Persuasive context

The answer revolves around power & status quo.

You could make an argument for either: both of these characters could see themselves as trying to be persuasive.

But there is clearly a power imbalance here: the pirate captain holds the balance of power.

If nothing changes, it looks like the young man is going into the ocean.

That's the status quo, or the situation as it currently exists.

If we say that persuasion is about wanting to change the status quo, then in this scene, the person who most wants to change the status quo, the speaker, is the young man.

He has several options: jump, fight... or persuade the captain to let him stay onboard.

We've talk about lofty concepts such as power & status quo.

The answer to this question revolves around other lofty concepts such as agency & consciousness.

Agency is the ability to act on your own choices. Speakers need to have some degree of agency, even if it is constrained.

The man walking the plank has limited options, but he still has some agency.

The sign has no agency because it is a sheet of metal; it has no awareness, it makes no choices.

But it's still being persuasive in a persuasive situation.

So can we get away with calling it the speaker?

We could, but only as a proxy for the real speaker, which is the authority that put the sign there (probably a local council or the organisation that owns and maintains The Pipe).

For example, we could talk about the City Council as a speaker in this situation. We'd just have to also recognise that there may not be a single individual at the council who is the speaker for this issue; instead a group of people have coordinated to produce a single persuasive position on the issue, which in this case is, "People need to stay off the pipe!"

• Who are they? What’s their background?
• What’s their relationship to the issue?
• What’s their relationship to the audience? 
• What do they want? How badly do they need it?
• What power do they have? What resources?

Here's how you might answer some of these questions:

• Liberty Science Centre, public educational institution, want people to visit their planetarium (and other exhibits: really, they want the public to be informed and excited about science in general).
• They are experts in science and public education.
• Probably not desperate for people to come, but they want to educate people and their funding might get cut if nobody ever shows up.
• The specific outcome in this situation is getting the general public in the city to come to the exhibition.
• They don't have any real power, but they have a budget to do some creative advertising with billboards and other media. They also have black holes as a subject to advertise, which is pretty cool.

• Who are they? What’s their background?
• What’s their relationship to the issue?
• What’s their relationship to the audience? 
• What do they want? How badly do they need it?
• What power do they have? What resources?

Here are some possible responses:

• Lisa Simpson is a kid in an average American home.
• She's smart and cares about lots of issues like justice and the environment. She can be selfless, but she also has an ego. She gets angry at people she disagrees with.
• She often gets along better with adults. She often fights with other kids.
• She's often trying to persuade people to get on board with good causes or to value the same things she values in the world.
• She doesn't have any power. She's smart and she can play the saxophone but other than that people mostly ignore her advice.
• She cares deeply and usually really wants to change people's minds, not for her benefit but more out of moral principle, and she gets upset when she can't change someone.

• Who are they? What’s their background?
• What’s their relationship to the issue?
• What’s their relationship to the audience? 
• What do they want? How badly do they need it?
• What power do they have? What resources?

Here are some possible observations:

• Darth Vader is a Jedi who has been so corrupted by hate (and his pathological need for control) that he has turned to the dark side of the Force.
• His day job is Chief Henchman and Big Bad for Emperor Palpatine, who has all political power; Darth Vader's power is more in his advanced combat and magic skills.
• He could beat Luke in a fight, but he doesn't want to kill Luke—he wants to convert him to the dark side.
• This is because Vader is Luke's father and he wants his son to follow in his footsteps (although, technically speaking, he doesn't actually have any feet).
• That's why he's the speaker: he's trying to change the status quo, which is Luke's alignment to the light side of the Force.
• In this situation, the only power he has is his own strength, authority, and demonstration of destructive skills, but those are of limited value here.

• Who are they? What’s their background?
• What’s their relationship to the issue?
• What’s their relationship to the audience? 
• What do they want? How badly do they need it?
• What power do they have? What resources?

Yes. In real-life social situations, especially when power is more or less balanced, you'll often find people trying to persuade each other, each seeing themselves as the speaker and the other person as the audience.

If you are the speaker, you should ask yourself the same questions! Sometimes you need a reality check on your relationship to the situation, and a bit of self-insight can help you be more persuasive (or recognise that you are out of line).

• Who are you? What’s your background?
• What’s your relationship to the issue?
• What’s your relationship to the audience?
• What do you want? How badly do you need it?
• What power do you have? What resources?

The point is not to uncover an autobiography; it’s to understand the situation.