The third persona is an alienated audience implicitly ignored within a dialectic. It was a rhetorical idea first conceptualized by Philip Wander in his article "The Third Persona: An Ideological Turn in Rhetorical Theory," first published in 1984 after a prolonged debate in the Central States Speech Journal.
The third persona is the audience which is not present, or that is excluded, in rhetorical communication. This conception of the Third Persona relates to the First Persona, the "I" in discourse (a speaker and their intent), and the second persona, the "you" in discourse, both of whom participate within a constrained social sphere. Third Persona is "the 'it' that is not present, that is objectified in a way that 'you' and 'I' are not." Third Persona, as a theory, seeks to define and critique the rules of rhetoric, to further consider how we talk about what we talk about—the discourse of discourse—and who is affected by that discourse.
Read more about Third Persona: Rooted in Ideological Criticism, Definitions, Theories of Power, Distinguished From Marginalization, Regarding The Public Sphere, Resolution Versus Acknowledgment, See Also