1. The artifact
Describe or embed the message, image, speech, meme, advertisement, video, headline, song, or cultural object being analyzed.
2. Context and audience
Who created it? Who is the intended audience? What circumstances shape its meaning?
3. Rhetorical strategy
Analyze ethos, pathos, logos, framing, metaphor, identification, repetition, visual rhetoric, style, or other relevant concepts.
4. Symbols and reality
Explain what kind of reality the artifact asks its audience to accept.
5. Truth analysis
What is supported by evidence? What is omitted, distorted, exaggerated, assumed, or hidden?
6. Ethical evaluation
Evaluate the communication’s consequences, fairness, dignity, and responsibility.
7. A better message
Rewrite or redesign the message in a way that preserves its legitimate purpose while improving truthfulness and understanding.
8. Reader challenge
End with one question that invites readers to analyze the artifact for themselves.