Editor's note: Rhetoric and narratology have an intrinsic relational structure and a general logic. Different from the linguistic rhetorical mode that classical narrative is good at, digital narrative objectively calls for a new rhetorical concept of "digital rhetoric". The so-called digital rhetoric refers to a rhetorical concept, form and practice oriented to digital texts. Professor Liu Tao and master's student Liu Jinpeng comprehensively analyzed the digital rhetorical principles of news narrative from the four dimensions of rhetorical essence, rhetorical grammar, rhetorical situation and rhetorical effect.
Narratology is the science of storytelling. The purpose of news narrative is to respond to a certain newsworthiness, which involves the organization of meaning and rhetorical strategies of the dimension of news narrative. If the rhetorical problems of traditional news are mainly embodied in the information organization problem in the semantic dimension, the fusion news has more complex rhetorical considerations: one is the problem of the presentation of facts in the ontology dimension of news, the second is the problem of situational rhetoric in the dimension of text aesthetics, and the third is the problem of information translation in the dimension of symbol encoding.
1. The Rise of Digital Rhetoric: When Rhetoric Meets Digital Narrative.
The core proposition of Western traditional rhetoric is persuasion, so rhetoric is also known as the art of persuasion, that is, with the help of certain rhetorical strategies, to achieve the purpose of persuasion to influence the audience. The core proposition that narratology is concerned with is "the textual realization of the story". The realization of meaning in narrative behavior is inseparable from the coding strategy of the semantic dimension of the text, such as the way the story is told, the structure is organized, and the symbols are represented, which inevitably involves rhetorical issues at the level of semantic representation.
However, for digital narrative, rhetoric acts on both the "story" and "discourse" dimensions. If the stories and discourses in the classical narrative respond to the narrative problems of different dimensions, the digital narrative greatly unleashes the imagination of the discourse, that is, it gives the text form a more free presentation and perception mode. As a result, the formal selection and design of the discourse dimension have been deeply embedded in the dimension of the content, and even constitute the content itself. In fact, narratology and rhetoric have an intrinsic relational structure and a general logic. Rhetoric is deeply embedded in a narrative when it carries a specific function and purpose, or points to a particular discursive practice.
The initial "encounter" between rhetoric and narratology occurred mainly in the field of classical narratology, which was confronted with the form of texts mainly traditional texts. In the era of digital media, the form of text has undergone tremendous changes, that is, from closed, single, linear traditional texts to open, interactive, and multimodal digital texts, and rhetoric seems to be "inadequate". In response to the rhetorical problem of digital texts, digital rhetoric emerged as a legitimate field of rhetoric.
The term "figure of numbers" was first coined by Richard ALamb proposed it in 1989. In Lamb's view, the production of digital texts is inseparable from computers, and the practice of computer-mediated text production and dissemination is linked to rhetoric. Thus, digital rhetoric was born out of the computer-mediated "scene" of communication, responding to the rhetorical question of digital texts. The innate characteristics of self-expression, participation, and creative collaboration carried by digital media have pushed the traditional rhetoric of persuasion to digital rhetoric. With the development of the Internet and media integration, the research object of digital rhetoric has expanded from the early hypertext and network hypertext to the super-works that integrate audio, animation and interaction.
If we take digital rhetoric as the perspective of understanding, the integration of news narrative has a new dimension of understanding. Integrating the participatory, interactive, open, and integrated characteristics of news, it breaks through the basic structure of classical narratology and establishes an open, shared, multi-dimensional, and polymorphic composite narrative system. Based on this, from the perspective of digital rhetoric, this paper focuses on the integration of the principles and language of news narrative.
2. The essence of rhetoric: from linguistic persuasion to interface guidance.
Journalism is essentially an information flow practice, and the "cognitive gap" between journalists and audiences determines the direction of news information flow from "known" to "unknown", and audiences are often regarded as objects to be educated and persuaded. Therefore, the main body of information dissemination follows the pattern of "persuasion" and "conduction".
The data, interactivity, and multimodality attributes of digital text determine the basic idea of digital rhetoric: based on the technical affordance of digital media, create an open, participatory, and collaborative perceptual environment and receptive context, and then guide users to complete the independent construction of text meaning. Back in web1In the 0 era, news ** began to use hyperlink technology to connect different news reports and combine them to generate hypertext, which is a typical form of news. Users can switch freely between multiple news stories for more information.
As the basic language of digital text generation, hyperlink essentially means a rhetorical form of "language", which outlines the "boundary" for the form of the text, provides a "port" for the user's intervention, and establishes a "path" for more meaningful development. Because of hyperlinks, the text is no longer a fixed object of meaning, but a dynamic, open, and generative digital device. Therefore, the practice of digital rhetoric based on hyperlinks does not occur in the pure dimension of persuasion, nor is it a simple "push" of the author's consciousness, but a rhetorical way that makes full use of the advantages of digital technology to maximize the open connotation of the text, and then "guides" users to participate in the generation of text and the construction of meaning—even if there is an unavoidable purpose of "persuasion", it is still achieved through the way of "guidance". At present, there are a variety of operation forms for user interface interaction, in addition to the traditional sense of keyboard input, mouse click, etc., digital media also provides more abundant interface "input" methods, such as gesture interaction, voice interaction, tactile interaction, etc. When the narrative continues to advance and unfold in the process of user participation, interface-based meaning guidance becomes possible.
Different from the rhetorical practice of traditional journalism, the integration of news due to the embedding of interactive technology has formed a new rhetorical model centered on interface guidance. According to the different ways of advancing the narrative process and the depth of participation of user behaviors, Fusion News has formed a variety of interactive methods, including interface response, path selection, role playing, etc. It is precisely on the basis of the programmed control and design structure that the user is quietly led to a preset channel of meaning, thus forming a realistic picture based on the mediation of the program.
Further, the interface guidance of integrated news has created a new meaning mechanism, which has changed the more common persuasion mode in traditional news narratives, and provided a relatively open communication environment, so that users can participate in the narrative on the basis of their own choice, which makes it possible to invite rhetoric, a rhetorical concept that has attracted much attention at present. Different from the persuasion model of traditional rhetoric, inviting rhetoric requires that the rhetoricist no longer try to control the attitudes, concepts, and behaviors of others through persuasion, but establish an inviting mode of communication based on the principles of equality, self-worth, and self-determination.
3. Rhetorical grammar: based on the construction of interactive narrative rules.
One of the core characteristics of digital media is interactivity. Interactivity fundamentally rewrites the composition of traditional texts—the text is no longer a closed and fixed narrative form, nor does it have a relatively stable meaning structure, but presents an anti-structural narrative aspect under the effect of interaction. The embedding of interaction rules in the text not only rewrites the composition structure and rules of the text, provides users with a narrative space for independent choice, participation and exploration, but also activates the open connotation of the text to the greatest extent and opens up a space for users to negotiate meaning. Different interaction practices and methods have formed different semantic rules and different ways of meaning generation, so interaction can be understood in the rhetorical dimension—the language of interaction is the language of rhetoric. In other words, what kind of interactive ideas are resorted to, what kind of interactive logic is laid, and what kind of interactive language is used all profoundly affect the semantic system of the text, and are embodied as a universal rhetorical and grammatical proposition.
If traditional journalism has a relatively closed presentation form and meaning boundary, fusion journalism subverts the structure on which the classic narrative relies on interactivity, and reconstructs a new narrative rule, which leads to the grammatical change of news narrative. In the integrated news narrative, since the interaction itself has become a part of the rhetorical language, considering the influence of interaction on the narrative language, it mainly occurs in the three dimensions of narrative rules, narrative structure, and narrative path, so this paper focuses on these three cognitive dimensions, in order to reveal the digital rhetorical principle of interactive narrative.
1) Program setting and semantic rule remodeling.
The interactive narrative rules that integrate news give users a certain degree of freedom to participate in both text representation and story content. When users can autonomously reconstruct the spatiotemporal logic of meaning formation, and reorganize the presentation form and process of stories and plots, interactive narrative undoubtedly opens up a space for meaning negotiation between users and news producers.
There is a basic procedural system for interactive storytelling. Although the structure or path of meaning changes with the user's actions, the framework of meaning is set by the system and works silently under the influence of programmatic rhetoric. In other words, the way in which the rules of interaction work is subject to the form of the digital medium and its material logic, especially the computational models that the news producer sets in advance and embeds into the program. Therefore, the design concept and method of the program determine the "unfolding" logic and "display" structure that the author implies.
2) Spatiotemporal manipulation and textual structure reorganization.
Due to the fixed and unidirectional characteristics of traditional news texts, the audience cannot participate in the organization or arrangement of the text, so it is necessary to understand the content according to the text structure set by the news producer. In contrast, Fusion News introduces an interactive narrative mode of time and space manipulation, which allows users to independently arrange the time and spatial structure of the narrative, that is, to select or adjust the time order and spatial coordinates of the story according to the user's own preferences. This interactive narrative gives users the ability to reconstruct the structure of the text, thus shaking up an otherwise stable system of meaning. When interactivity rewrites the two basic logics of news storytelling, the logic of time and the logic of space, convergent news presents a new way of organizing meaning.
In the time dimension, users can independently choose the way the story "unfolds" in the time dimension, and calmly handle the page hovering time "along the way", so as to determine the time structure of the narrative "moving forward", such as the order, direction and time of content presentation, and form a unique time consciousness on this basis.
3) Plot decision-making and meaning path resetting.
Another manifestation of the rules of interactive storytelling is plot decisions. Converged journalism often allows users to choose a plot at key points in the story's development and unlock different story lines based on personal preferences. The change of plot means the reorganization of time, place, events and other elements, which will undoubtedly trigger a change in the structure of the story, and then change the path of meaning generation in the text. According to the concept of new rhetoric, if a rhetorician can speak in the language of the other party and use similar gestures, word order, attitudes and opinions when carrying out rhetorical acts, it is possible to achieve the purpose of rhetorical identity. Similarly, plot decision-making is to improve users' acceptance and recognition of news texts by giving them the initiative to choose the direction of the story, making them participate in the production process of text content, and generating story texts that conform to their own attitudes and thinking.
In this way, the meaning system of integrated news narrative is often formed in the user's decision-making process. Each decision made by the user may lead the text to a different path of meaning-making, which in turn will change the way news events are presented and the picture of meaning.
4. Rhetorical Situation: The "language" of the inter-embedding of fiction and reality and the situation
The rhetorical situation is one of the core propositions of rhetoric, and the new rhetoric has given full discussion and reflection to it. According to Lloyd Beccher, a rhetorical situation is a complex of people, events, objects, and relationships that is concretely presented as an actual or potential emergency, and the introduction of discourse can limit human decisions or actions, thereby altering or even eliminating this emergency. Subsequently, Kenneth Burke extended the rhetorical situation to the common living environment of human beings, arguing that when human beings use language to elicit certain attitudes or actions, they have already entered a rhetorical situation.
In short, a rhetorical situation is a situation that prompts a rhetoric to take place, and that requires the intervention of a rhetorical act in order to repair the situation. It can be said that rhetorical situations give birth to specific rhetorical motives, provide the conditions for rhetorical acts to occur, and determine the specific content of rhetorical practice. Rhetorically speaking, context does not only refer to the context or background in which rhetoric takes place, but also as a metalanguage, giving the text a certain way of interpretation and a framework for understanding. Therefore, the situation profoundly affects the rules of semantic interpretation and the logic of discourse construction. Based on this, it is necessary to further understand the digital rhetorical mechanism of integrated news narrative from the perspective of rhetorical situation.
This paper mainly discusses the situational rhetoric of convergence news from three dimensions: first, convergence news resorts to certain audio-visual means to present real issues, and then reconstructs the topic scenario of the social dimension; Second, fusion news uses digital technology to restore the real scene, so as to simulate the real scene of the news; Third, by integrating virtual and real spaces, convergence journalism allows the external context in which the event occurred to be presented together with the facts themselves, helping people understand complex events or abstract themes in concrete situations.
First of all, based on the visual and audible data processing method, Fusion News "displays" the data relationships existing in reality in an intuitive way, so as to construct a certain issue scenario in the social dimension through the production of issue visibility. When facts that would otherwise be hidden in the shadows are revealed in a visual or audible way, users are able to visually see or hear problems and conflicts, thus driving the visible production of public issues.
Secondly, animation, virtual images, VR and other technologies reproduce the "scene" of news by restoring the scene of news events. For example, animated news can use 3D restoration, simulation animation and other technologies to reproduce the news scene, make up for the on-site information that cannot be captured and recorded by the camera, help users clearly grasp the truth of the news, and make up for the "absence" of the real scene with virtual images.
Thirdly, the hybrid scenario constructed based on AR technology and the fusion news have the narrative potential to tell digital stories in real scenes, thus providing a concrete external context for the public to understand the news content. Whether it's superimposing virtual elements on a real-world scene or embedding real-world elements into a virtual background, AR technology has changed the rhetorical situation in which people and texts meet, thus opening up the imagination of rhetorical situational creation.
In a nutshell, digital media technology can integrate the virtual and the real, and reproduce or restore the corresponding rhetorical situations, including the social dimension of the issue situation, the real scene of the news happening, and the external context of the event. In this way, news producers can more comprehensively display the conditions, key clues and constituent elements of news events to users, promote them to understand the state and process of news events, and realize the perception and understanding of news topics in rhetorical situations.
5. Rhetorical effect: the "symphony" of emotional identity and the senses
The mode of persuasion of "appealing to emotion" can be traced back to Aristotle's rhetoric, which emphasized "how to put the judge in a certain mood". In the new rhetoric, Burke pushes the issue of identity to the heart of rhetoric, arguing that the part of the "sameness" between the rhetoricist and the audience constitutes the conditions for identity to occur.
In the dimension of text story, the practice of integrated journalism pays more and more attention to excavating the emotional elements in the news theme, emphasizing the emotional design and expression of the storyline. Traditional journalism emphasizes the principle of objective and neutral reporting, and adopts a more cautious attitude towards emotions. In the new era, the "emotional turn" of journalism has become a fact, emotion has become the basic element of news narrative, and emotional narrative has also become the basic narrative form of integrated news. Therefore, in order to adapt to the emotional language and emotional logic in the digital media era to the greatest extent, fusion journalism not only pays attention to mining the emotional energy in news stories, but also amplifies or highlights the emotional factors in the news theme through the way of technological "emotion", so as to stimulate the public's emotional response and achieve the narrative effect of emotional identity.
There are two main ways of integrating the emotional rhetoric of news in the dimension of text story. First, fusion news takes the story of the characters as the entry point, and uses certain digital technology to story-based and plot-based processing of characters or things, so as to trigger the empathy effect of the social communication dimension, so as to promote the construction and transmission of news meaning in the emotional dimension. Second, Fusion News can use certain digital interaction technology to create an emotional narrative space, and at the same time give users certain rights to choose stories and make plot decisions, so as to strengthen the user's sense of role substitution, so as to guide users to empathize with the character.
In the dimension of experience scenes, the common emotional rhetorical strategies of integrating news narrative are embodied in the use of remote sensing technology, touch technology, interactive technology and other means to expand the sensory dimension of news representation and interaction, fully mobilize the user's visual, auditory, tactile senses, etc., and promote them to produce a complex emotional response under multi-sensory stimulation. According to George Lekauf and Mark Johnson, the formation of brain cognition depends on the combination of rational, perceptual, and sensorimotor systems. As the mediator of the body's contact with the external environment, the sensory system can affect people's emotions, and emotions can affect people's rational cognitive process. In convergent news, the stimulation of the sensory dimension can "invite" users to enter the "environment" where the news happens, so that they can generate specific emotions in the "contact" and "dialogue" with the environment, so as to guide users to receive the inner meaning of the news text according to a specific cognitive path.
To sum up, unlike the linguistic rhetorical mode that classical narrative excels at, digital narrative is calling for a new form of rhetoric that can respond to digital texts—digital rhetoric.
Media Observer, No. 2, 2024, with an original article of about 25,000 words, titled "Rhetoric to the Digital World: The Construction of a Digital Rhetorical System Integrating News Narratives". This is an excerpt, annotation and diagram omitted, please refer to the original article for academic citations, and the full text link of the official account of "Media Observation Magazine".
About author:] Liu Tao is a professor and doctoral supervisor at the School of Journalism and Communication, Jinan University.
Liu Jinpeng is a master's student at the School of Journalism and Communication, Jinan University.
*Project】 This paper is the research result of the National Social Science ** Major Project "Research on the Genealogy of Chinese Cultural Classic Symbols and Digital Humanities Communication" (23&ZD211).