Public speaking pedagogy in the media age

Abstract

Examining the constraints of writing‐based cognition and scholarship leads to sketching a heuristic model of speech pedagogy for students whose thought and expression are increasingly shaped by electronic media. Though acknowledging the importance of interactive relationships among speakers and audiences, contemporary public speaking courses remain likely to stress the resolution of objective prestructured viewpoints in a manner that implies speech at its best should be well‐performed writing. The rigid analytical world of print meanwhile dissolves to reveal a complex of involved intersubjectivity where old ideas drawn from oral cultures have new relevance.