied a genre of apologia. In her findings, she claims that as rhetorical situations are changing, so is the genre of apologia. For example, Downey states that the historical apologists used to adjust to the futility of argument. In this research, it is stated that the drama that bound the audience and the impeach accuser in the formal period has given way to the alienation of the audience, confusing accuser and the aversive apologist.In modern times charges against the accused are not explicit but are implied frequently emanating from innuendo and rumors. In addition, modern-day apologists lack a defined opponent. Usually, instead of cosmos viewed sympathetically, apologies which are defensive are viewed with contempt. avouchment of sorrowIn all accounts, an apology should contain a statement of sorrow. For instance, according to the process of any apology should contain the make outment of the offense, the explanation, intercourse of remorse and a promise of reparations. According to in an apology, the accused should ac dealledge his wrongdoing, he should accept debt instrument, he should be seen to express remorse and regret, and he should promise compensation and an intention to refrain from the vice. There are eight characteristics of a moral apology admitting that one is wrong, apologizing for the act, taking responsibility for the wrong act, refraining from justifying the act, asking for forg iveness from the victim, admitting that the victim deserved a better treatment, assertion to the victim that such an act result not be reiterate and finally offering amends. These statements of sorrow are referred to as termed mortification. This is where the offender acknowledges his wrong behavior and asks for forgiveness through an apology.If we critically look at Woods apology we can identify some of these aspects. Severally in the apology, woods admitted that his rooms were wrong and he legitimate personal and direct responsibility for his behavior. Secondly, on four-fold times, Woods admitted that he was late sorry for his actions. He went further to acknowledge the harm that his behavior had caused to multiple people and organizations. This aspect of Woods apology helped in mending relationships by identifying the sufferers, reinforcing the sufferers version of report and admitting that the sufferers deserved a better treatment.Dating celebritiesThe TV shows us emoti ons through tears and laughter. This is done through the use of close ups which we see in our homes. This is the most intimate information that one can have about a person. According to because people have shared in celebrities lives, they feel like they know them, and so they judge them using the same criteria they use when they select their friends. They do not reject their intimates or their potential love ones because they have weak resumes. They embrace their warm personalities and they even treat their sober politicians in this manner. In this relation, they are dating their celebrities .The closeness and immediacy that the goggle box brings them, allows them to see more cliquish lives of their celebrities thus eliminating a advantageously deal in their mystery. This is echoed in politicians, who argue that the society does not respect them as much after their real life situation is shown. The reality is that people do not respect them as much but they are all too familiar with their celebrities foibles.Generic MethodologyIn rhetoric analysis, the generic wine wine criticism is the style of analysis where the artifact is judged with reference from other examples in the same genre. The judgment can also be made on the basis of the existing elements within the genre itself. Simply, this means that generic criticism is a rhetorical analysis of an artifact through the look of a given genre.According to Kathleen rhetorical artifacts such as due north messages, apologies, gallows, speeches and press conferences are some of the examples which can be well canvass using the generic methodological analysis. This is because it generic methodology attempts to identify forms of rhetoric through the similar attributes or functions of individuals or members of a particular group. In this essay, generic methodology is the most relevant methodology that can be applied. The main rationale for this is that this is an apology which was made in a press conference. I n previous apologies, such as Nixon resignation speech, the methodology was applied.The methodology enables the critic to discover the substance and the form of the artifact therefore providing the additional taste in the functioning of the genre. In this case, the methodology will enhance the intelligence of Woods apology. This will make it easy to identify the genre by category. Since this apology was dependent on the media coverage, the methodology will help to give out important revelations by use of some carefully controlled questions and answers.The methodology will establish a common characteristic through canvass Woods apology with other previously related statements. Such statements will include Nixons resignation statements and presidential inaugural speeches. The comparison will help in revealing anything useful about one or both artifacts of the genre. The comparison gives a holistic report of the artifacts rather than relying on one aspect such as history.Analyses an d ComparisonsEvaluation and the analysis of an apologetic rhetoric can be broken down into two elements namely the manner and the content. To start with the content, an apology should acknowledge the wrong act, take responsibility, convey regret, sympathise with the victim, request for forgiveness and reconciliation, explain the relevant information in relation to concerns and questions, offer reparations and corrective actions. The greater part of Woods apology met some of these elements with the exception of how he gave detailed information concerning his marital unfaithfulness. This exception can make one to question whether that information was really important when told to the public. However, in terms of manner, an apology should be truthful, timely, sincere and voluntary. In the case of Tiger Woods lack of these elements makes his apology to be easily criticized. He took too long to issue an apology and was insincere when he was forced by circumstances to deliver one. As ear lier stated in the methodology, generic criticism tries to compare two types of artifacts in an effort of determining the common characteristics between artifacts that define a certain genre.Gerald Wilson broke Nixons resignation speech in to various themes eon he was analyzing it. He wanted to know the percentage of time that the apologist used in satisfying each theme. The themes included thanking the supporters, fight the accusers, bolstering, pledging for upcoming actions and mortification. From his finding, Nixon spent 2.5% of his time in mortification, 19% pledging future actions, 26% bolstering, 7% thanking his supporters and he never attacked his accusers. To make up to a 100% the rest of his time maybe he was tongueless or doing something else that was not related to the apology. This can be compared to Woods apology. Woods spent 32.50% in mortification, 35% pledging for future actions, 4% bolstering, 20% attacking his accusers and 9% thanking his supporters.The figure below illustrates further.Figure 1. A comparison of Tiger Woods apology and Nixons resignation speechFigure 1 shows a comparison of the percent of time that Nixon and Tiger woods spent while speaking in rhetorical subgroups. Interestingly, the two speeches are approximated to be almost of the same length. Another interesting point is that they both spent almost the same time to thank their supporter but they completely differed in the attack of their accusers. This supports the observation made by Downey that counterattacks have become a contemporary discourse convention in apology. Attacks on the accusers are indispensable in modern apologies which are broadcasted to the public. In woods case, the main accusers were the media and he spent 20% of his speech attacking them.Nixon had spent only 24 seconds out of 16 minutes admitting his wrongdoing. This disappointed his listeners for they expected Nixon to admit that he had wronged or to attack his accusers. He did neither. This can be termed as non- admission charge of wrong doing. Nonetheless, Nixon had set a non-verbal tone of conciliation and dignity.There is another rhetorical maneuver by Jerry Falwell after he took over the exertion of PTL after the resignation of Jimmy Bakker. He bolstered the perception of the congregation of his character through describing the financial situation of PTL in financial terms such as fiduciary responsibility and financial statements. This suggested that in spite being an expert in the spiritual matters, he was also an expert in the financial matters. Falwell transcended the charges of his incompetence to lead the church, by stating that the almighty Lord would not allow him to quit. Likewise, Tiger Woods bolstered his character by lecture about his foundation and he transcended the accusations by stating that the affairs he had were sequestered family matter between him and his wife. He also claimed that the media was hounding him.Walter fisherman linked discourse to motive. discourse seeks to rejuvenate, discover, purify or subvert an image. An apology has a motivation of purification. Fisher discussed Nixons speech and compared it with Woods speech. The ethics of Nixon had been attacked. By identifying himself with the American values, Nixon purified himself. There are four important steps in Nixons speech. He started by denying that he was wrong, he endorsed his personal ethos of hard work, humble roots and loyalty. He then attacked his opponents and finally he reiterated his affection for America. On the other hand, Woods admitted his wrong act, endorsed his personal ethos for the concern of his family and public good works. He attacked the media especially Paparazzi and he finalized by confirming that he will be committed to golf game game game and he would continue being a player and thanking the PGA tour executives and the golf players. Nixons response was tremendously favorable as compared to Woods response.There was a survey that was conducted on 3rd March 2010 that stated that 54% of the respondents believed in Woods apology and the rating of this approval was unchanged. Equivalence can be drawn between snout Clinton, Jimmy Swaggart and Tiger Woods. Each of these celebrities was accused of adultery. In addition, each of their scandal brought forth something extra making the whole issue titillating. Woods had been attacked by his wife with a golf club. Bill Clinton was the American president and Falwell was a religious figure. Clintons scandal can be evaluated as character and sex implication in a mass mediated presidency. Most citizens of America believed that the American president was a womanizer and a draft-dodger. This was different in Woods case because of his charitable activities and with his grinning he was better off to commence his apology than in the case of Bill Clinton. In Clintons case, the popular perception resulted from the fact it was his wife that he had harmed the most and if she failed to forgive him, the public would not agree to forgive him.In 1992, Clinton used two rhetorical strategies which helped him to convince the public to put the quondam(prenominal) behind and focus on the current and future events. These strategies were public private distinction and a timeline or life pattern. These strategies helped Clinton to separate his status from his character. Ethos is the most powerful way of persuasion. Bill Clinton later triumphed over his scandal though as earlier stated, his ethos was less creditable than Woods.Still on analysis, it is important to analyze the strategies that Woods used in the delivery of his apology speech. To start with on February 19, 2010, Woods delivered a fourteen minutes speech which had a sentence length of 12.3 and 1540 words. In average, a written sentence is made of 15-23 words and a spoken sentence has ten words in length. In his speech, Woods used the active voice and only 2% of his speech that contained passive voice construc tions. His speech could read or could even be understood by a child in as low as fifth grade. Woods speech could have been perceived as arrogant and pompous if he had decided to use polysyllabic words. If he would have wanted to sound like a mental lexicon or an encyclopedia the public could have gotten a negative feeling about him. A writer or a speaker communicates his presumptive ethos only when his upright character, goodwill and intelligence are projected to his audience. This can be achieved though correct choice of words, use of body language, use of the correct tone of voice among many other communication techniques. It is not authentic in an apology to say if I gave any offence.There were some suggestions by the media on the correct outfit that best fit the apology. Some said that Woods should expose a brown or middle blueing jacket for the television and a pastel tog so to appear off-white on the television. The best shirt that was recommended was light blue shirt. A BC news anchor Chris Connelly said that Woods could wear a clean shirt and a sports coat without a tie. Woods combined these two in his outfit. He wore a light blue shirt, a dark jacket without a tie. Axtell recommended Woods to apply make up to reduce the shining of the face (Axtell 67). It was also recommended that Woods should take his eye dawn with the audience to display his honesty. Little eye contact displays dishonesty. In addition any speaker should avoid looking up for it makes the speaker appear as if he is asking God for help.During his speech, Woods preferred to put his hand over his heart. This is a clear rhetoric of his body language. Non-verbally, he pledged to the audience that he will move in a manner that will make them to trust him. At the start of his speech, he greeted his audience and he thanked the audience for joining him. This all the way means that Woods admitted that he was not better than the crowd and that is why he was thankful for their attendance . After that he said umpteen of you in the room are my friends. Many of you in this room know me. Many of you have cheered for me, or worked with me, or supported me, and now, every one of you has good reason to be critical of me.From the quote above and throughout the speech, Woods repeated many of you at the beginning of sentences. This can be termed as anaphora. At the end of many phrases he used the word me which is epistrophe. There are other prepositions that he used such as of me, with me, know me and for me. Figures of speech provide the tools required in communication goodwill, upright character and intelligence and as Aristotle said they need to be projected. The figures of speech, visual ethos are essential tools for building an effective verbal ethos. Later in the speech, Woods used trope of euphemism when he said I had affairs. The word affair is much better than using the word adultery. The rhetorical discourse can be broken down to four sub-groups in relation to org anisational schema of rhetorical discourse. Archetypal classification as according to is one of the subgroups that appears to fit in Tiger Woods apology speech. This is when the speech depends on persuasion images that are embedded in the minds of the audience.If we use this theory on Tiger Woods we can see him casting himself as the protector of his family when he said that it annoyed him when he came to know how people have fabricated such a story (about his affairs) and when he said that he is the shield of his family from public spotlight. The role of protector of children and women is an image that Woods used to his advantage. It is very obvious that many people belief that a man is the protector of his family. This was not spoken but it is an image planted in the minds of many people.Summary of the Major FindingsTiger Woods apology can be termed as a outstanding apology despite of some aspects in his statement. To start with, he was reluctant to give any real explanation, but as an alternative, he talked in general terms concerning his irresponsible and selfish behavior. This can be regarded as important because the lack of an explanation left many people questioning whether he understood what actions were ill-considered and why. He did not even mention whether he agreed that those actions were wrong. In addition, throughout the apology statement, Woods comments inclined more towards bolstering.Woods comments went unchallenged because the journalists were not able to explore a number of transgressions including the car crash. Woods defended himself by saying that further details needed not to be discussed in front of the press and they needed to be left out for him to discuss with his wife. Lack of criticism brought up the issue of lack of third party participation. In the apology, woods admitted that his manners were wrong and he accepted personal and direct responsibility for his behavior. Secondly, multiple times, Woods admitted that he was deeply s orry for his actions. He went further to acknowledge the harm that his behavior had caused to multiple people and organizationsThis aspect of Woods apology helped in mending relationships by the way he identified the victim, reinforced the victims version of the story and admitted that the victim deserved a relatively better treatment. Tiger woods apology can be compared to Nixons. Tiger Woods bolstered his character by talking about his foundation and he transcended the accusations by stating that the affairs he had were private family matter between him and his wife. He also claimed that the media was hounding him. He attacked the media especially Paparazzi and he finalized by confirming that he will be committed to golf and he would continue being a player and thanking the PGA tour executives and the golf players.On the main strategies that Woods used we can start with denial which was manifested through simple denial and shifting the blame. Secondly, he evaded responsibility thr ough provocation, accident, defeasibility which made him to lose his adherence to the Buddhist faith. Thirdly, Woods reduced his offensiveness of event through bolstering where he promoted his foundation. He transcended when he said that the events were a marital issue and he attacked the accuser by saying that the media lied and stalked. He promised to correct his actions through seeking therapy and regaining his faith. Finally, in his mortification, he apologized and promised to stanch playing golf temporarily.Recommendation for Further ResearchAn interesting future study resulting from this circumstance should test the audiences appraisal of the actual wording of Woods statement versus the visual performance of his apology. By this it means testing one groups view of Woods and his apology after watching a movie of his apology, and then weighing against the view of another group which only hears a broadcast.