This Guy Named Bitzer...

Audience, Purpose, Context, Content are all very important.

Lloyd F. Bitzer's The Rhetorical Situation, dare I say it, was kind of a snooze, however he does raise some good points. What I found most interesting was that each of the above items {Audience, Purpose, Context and Content} all depend on the specific rhetorical situation you identify and choose to work with.

That being said, a rhetorical situation can be anything that calls for attention, something that needs to be addressed and looked at more closely in order to change the current reality in which that situation exists. Bitzer writes that "Every audience at any moment is capable of being changed in some way by speech; persuasive situation is altogether general." (page 3) He also says that, "...a work of rhetoric is pragmatic; it comes into existence for the sake of something beyond itself; it functions ultimately to produce action or change in the world; it performs some task." (page 3-4)

I think this relates to digital media and web design specifically because everything (every site, for example) has a specific purpose, exigency or Rhetorical Situation backing it up. All have a specific audience and all (hopefully) have appropriate content and contexts to their design.