Know Your Audience

An understanding of the rhetorical situation in which a communicator is situated considers the intersection of speaker/author, audience, and the subject. The exigence--the motivation--of the speaker/author and the purpose--what reaction the speaker/author hopes to provoke from the audience--dictates the resulting genre of communication.

There is a proper rhetorical situation appropriate the online comment voice. But it is prudent to know when one is in that situation and when one is not. Kelly has not only selected in inappropriate content for his diatribe, but also the wrong audience to which to deliver it. Cartoonists Ian Boothby and Pia Guerra illustrate this common faux pas.