Wordsmiths Must Meet People Where They Are

Mass media and the importance of brevity present wordsmiths with difficult decisions. Word choices will have far reaching effects for social movements.

Part of progress is convincing the other camp that change is a’comin’ and there will be a right side of history. Essential to that goal is considering how people will receive a message. English and Rhetoric courses in Humanities programs around the country emphasize tailoring a message to a specific audience. The challenge arises when progressive sentiment is condensed into statements that are only a few words in length. It is difficult to include Aristotle’s Ethos, Pathos and Logos in a phrase that can be just as many words or less. See Obama’s 2008 slogan: “Yes we can!”

If online platforms like Twitter and TikTok are any indication with how the war of ideas will be fought in the future, then brevity is king (or queen). The double-edged sword of modern messaging is that words can reach global distribution. Phrases and slogans can be so far distributed from their source that audiences unfamiliar with a movement begin to engage with them. And in those scenarios, the merits of the movement have to stand on the few words that serve as the umbrella for like ideas.

Now imagine the same type of situation for something like “Gun Control” in a community where…

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