Abstract

This study focuses on the rhetorical appeals in post-crisis communication, and analyzes the influence of dynamically changing context on the speakers’ choice of rhetorical means. Aristotle’s three important rhetorical appeals-ethos, pathos and logos are investigated in the transcript of 14 press conferences handling Tianjin blasts. The changes in speakers’ rhetorical appeals are explored in relation to the changing context in the evolving crisis. In post-crisis press conferences, the speakers most frequently used appeals to ethos and pathos to persuade. Specifically, when appealing to ethos, the speakers usually manipulated discursive resources to construct their credibility, expertise, and similarity with the audience; when appealing to pathos, such emotions of the public as the feelings of depression, need for appreciation, and expectation for a thorough investigation of the blasts were addressed. In addition, as the crisis unfolded, the context for communication was dynamically changing. There was a tendency for speakers to adapt their rhetorical appeals to the dynamically changing context.

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