Abstract

Abstract The key public health officials in the United States have been criticized for their work in the Ebola outbreak of 2014–15 by citizens, public officials, and health scholars from multiple disciplines. There are numerous grounds for these complaints, but underlying many of them was the perception of “failed leadership” that is here traced in substantial part to the embodiment of a positionality based in a presumed logos-based power instead of an ethos-based relationship between public health expert and public. Because any leader’s public ethos is dependent on the cultural ethos of audiences who promote them to leadership, this essay combines the Aristotelian topoi for ethos (goodsense, goodwill, goodness) and contemporary redefinitions of ethos as cultural-level phenomena (either “dwelling places,” ideologies, or ethical and cultural codes) to conceptualize ethos as the activation, rebuilding, or maintenance of relationships among different social positions: publics and institutions. The complexities of the Ebola epidemic—with its national and international dimensions and its partially faulty scientific grounding—make visible the predisposition toward positional gaps between publics and public experts regarding interests (eunoia) and goods (arête), with concomitant difficulties for the sharing of practical wisdom (phronesis). Aristotle was correct that such gaps cannot be bridged by logos, and the pervasive insistence on more logos as corrective therefore may contribute to public mistrust of all expertise.

Journal
Rhetoric & Public Affairs
Published
2019-06-01
DOI
10.14321/rhetpublaffa.22.2.0177
CompPile
Search in CompPile ↗
Open Access
Closed
Topics
Export

Citation Context

References (103) · 4 in this index

  1. 1. Much of the criticism regarding the response to the crisis in West Africa has focused on the World Health …
  2. 2. Jeffrey M. Jones, “Americans’ Ratings of CDC Down after Ebola Crisis, Gallup” November 20, 2014, http://ww…
  3. 3. The comment was made by Alfred Sommer, dean emeritus at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hop…
  4. 4. Ford Vox, “Why CDC Chief Must Go,” CNN, October 16, 2014, http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/16/opinion/vox-friede…
  5. 5. For a summary of policies adopted by different agencies, see Tara Kirk Sell et al., “US State-Level Policy…
Show all 103 →
  1. 6. Carrie Dann, “Fauci: Returning Ebola Health Workers Shouldn’t Face ‘Draconian’ Rules,” October 26, 2014, N…
  2. 7. There were only two locally contracted cases and two deaths; no one both contracted the disease in the Uni…
  3. 8. Aristotle, The Rhetoric, bk. 1, pt. 2, trans. W. Rhys Roberts, http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/rhetoric.html.
  4. 9. Aristotle, Rhetoric, bk. 1, pt. 2.
  5. 10. Craig R. Smith, “Ethos Dwells Pervasively: A Hermeneutic Reading of Aristotle on Credibility,” in The Eth…
  6. 11. John C. McCroskey and Jason J. Teven, “Goodwill: A Reexamination of the Construct and Its Measurement,” C…
  7. 12. Carolyn R. Miller, “The Presumptions of Expertise: The Role of Ethos in Risk Analysis,” Configurations 11…
  8. 13. Wisse describes this as a feature of Aristotle’s theory per se, in contrast to Cicero’s theorization and …
  9. Argumentation
  10. 15. Smith, “Ethos Dwells Pervasively,” 6.
  11. 16. Wisse, Ethos and Pathos from Aristotle to Cicero; see also James M. May, Trials of Character; The Eloquen…
  12. 17. Clifford Geertz, “Ethos, World-View, and the Analysis of Sacred Symbols,” Antioch Review 17 (1957): 622–23.
  13. 18. Ben Ross Schneider Jr., The Ethos of Restoration Comedy (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1971); Arn…
  14. 19. James S. Baumlin and Tita French Baumlin, eds., Ethos: New Essays in Rhetorical and Critical Theory (Dall…
  15. 20. The original debate about the merits of a "neo-Aristotelian" vs. "ideological" approach in contemporary r…
  16. Karlyn Kohrs Campbell, "'Conventional Wisdom-Traditional Form': A Rejoinder," Quarterly Journal of Speech 58 …
  17. Raymie McKerrow, "Critical Rhetoric: Theory and Praxis," Communication Monographs 56 (1989): 91-111
  18. Ronald Walter Greene, "Another Materialist Rhetoric," Critical Studies in Mass Communication 15 (1998): 21-24
  19. and Ronald Walter Greene, "Rhetorical Pedagogy as a Postal System," Quarterly Journal of Speech 88 (2002): 434-43.
  20. College Composition and Communication
  21. 22. Michael J. Hyde, “Introduction: Rhetorically, We Dwell,” in The Ethos of Rhetoric (Columbia: University o…
  22. 23. Smith, “Ethos Dwells Pervasively”; and Carole Blair and Neil Michel, “The Rushmore Effect: Ethos and Nati…
  23. 24. Eric King Watts, “The Ethos of a Black Aesthetic: An Exploration of Larry Neal’s Visions of a Liberated F…
  24. 25. Martin J. Medhurst, "Religious Rhetoric and the Ethos of Democracy: A Case Study of the 2000 Presidential…
  25. and David Zarefsky, "George W. Bush Discovers Rhetoric: September 20, 2001, and the U.S. Response to Terroris…
  26. 26. Kathleen J. Ryan, Nancy Myers, and Rebecca Jones, “Identifying Feminist Ecological Ethe,” in Rethinking E…
  27. 27. Preface to Rethinking Ethos, vii.
  28. Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  29. 29. Marshall W. Alcorn, “Self-Structure as a Rhetorical Device: Modern Ethos and the Divisiveness of the Self…
  30. 30. Judy Segal and Alan Richardson, “Introduction to Scientific Ethos; Authority, Authorship, and Trust in th…
  31. 31. Alcorn, “Self-Structure as a Rhetorical Device,” 18–19.
  32. 32. One of the three parts of their collection is titled “Ethe as Relation-Relating.”
  33. 33. The theory here offered should not be criticized for failing to present Foucault or other theorists authe…
  34. 34. Foucault gives the theorist or critic employing his theory an implicit role “outside” the discourse of th…
  35. 35. Lisa Keränen, Scientific Characters: Rhetoric, Politics, and Trust in Breast Cancer Research (Tuscaloosa:…
  36. 36. Jeanne Fahnestock and Marie Secor, “The Stases in Scientific and Literary Argument,” Written Communicatio…
  37. 37. Thomas B. Farrell and G. Thomas Goodnight, “Accidental Rhetoric: The Root Metaphors of Three Mile Island,…
  38. 38. Yaneer Bar-Yam, “Risking It All: Why Are Public Authorities Not Concerned About Ebola in the US? Part I: …
  39. Poroi
  40. 40. Hartelius rightly observes that there is an underlying rhetorical dimension to the very concept of “exper…
  41. 41. Fahnestock and Secor, “The Stases in Scientific and Literary Argument.”
  42. 42. Robert K. Merton, The Normative Structure of Science, in The Sociology of Science: Theoretical and Empiri…
  43. 43. Miller, “The Presumptions of Expertise.”
  44. 44. Aristotle, Rhetoric, bk. 1, pt. 2.
  45. 45. Miller, “The Presumptions of Expertise,” 169.
  46. 46. Miller, “The Presumptions of Expertise,” 194.
  47. 47. She refers to Garver on this point, but her own case study demonstrates the lack of trust.
  48. 48. Leah Ceccarelli, "Manufactured Scientific Controversy: Science, Rhetoric, and Public Debate," Rhetoric & …
  49. Jay D. Hmielowski et al., "An Attack on Science? Media Use, Trust in Scientists, and Perceptions of Global Wa…
  50. and Dan M. Kahan, "Climate-Science Communication and the Measurement Problem," Political Psychology 36 (supp.…
  51. 49. Aristotle, Rhetoric, bk. 1, pt. 2.
  52. 50. For research on the influence of such “parasocial” interactions via the mass media, see Edward Schiappa, …
  53. 51. Anne Kott and Rupali J. Limaye report the array of different voices in different sources: “Delivering Ris…
  54. 52. Celeste M. Condit, “The Spread of Ebola: How the World Health Organization’s Rhetoric Contributed to Viru…
  55. 53. In addition to the literature cited above, see Lawrence J. Prelli, A Rhetoric of Science: Inventing Scien…
  56. 54. Sastry and Lovari, “Communicating the Ontological Narrative of Ebola”; and Annas, “Ebola and Human Rights.”
  57. 55. “Public Esteem for the Military Still High,” Pew Research Center, 2013, http://www.pewforum.org/2013/07/1…
  58. 56. Jeffrey Schinske, Monica Cardenas, and Jahana Kaliangara, “Uncovering Scientist Stereotypes and Their Rel…
  59. 57. David C. Beardslee and Donald D. O’Dowd, “The College-Student Image of the Scientist,” Science 133 (1961)…
  60. 58. “CDC Press Conference: CDC Confirms First Ebola Case Diagnosed in the United States,” Press Briefing Tran…
  61. 59. “CDC Press Conference,” September 30.
  62. 60. Charles N. Haas, "On the Quarantine Period for Ebola Virus," PLOS: Current Outbreaks, October 14, 2014, h…
  63. and L. L. Rodriguez et al., "Persistence and Genetic Stability of Ebola Virus during the Outbreak in Kikwit, …
  64. 61. Fauci, Clinical Grand Rounds, 83–84.
  65. 62. Erika Check Hayden, “Ebola Virus Lingers Longer than Scientists Thought,” Nature, September 13, 2016, 291–92.
  66. 63. Fauci, Clinical Grand Rounds, 86–87.
  67. 64. Frieden, CDC, October 12, 2014.
  68. 65. This example was contributed by an anonymous reviewer, from the September 30 briefing.
  69. 66. Merton, “The Normative Structure of Science.”
  70. 67. Saul L. Miller, Jon K. Maner, and D. Vaughn Becker, "Self-Protective Biases in Group Categorization: Thre…
  71. Donghwan Yoon and Youn-Kyung Kim, "Effects of Self-Congruity and Source Credibility on Consumer Responses to …
  72. and Mariko Morimoto and Carrie La Ferle, "Examining the Influence of Culture on Perceived Source Credibility …
  73. 68. “Digital Briefing on Ebola: An Update from the Desk of Dr. Anthony Fauci,” October 24, 2014, https://obam…
  74. 69. Dann, “Fauci: Returning Ebola Health Workers.”
  75. 70. Steven Nelson, “Congressman: Close Border to Ebola Countries,” U.S. News, July 30, 2014, https://www.usne…
  76. 71. Renee Ellmers, Republican U.S. representative from North Carolina’s Second District, quoted in “Should th…
  77. 72. Somini Sengupta, “U.N. and Medical Group Make Appeals for Ebola Aid,” New York Times, September 2, 2014, …
  78. 73. “CDC Press Conference: CDC Confirms First Ebola Case.”
  79. 74. Evan McMurry, “NIH Doctor Takes Fox’s Chris Wallace to Science School over Ebola Panic,” Mediaite, Octobe…
  80. 75. Edwards, “NIH Doctor Schools Elisabeth Hasselbeck.” I note that this source saw this as a sufficient answ…
  81. 76. Clinical Center Grand Rounds, National Institutes of Health, October 22, 2014, https://videocast.nih.gov/…
  82. 77. Aaron Blake, “Americans Want Flight Restrictions from Ebola Countries,” Washington Post, October 14, 2014…
  83. 78. Comments to the posted briefing on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHEFDxPpPak.
  84. 79. McMurry, “NIH Doctor.”
  85. 80. “Business as Usual Is Too Risky,” from U.S. News: Debate Club, October 10, 2014, https://www.usnews.com/d…
  86. 81. Frieden, CDC, October 12, 2014.
  87. 82. “Statement of Dr. Thomas Frieden,” 5.
  88. 83. Clinical Grand Rounds, 17.
  89. 84. Many of these statements focus specifically on the West African region and most refer to medical aspects …
  90. 85. Rick Lesaar, “Why Is Dr. Anthony Fauci Such an Effective Communicator?” Health and Communications, 2016, …
  91. 86. Examples of the theme in public sources that the public would “panic” or that the claims about Ebola were…
  92. 87. Florance, Carafano, and Kaniewski, “The Ebola Outbreak of 2013–2014,” 3.
  93. 88. Annas, “Ebola and Human Rights,” 347.
  94. 89. Wendy E. Parmet and Michael S. Sinha, “A Panic Foretold: Ebola in the United States,” Critical Public Hea…
  95. 90. Kott and Limaye, “Delivering Risk Information”; and Michelle Odlum and Sunmoo Yoon, “What Can We Learn Ab…
  96. 91. Brittani Crook et al., , “Content Analysis of a Live CDC Twitter Chat during the 2014 Ebola Outbreak,” Co…
  97. 92. Lisa Rosenbaum, “Communicating Uncertainty—Ebola, Public Health, and the Scientific Process,” New England…
  98. 93. “Public Esteem for the Military Still High,” Pew Research Center, 2013, http://www.pewforum.org/2013/07/1…