https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0H1zU2ytxA

Transcript: in the options of the video.

 

The rhetor in this case is Frank Warren who is the founder of PostSecret.com in which over a half-million secrets have been mailed to him as of 2012 and has only grown since.  The audience is obviously the individuals who are present in the presentation, but the audience is also a general audience of witnesses and spectators.  While not everyone within the audience, or viewing from the website have personally sent in secrets or seen theirs, those who view the secrets have become spectators to the secret being told.  They are not personally in the life of the individual who submitted the secret.  However, the intentional audience of each person who sends in their secret is completely different from secret to secret.  While this discussion is about the speech and the rhetor, this information is important because Frank Warren always shows some of the secrets to the audience during his speeches.

Frank drives home the importance of secrets and the need to share them.  When he posts secrets on his websites, features them in his books, and shows them to hundreds of thousands in an audience, he does so for the audience to connect with the secrets that are displayed and to create a sense of belongingness.  The secrets that he displays also creates new views and perspectives from many submitters to the receivers.  His choice to include comedic, woeful, personal, general, and heart wrenching secrets in his presentation balances the emotions that the audience experiences and is a witness to during the speech.

The purpose of Frank’s speech is to share the experience with others.  To let the audience know that there are parts of a person’s past that needs to be released in some way that they feel comfortable is truly emphasized in this speech.  Frank says in the speech, “I think in some ways, the reason I started the project, even though I didn’t know it at the time, was because I was struggling with my own secrets.  And it was through crowd-sourcing, it was through the kindness that strangers were showing me, that I could uncover, parts of my past that were haunting me.”

The arrangement that Frank has in his speech ends with strong emotional appeal, pathos.  By concluding the speech with a voicemail of a deceased grandmother sent in by someone who had viewed the secret, the emotional impact can be felt in the silence and respect that the crowd emanates.  Frank used memory by impacting the audience with the different types of secrets, heart wrenching or comedic, an audience member had a possibility of taking one of the secrets presented and really think about it after the event.  He also spoke with a natural, and soft voice.  He gesticulates frequently and utilizes props on stage.  He also ensures that the language he uses is understood by a majority of the audience.  He understands that his audience is not filled with scholars or with individuals who want a long speech.  He makes the most of what time he does have to leave the audience in awe and wonder, perhaps reflecting on their own secret.