Is the fun over? The return of the plot narrative rational

Abstract

Since ancient times, Aristotle argued that for the argumentation of ideas, one should not be satisfied only with reasoning, but that it was important to excite the audience, through narrative, in such a way as to ensure the mobilization of feelings. This premise structured the role of logos as a rational argument, of pathos as emotional communication, and of ethos as an element of credibility with the audience. In 2022, after long decades of dominance of pathos within political narrative turns, we observe a logos as a protagonist in the construction of discourses. Several elements come to explain this phenomenon, among which we find the increasingly evident interference of technology in campaigns and government teams that, with tools such as Big Data, Artificial Intelligence and the fast checking technique, privilege the data-based discourses and the fight against merely emotional strategies favored by fake news. The second element is linked to the global health crisis of COVID-19, which fueled the need for more rational narratives that seek to generate trust, and the strengthening of a new leadership, based on certainties, while the context is characterized by uncertainty. Finally, the limits of purely emotional narratives are glimpsed in both electoral and governmental narratives, to privilege a new balance between pathos and logos, within which ethos also appears as a leading element.