Acknowledgement

The author wishes to thank both the Office of the President and University Relations at Virginia Tech for their gracious assistance. Photographs and video used with permission.

Notes

[1] Charles Steger, “"VA Tech Shootings," The Situation Room 16 April 2007, 4:00p.m.  Obtained Lexis-Nexis database.

[2] http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9636137

[3] These included all public statements from 16 April 2007 through 11 May 2007 that I could obtain: speeches, press conference remarks, interviews, letters.  I did not include excerpts from news articles.

[4] For a fuller treatment of this topic see, Jim A. Kuypers, Presidential Crisis Rhetoric and the Press in the Post-Cold War World, (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1997).

[5] Amos Kiewe, ed., The Modern Presidency and Crisis Rhetoric (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1994), xvii.

[6] Theodore O. Windt, “The Presidency and Speeches on International Crises: Repeating the Rhetorical Past," Essays in Presidential Rhetoric, ed. Theodore Windt and Beth Ingold, 2nd ed. (Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, 1987), 125-134.

[7]Windt, “Presidency and Speeches," 126.

[8] Windt, “Presidency and Speeches," 127. The constrained nature of presidential utterances is reaffirmed by Windt in Presidents and Protesters: Political Rhetoric in the 1960s (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1990). Here Windt wrote: Presidents “are free to define issues within the context of their political beliefs, traditions, circumstances, past history, and political affiliation. Once having spoken for the public record, they have to defend their words and the policies that issued from them. Other politicians, journalists, and the public . . . demand consistency" (4).

[9] For a detailed explanation of how a rhetorical situation works, see Lloyd F. Bitzer, “The Rhetorical Situation," Philosophy and Rhetoric 1 (1968): 1-14.  Also see Lloyd F. Bitzer, “Political Rhetoric," Handbook of Political Communication, ed. Dan D. Nimmo and Keith R. Sanders (Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications, 1981), 225-248; Lloyd F. Bitzer, “Functional Communication: A Situational Perspective," Rhetoric in Transition: Studies in the Nature and Uses of Rhetoric, ed. Eugene E. White (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1980), 21-38; Marilyn J. Young, "Lloyd F. Bitzer: Rhetorical Situation, Public Knowledge, and Audience Dynamics," in Twentieth Century Roots of Rhetorical Criticism, Jim A. Kuypers and Andrew King, eds., Praeger, Westport, CT: Praeger, 2001, p. 275-301.  For an even greater stress on the creative potential of the speaker in a rhetorical situation, see Richard E. Vatz, "The Myth of the Rhetorical Situation," Philosophy and Rhetoric, 6 (1973), 154-161.

[10] Jim A. Kuypers, Marilyn J. Young, and Michael K. Launer, “Of Mighty Mice and Meek Men: Contextual Reconstruction of the Shootdown of Iran Air 655," Southern Communication Journal 59.4 (1994): 294-306.

[11] Kuypers, Young, and Launer, 294-306.

[12] Windt, “Presidency and Speeches," 128.

[13] Bonnie J. Dow, “The Function of Epideictic and Deliberative Strategies in Presidential Crisis Rhetoric," Western Journal of Speech Communication 53 (1989): 301.

[14] Dow, 303.

[15] For a more detailed look at this concept see, Jim A. Kuypers, Marilyn J. Young, and Michael K. Launer, “Composite Narrative, Authoritarian Discourse, and the Soviet Response to the Destruction of Iran Air Flight 655,"  Quarterly Journal of Speech 87.3 (2001): 305-320.

[16] Charles Steger, “"VA Tech Shootings," The Situation Room 16 April 2007, 4:00p.m.  Obtained Lexis-Nexis database.  In this, and in press reports and speeches that follow, I modified the paragraph structure for ease of reading.

[17] Steger, “VA Tech Shootings."

[18] Steger, “VA Tech Shootings."

[19] Steger, “VA Tech Shootings."

[20] Steger, “VA Tech Shootings."

[21] Steger, “VA Tech Shootings."

[22] Steger, “VA Tech Shootings."

[23] Steger, “VA Tech Shootings."

[24] Steger, “VA Tech Shootings."

[25] Steger, “VA Tech Shootings."

[26] Steger, “VA Tech Shootings."

[27] “Charles Steger, President of Virginia Tech University [sic], Discusses Shooting on Campus," CBS Evening News, , 6:30p.m., 16 April 2007, CBS News Transcripts. Obtained Lexis-Nexis database.

[28] “Charles Steger, President of Virginia Tech University [sic], Discusses Shooting on Campus."

[29] “Charles Steger, President of Virginia Tech University [sic], Discusses Shooting on Campus."

[30] “ABC News Now/Special Report #6," ABC News Now 16 April 2007, 7:42PM.  Obtained Lexis-Nexis database.

[31] “ABC News Now/Special Report #6."

[32] “ABC News Now/Special Report #6."

[33] “ABC News Now/Special Report #6."

[34] Michael Osborn, “Rhetorical Depiction," Form, Genre, and the Study of Political Discourse, eds. Herbert W. Simons and Aram A. Aghazarian (Columbia: The University of South Carolina Press, 1986) 82.

[35] Osborn, 82.

[36] Michael Calvin McGee, “Secular Humanism: A Radical Reading of Culture ‘Industry’ Productions," Critical Studies in Mass Communication 1.1 (1984): 8.

[37] Steger, “VA Tech Shootings."

[38] Steger, “VA Tech Shootings."

[39] “Charles Steger, President of Virginia Tech University [sic], Discusses Shooting on Campus."

[40] “Charles Steger, President of Virginia Tech University [sic], Discusses Shooting on Campus."

[41] “The Investigation; The Guns; Treating the Wounded; Students Coping; Witness To Tragedy," American Morning, CNN, 17 April 2007, 6:00 a.m. Obtained Lexis-Nexis database.  Time of interview approximate.

[42] “The Investigation; The Guns; Treating the Wounded; Students Coping; Witness To Tragedy."

[43] “Charles Steger, President of Virginia Tech, Discusses the Shootings on Campus," Today, NBC News Transcripts (17 April 2007). Obtained from Lexis-Nexis database.

[44] “Charles Steger, President of Virginia Tech, Discusses the Shootings on Campus."

[45] “Charles Steger, President of Virginia Tech, Discusses the Shootings on Campus."

[46] “Charles Steger, President of Virginia Tech, Discusses the Shootings on Campus."

[47] “Charles Steger, President of Virginia Tech and Law Enforcement Officials Discuss the Case," Today, NBC News Transcripts (17 April 2007). Obtained from Lexis-Nexis database.

[48] “ABC ‘Good Morning America’ Interview with Virginia Tech University [sic] President Charles Steger; Interviewer: Diane Sawyer," Federal News Service (17 April 2007). Obtained from Lexis-Nexis database.

[49] “ABC ‘Good Morning America’ Interview with Virginia Tech University [Sic] President Charles Steger; Interviewer: Diane Sawyer."

[50] “ABC ‘Good Morning America’ Interview with Virginia Tech University [Sic] President Charles Steger; Interviewer: Diane Sawyer."

[51] “ABC ‘Good Morning America’ Interview with Virginia Tech University [Sic] President Charles Steger; Interviewer: Diane Sawyer."

[52] “ABC ‘Good Morning America’ Interview with Virginia Tech University [sic] President Charles Steger; Interviewer: Diane Sawyer."

[53] “Convocation Remarks," Virginia Tech Magazine, Memorial Issue (May 2007)  http://www.vtmagazine.vt.edu/memorial07/convocation.html  Last accessed 10 September 2007.

[54] “Convocation Remarks."

[55] J. Richard Chase, “The Classical Conception of Epideictic," Quarterly Journal of Speech 47.3 (1961):293-300

[56] Lawrence W. Rosenfield, “The Practical Celebration of Epideictic," Rhetoric in Transition. Ed. Eugene E. White, (University Park: Penn State University Press, 1980) 134.

[57] Rosenfield, 135.

[58] Michael F. Carter, “The Ritual Functions of Epideictic Rhetoric: The Case of Socrates’ Funeral Oration," Rhetorica 9.3 (1991):209-232

[59] Carter, 212.

[60] Dale L. Sullivan, “The Epideictic Rhetoric of Science," Journal of Business and Technical Communication 5.3 (1991):229-245.

[61] Celeste Michelle Condit, “The Functions of Epideictic: The Boston Massacre Orations as Exemplar," Communication Quarterly 33.4 (1985), 284-298.

[62] Condit, 289.

[63] Bernard K. Duffy, “The Platonic Functions of Epideictic Rhetoric," Philosophy and Rhetoric 16.2 (1983), 81.

[64] Carter, 226, 227.

[65] Cynthia Sheard, “The Public Value of Epideictic Rhetoric." College English 58.7 (1996), 775

[66] Mary E. Stuckey, Defining Americans: The Presidency and National Identity, (Lawrence:
University Press of Kansas, 2004), 7.

[67] Mary E. Stuckey, Slipping the Surly Bonds: Reagan’s Challenger Address, (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2006), 16.

[68] Condit, 288.

[69] Karlyn Kohrs Campbell and Kathleen Hall Jamieson, “Form and Genre in Rhetorical Criticism: An Introduction," Form and Genre: Shaping Rhetorical Action Ed. Karlyn Kohrs Campbell and Kathleen Hall Jamieson, (Falls Church, VA: Speech Communication Association, 1978), 20.

[70] Charles W. Steger, E-mail to Virginia Tech, (20 April 2007, 7:12:19 AM EDT).

[71] Steger, E-mail to Virginia Tech.

[72] Steger, E-mail to Virginia Tech.

[73] Charles W. Steger, “A Message from President Charles W. Steger," (21 April 2007, 2:30p.m.) http://www.vt.edu/remember/archive/ Last accessed 10 September 2007.

[74] Steger, “A Message from President Charles W. Steger."

[75] Sara Hebel, “A President’s Reflections on a Tragedy: A Q&A with Charles W. Steger of Virginia Tech," Today’s News, The Chronicle of Higher Education (26 April 2007) http://chronicle.com/free/2007/04/2007042603n.htm   Last accessed 10 September 2007.

[76] Hebel.

[77] Hebel.

[78] Hebel.

[79] Hebel.

[80] Charles W. Steger, Letter to Families of Virginia Tech Students, 7 May 2007.  Letter in possession of the author.

[81] Steger, Letter to Families of Virginia Tech Students.

[82] Steger, Letter to Families of Virginia Tech Students.

[83] Steger, Letter to Families of Virginia Tech Students.

[84] Charles W. Steger, Commencement Address, Virginia Tech, 11 May 2007.  I have changed the paragraph structure here and in following passages for ease of reading.

[85] Steger, Commencement Address.

[86] Steger, Commencement Address.

[87] Steger, Commencement Address.

[88] Steger, Commencement Address.

[89] Steger, Commencement Address.

[90] David C. Klope, “Defusing a Foreign Policy Crisis: Myth and Victimage in Reagan’s 1983 Lebanon/Grenada Address," Western Journal of Speech Communication 50 (1986): 348.