Sound Tactics

Recent research in argumentation and rhetoric has increasingly recognized the importance of sound—not merely as a component of delivery (an appeal to the ear, as described in Rhetorica ad Herennium), nor solely as a contributor to ethos or pathos, but also as an element of invention and a contributor to logos. Although Eckstein’s book is not explicitly devoted to argumentation theory, it undoubtedly makes a valuable and much-needed contribution to the growing field of multimodal argumentation. As Eckstein (p. 131) states: “This book is about what happens when sound, as a noun, becomes understood as a process, when sound is disseminated through the public screen soundly (adjective).”