Rhetoric

My understanding after reading this article is that rhetoric is simply the technique of persuasion. I was most interested in the Sophists and their claim of being able to teach human "excellence" through public speech. In addition, I also found it interesting that Plato believed the Sophists simply flattered their audiences with claims they wanted to hear rather then what is actually true. After reading these few points, today's media immediatly came to mind. It seems that presently the media acts as the "rhetor" by using public displays for persuasion -- Telling audiences what they want to hear. This was just a thought, it might be way off as I like other classmates have found these artciles to be quite complex and difficult to follow.