Vatz, Richard "The Myth of the Rhetorical Situation

From RhetorClick

Richard Vatz’s article, “The Myth of the Rhetorical Situation” was written as a reaction to Lloyd Bitzer’s article “The Rhetorical Situation.” Bitzer claimed that situations are made up of characteristics that influence how rhetoric plays into it. Vatz argues that there is no absolute truth with surrounding characteristics about an event or situation; situations are created by the communication about them. In other words, people perceive situations idiosyncratically and communicate them uniquely, so the audience is given the rhetor’s truth not an absolute one.