Lloyd Bitzer Definition Of Rhetorical Situation

I would like to be honest on this. I fall into the total confusion. I learned that rhetorical situation consists the exigence, the audience, and the constraint. These three comportments of rhetorical situation made sense in the rhetorical handout articles. The handout explained these term with straightforward definition that are defined by Lloyd Bitzer, and I thought I learned the meaning of rhetorical situation. However, after looking at the real essay that argue and define the term, Lloyd Bitzer’s essay confused me a lot. Exigence of the rhetorical situation means the reason or the occasion. This definition makes sense to me, something urgent that we want to take care of. Bitzer states that an exigence must be modifiable (Bitzer 6). I don’t really understand this. He gives some examples of exigences that is not rhetorical, such as natural disasters. He gives more complicate limitation which states “an exigence that can be modified by means other than discourse is not rhetorical” (Bitzer 7). I do not understand both definitions he gives. I feel there is nothing to do with occasion for the rhetorical situation.

My personal opinion for explaining definition is that the definition should be easier to understand then the term itself. Bitzer state: “rhetorical audience must be capable of serving as mediator of the change” (Bitzer 8). This definition certainly contradicts what I think the audience should be. My opinion of the audience is anyone who can read or receive the rhetorical situation, because many people just choose to know but not do. I think that I read, see, and receive many rhetorical situations, but, most of time, I do not serve as a mediator who do the right thing. I agree more on Richard Vatz’s point. He states: “To audience, events become meaningful only through their linguistic depiction” (Vatz