Winifred Black's Teacherly Ethos: The Role of Journalism in Late-Nineteenth-century Rhetorical Education

Rhetoric Society Quarterly Jan 2014

Winifred Black's Teacherly Ethos: The Role of Journalism in Late-Nineteenth-century Rhetorical Education

Grace Wetzel Saint Joseph's University

Abstract

This essay recovers the rhetorical career of San Francisco Examiner journalist Winifred Black to demonstrate how professional journalists used late-nineteenth-century newspapers for rhetorical education and social change. I analyze two campaigns—the “Orphan's Santa Claus” and the “Little Jim” crusade—to demonstrate how Winifred Black constructs a persuasive ethos capable of inspiring the writing and social action efforts of male and female children from various socioeconomic classes. Specifically, Black revises the rhetorical tradition of the “stunt girl reporter” in order to craft a teacherly ethos anchored in a “symbolic motherhood”—an effective rhetorical strategy due to close cultural links between teaching and mothering. Combined with aspects of what Karlyn Kohrs Campbell terms a “feminine style,” this ethos allows Black to promote not merely social change, but a particular kind of rhetorical education that: (1) privileges moral principles over grammatical and mechanical correctness and (2) blurs gender and class lines.

Journal: Rhetoric Society Quarterly
Published: 2014-01-01
DOI: 10.1080/02773945.2013.861008
Open Access: Closed
Topics: argument

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (1)

Proszak (2021)

Products of US Performance: A Material Rhetorical Education at North Bennet Str…

Rhetoric Society Quarterly

Cites in this index (3)

Engbers (2007)

With Great Sympathy: Elizabeth Cady Stanton's Innovative Appeals to Emotion

Rhetoric Society Quarterly
Rothermel (2003)

A sphere of noble action: Gender, rhetoric, and influence at a nineteenth‐centu…

Rhetoric Society Quarterly
Campbell (2002)

Consciousness‐raising: Linking theory, criticism, and practice

Rhetoric Society Quarterly

Also cites 9 works outside this index ↓

Abramson Phyllis. (1990)

Sob Sister Journalism

↗
Barber Benjamin R. (1998)

A Passion For Democracy: American Essays

↗
10.1632/pmla.2011.126.1.160

↗
Chambers Deborah (2004)

Women and Journalism

↗
10.2307/466240

↗
———. “They All Like Santa Claus.”San Francisco Examiner.27 November 1890: 1. Print.

↗
10.1353/amp.2011.0005

↗
10.1353/chl.2011.0014

↗
Tonn Mari. (1996)

10.1080/00335639609384137

Quarterly Journal of Speech ↗

CrossRef global citation count: 1 View in citation network →