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Radiolab’s Sound Strategic Maneuvers

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Abstract

How might argumentation scholars approach sound? Using the analytics afforded by strategic maneuvering, this essay identifies three unique features of sonic presentational devices: they are immersive, immediate and embodied. Although these features offer arguers presentational resource, they also pose new problems to the reasonable resolution of disagreement: immersion hazards overlap (mask), immediacy risks rate of delivery beyond reflection (velocity), and materiality can coerce listeners (force). To theorize strategic use of sound, I reconstruct and analyze a popular Radiolab segment “The Unconscious Toscanini of the Brain.” I find Radiolab uses three different sonic figures: (1) synchronicity, or the translation of data into sound to foreground temporal relations; (2) musical stings, an auditory invocation of embodied memory and (3) the wave, a sonic strategy to arouse and narrow attention. I conclude that Radiolab’s use of sound is reasonable because it extends the critical discussion.

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Notes

  1. I selected diegetic/non-diegetic because Radiolab is a podcast. If my paradigm case involved an urban setting, then I would adopt sound object/soundscape. These different terms share the same basic features. Like diegetic sound, sound objects are sounds at the center of a listener’s attention, while soundscapes, like non-diegetic sound, sit at periphery of a listener’s attention.

  2. Some may argue that recording a sound gives it a degree of fixity. While sound can be recorded and replayed, this prompts a qualitatively different mode of interpretation (Chion 2016; Sterne 2003). Capturing sound for study through recording and repetition is like ascertaining the qualities of a train as it speeds by—the observer apprehends broad shapes and themes, but not precise descriptions. Moreover, attempts to alter sounds immediacy, such as slowing it down or speeding it up create entirely different objects. For instance, think of the difference a voice sound when it is slowed down or speed up.

  3. Some research even suggests that distractions, like loud noises, can create the conditions for persuasion (e.g., Buller 1986).

  4. Audio of the podcast to listen along can be found here: http://www.radiolab.org/story/91503-the-unconscious-toscanini-of-the-brain/.

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  1. Department of Communication and Theatre, Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, WA, 98447, USA

    Justin Eckstein

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  1. Justin Eckstein
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Correspondence to Justin Eckstein.

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Eckstein, J. Radiolab’s Sound Strategic Maneuvers. Argumentation 31, 663–680 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10503-016-9416-4

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