| In the first twenty-five years of Microsoft, their software products have become the primary method for working, obtaining information, and communicating online for most of the planet. Bill Gates, as one of the world's richest individuals, has a power that exceeds his vast economic influence. Gates possesses a rhetorical power that cannot be easily explained. His highly visible role in public culture has produced a series of reputation-portraits that underlie his rhetorical power. This rhetorical analysis of reputation explores the communicative strategies used to generate or change, damage or rescue, reputations. Through an examination of media coverage of Gates and Microsoft, and an analysis of Gates's published books and speeches, this study reveals the constructed nature of a public reputation and the process by which six reputation-portraits of Gates were established from 1975 to 2000. This study ultimately reveals the importance of metaphors and archetypes in crafting public reputations. |
