Developing Idea: In Consideration of Mediation as the Sixth Rhetorical Canon

In Consideration of Mediation as the Sixth Rhetorical Canon.pdf

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Here, I share a first-pass draft of theoretical project that argues for mediation as a sixth rhetorical canon. The paper was written as an exploratory intervention, focused on mapping a genealogy of mediation across rhetoric, philosophy, media theory, and cultural studies, and on testing whether mediation names a distinct form of rhetorical labor not fully accounted for by the classical canons.

As an early draft, the piece is not yet fully flushed out. Most notably, it lacks a sustained and explicit theorization of what constitutes a rhetorical canon as a conceptual category. While the argument assumes shared understandings drawn from classical rhetoric, it requires a more rigorous definition of canon itself, including its criteria, limits, and historical variability, in order to fully justify mediation’s inclusion.

The draft also calls for additional theoretical tie-ins that can be developed in future revisions. These include deeper engagement with:

• canon formation and revision in rhetorical history, particularly debates over expansion, remapping, and re-situation

• rhetorical ecology and circulation studies, to clarify mediation’s relationship to distributed rhetorical action

• institutional rhetoric and governance, especially how mediation operates as a mechanism of administrative and algorithmic power

• feminist, queer, and critical race rhetorical theory, to more fully theorize how mediation shapes legibility, credibility, and exclusion

• contemporary digital rhetoric scholarship that treats infrastructure, interface, and procedure as rhetorical agents rather than contexts

I share this draft as an example of conceptual risk-taking and theoretical development in progress. It reflects how I work through large structural questions, identify pressure points in established frameworks, and iterate toward more precise definitions over time.