Argument as Issue Campaigns

The metaphor Argument as Issue Campaigns invites us to think of argument as not only a verbal speech act, but also as something nonverbal, and even visual. Argument could then be thought of outside of a binary construction of a claim for or against an issue, and could have more than two sides. It could be marked on bodies, it could be a body, it could be symbolic, metaphorical, a lie or misinformation, it could be a rhetorical act, a combination of texts and performances, a compilation of messages from different sources, and/or it could be without an explicit solvency or call to action. Although this list is not exhaustive, it is suggestive of the importance of thinking of arguments potentials, what it can do, instead of confining argument and frames of information to static, misleading, and limiting conceptions. Arguments and the framing of information is to shape how we perceive, think, and act. Entman suggests that to frame is to

Select some aspects of a perceived reality and make them more salient in a communicating text, in such a way as to promote a particular problem, definition, causal interpretation, moral evaluation, and/or treatment recommendation. (Entman, 1993)