As indicated in the syllabus, in addition to the reading your assignment is to find a rhetorical object (music video, image, article headline, advertisement, or whatever you find that you think counts as an artifact) that relates to a crisis from the past year. You might remember a crisis or emergency and search around the Internet for things related to it. Choose something that catches your eye. Once you do so, write a rhetorical analysis of what you found. Respond in 250 words. Describe and interpret your textual object. Your reading for this weekend mentions some key terms for rhetorical analysis: Audience, Purpose, Genre, Media, Logos, Pathos, and Ethos. While I don’t expect you to cover all of those areas (but you can try!), your response should analyze how at least three of them are working in your object. I will be looking for you to mention those three terms in your piece. Please also remember to describe BEFORE you interpret.
How to post: To the left of this post, there is a link “Leave a comment.” Click there to create your post. You should post a link to your rhetorical object and paste your 250 rhetorical analysis below that link.
Akif Rahman
I chose a picture taken in the Democratic Republic of Congo on January 21st 2018. The picture shows several men towards the front and many other people in the background. They are all dressed in casual or cultural clothing. The tow boys towards the left are wearing basic synthetic shirts. The kid to the far right has jean shorts and flip flops. The two guys to the far left back are probably wearing cultural clothing that is very vibrant and full on design. Behind the kid to the right, there seems to be something on fire which is letting out big flames and a lot of back smoke. The kid to the right has looks fearful and confused. His arms are hanging on his sides but far from his body. He seems to be moving fast to get away from the smoke. The kid in the front is making a face as if he touched a hot kettle and burned his hand. The other guy to the immediate left looks fatigued and scared. The two in the back don’t look scared at all and seem older. There are also structures in the back that look fragile because they are put together with tin.
This picture uses a great deal of pathos. The facial expressions evoke a sense of fear and chaos. The targeted audience is the people of Congo and other countries and possibly their own government. Maybe the photos is trying to portray that the people are upset and angry for some reason and are willing to be violent in order to get what they want.
Link to Picture (Scroll Down):
https://www.infoplease.com/january-2018-current-events-world-news#Syria%20Hit%20by%20Turkish%20Airstrikes
For this assignment, I’ve chosen this picture of workers cleaning up garbage that washed up on the shore of a beach in Santo Domingo. In the picture, we can see a large group of workers behind piles of garbage, using pickaxes and their hands. We can also see that the amount of garbage picked and put into trash bags up is extremely small compared to all the garbage left to clean. The purpose of this picture being posted or shared, is to raise awareness of pollution. The picture shows the extreme effects of pollution and what happens when we are careless with disposing of our garbage. This picture also uses pathos to open people’s eyes and make them more sensitive towards the earth and the environment. The picture is also posted on the NY Times, which gives it credibility and we can be sure it’s not photoshopped (ethos). Though the picture was taken in the Dominican Republic, the audience is worldwide because this is an issue that affects us all, and has been reposted globally.
Image: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/23/world/americas/dominican-republic-garbage.html
(First image on site)
https://www.good.is/articles/logic-grammy-suicide-prevention
Joseph Kloper
A rhetorical artifact that relates to a crisis are the performances of the song 1-800-273-825 at both the 2017 VMA’s and the Grammy’s by Logic. I am going to be honest, I do not normally listen to his music, but the article caught my eye. The song title is of a suicide hotline, and the song describes the thoughts of someone who is suicidal; People can feel that they are, “out of their minds”, and fell that they, “don’t want to be alive,”. As the song progresses, a shift occurs. The shift is that a person comes to mic as someone you would encounter if you called the hotline. After the conversation, Logic goes on to say that he doesn’t “want to die anymore”. This symbolizes how the suicide hotline can help, and the article uses ethos to back up this claim. After the performance, research was done by Dr. Madelyn Gould. What she found was that, 80% of people that called the hotline claimed “that the Lifeline had something to do with keeping them alive”. The article and the performances both target a similar audience. They both convey the theme of how seeking out help, can save lives, and that whatever you are dealing with can get better. The media and how this was portrayed enhances the purpose and the meaning of writing the song. Music is a major component of society, as people gravitate towards music for comfort or culture. My having the big stage, it will get more exposure and more press behind it. On the stage, Logic had people in shirts with phrases that are used to help those who are down and, feel alone.
https://money.cnn.com/2018/01/12/technology/apple-iphone-slow-battery-lawsuit/index.html
An Apple mishap, which confirmed suspicions that consumers devices were being slowed without their knowledge. The audience of this article are Apple consumers and any of tech savvy. Any fan of the company upon hearing the news will either react with a negative or positive polarity,no in between. Their devices are being slowed because they decide to stay with the current generation of phone. That choice however offers unwarranted shortcomings; this article targets those that want a grasp on the scale of the situation. The purpose of the article is to show the severity of the situation as it focuses on current lawsuits being filed against the company. The article delivers the purpose through a combination of ethos and pathos. It introduces a quote as “In a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook, Sen. John Thune of South Dakota criticized Apple’s lack of communication with its customers”. This introduces the audience to pathos and ethos as they feel that if somebody in a high position feels their same views of lack of transparency their out cries are this warranted. The article speaks of lawsuits and responses around the world. Over 30 lawsuits in the US, a public inquiry from China and France in addition to a lawsuit directly from South Korea. The use of logos makes the consumer feel betrayed as their initial impressions of the loyal company established under Steve Jobs were not as infallible as they’d hoped.It also indirectly inspires them to take action, if all the others did so why couldn’t they?The artifacts used within the article do a great job of stirring within the reader a mix of emotions and questions that deter them from the company.
Sarah Halali
Recently there has been a Turkish lira crisis. The rhetorical object that I have chosen to use for this assignment, that is related to this crisis, is a video of President Erdogan saying “They (United States) have the dollar, we have Allah”. There were certain circumstances that had led the president of Turkey to say this. There were many fears about the country’s economic status due to multiple things, for example Turkish companies borrowing heavily to profit from a construction boom in which they may not be able to repay, which sent the lira on a downward spiral. The intended audience at the time the saying was said was towards the local people of Turkey. The fact that President Erdogan used the United States dollar for comparison, purposely shows that America was also an intended audience. There is a sense of ethos portrayed in this clip by the mention of god and religious values and connection. The purpose,in my opinion, is to contain any outrage by the people of Turkey and help put them at ease. It is also to show the United States, and other countries, that Turkey is still standing strong. The text has been circulating through the internet and on the news to people internationally.
Clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oSO5yVlOrkE
https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwi9o87sk6DdAhWinuAKHaa0D8kQjRx6BAgBEAU&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.kyivpost.com%2Fworld%2Fassociated-press-islamic-state-claims-las-vegas-mass-shooting.html&psig=AOvVaw3ur4bWmtygdMMjihPf_pAb&ust=1536109461130938
Kyiv Post
The rhetorical artifact I have decided to use for this assignment is this image from the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting that took place in a country music festival. In this image the main focus is of a man covering a woman with distressed looks on their faces. In the background, we can see that there is a good amount of people in the event that was taking place. Most people are standing frantically and have scared postures. However, we do know they are in shock from the shooting that just took place.
This man appears to be covering this woman, full bodily as if he was making sure she was ok and is panicked. The people in the back seem to be in shock and are comforting each other for emotional support. The people in the back seem to be standing because they are in the aftermath of the event. The fact that they aren’t running around tells us the danger has passed away and is not occurring at least in their location. They cannot believe what has happened to them and those in the small group are holding each other for comfort. The woman to their left walking is looking for someone to help or that they know. This image depicts how shocking this event was and how scary it must have been for those in the midst of it all. This image helps the viewers to wake up to the scary and impactful nature that these sort of events (shootings) are and to bring awareness to the fact that it is now common for this to occur when it shouldn’t.
https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/W75Na7YJzdNHftOYNkEyS9X1eaw=/0x0:5263×3539/920×613/filters:focal(2143×876:2985×1718):format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/60155817/973077510.jpg.0.jpg
The picture I chose is a photograph of a Honduran child who is having her mother investigated for illegal immigration. The child is front and center with an extremely sad and angry expression. You can see the man patting down the child’s mother in front of her. They are all standing directly in front of a vehicle, so I assume that the woman was pulled over and then searched. There is strong pathos in this image in the child’s face. She looks as if she is terrified of the man in front of her, unsure of what is going to happen to her or her mother. In the child’s eyes, she has no idea what’s wrong or what they are doing to her mother. The purpose of this photo is to convey the impact that deportation and the wrongful treatment of immigrants has on families around America. The original photo was released in the newspaper, but it quickly traveled to the internet and social media. The picture circulating on the internet caused it to become extremely popular and heavily used as an argument against new immigration practices. Had the picture not become viral on social media, it would likely never have become a cover of time magazine, which garnered the photo even more publicity. Had new immigration practices under the Trump administration not been a trending topic at the time of this image becoming public, it would also not likely have become such a viral image.
https://splinternews.com/the-year-in-protests-since-donald-trumps-election-1820143751 (4th picture on this website)
I see a crowd of people that are compact tightly together, on what looks like a city street. Everyone is dressed warm in coats, hats, and scarfs. They have angry looks, and many of them are yelling. Some people are holding up signs that say “Not My President” and “Dump Trump”. A few people are holding their fists up in the air.
This picture looks like it was taken during an anti trump protest. I believe that this picture was intended for an audience that was against Trump, with a purpose to motivate them to voice their opinions against trump and/or join future protests. I believe that this picture was taken after Trump was elected president, because election season is in early November when it starts getting cold and people are dressed in warm clothing, as well as the sign “Not My President”. The medium that this image was published through was a generally political news site, which could of been used to spark controversy and/or persuade viewers to become anti Trump.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/doylerader/2018/08/27/skylar-diggins-smith-speaks-out-against-unequal-pay/#166a6c651810
I chose an an article about Skylar Diggins speaking against the unequal pay in the WNBA today. Skylar Diggins is a well known WNBA player. She is the highest paid player on the Wings and also receives endorsements form Body Armor, Puma and Zappos. She talks about the fact that the NBA players are making a whole lot more money than the WNBA players. The WNBA players get gets 20% of the total revenue while the NBA players get 50%.For the WNBA the salary caps at about 115,000 which is significantly lower than what we see in the NBA today.
The purpose of this article is to touch light upon womens rights of equal pay to men. For a long time women have fought to have equal rights with men. I thought all that was over till I read this article that women still have to fight till this day. The intended audience is the viewers of these sports and the WNBA and NBA itself.This article uses pathos, it shows how players in the WNBA put in the same amount of effort as some of the players in the NBA but get a significantly lower pay than them.
In this image, a group of students are laying down, appearing as they are dead or have been injured, in front of the White House. This image was taken shortly after seventeen people were killed in a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. The students laid in front of the White House in this position in order to protest the fact that the President and other politicians in congress and the senate have done nothing to limit gun violence in the United States.
When the photo was taken, it was obviously taken to be shown to the public, Rhetorically, it has an effect on whoever sees it, because the photo clearly shows the strong effects the recent shooting had on the public. By showing people engaging in civil disobedience over the recent incident, it is bringing more attention to the issue of gun violence. It shows that people are not afraid to stand up for what they believe in. It does not only do that visually, but it also uses pathos to ignite the emotions of whoever sees the photo. Due to the position of the protesters, when the protest was staged, and where it took place, it appeals to the emotions of those who see the photo. It convinces people that there is a need and demand for change.
Link to the photo and accompanying article –> https://hechingerreport.org/marjory-stoneman-students-give-legislators-civics-lesson/
Keshav Bhati
“Land of the Free” – Music Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeQW-9Cg8qs
The rhetorical artifact that I choose was the music video for “Land of the Free”. The lyrics of the song itself discuss Joey Bada$$’s discontent with the current situation of America but the music video also says a lot. The video starts off in the dessert with Joey and other people of color and races standing with their hands chained together. The next scene then shows these people, now all chained together walking in a circle around him. This is followed up by a scene of Joey carrying an American flag stitched together from different fabrics with patterns. The song then begins with Joey talking to a group of kids all dressed in white clothes in grassy field with a dead tree. These images are repeated with things few things changing and then comes a scene where police officers have guns pointed at the people who were previously chained. Joey is shown carrying the flag throughout the video in different conditions still. What I believe this video is highlighting is the racial conflicts that still exist to this day in America. Joey is shown talking to a group of kids all wearing white to represent their innocence. He is also shown carrying the flag through different conditions because he feels it’s his job to move America forward and to bring about change. These are all examples of ethos that Joey uses to try and convey his message to all American people.
Randolph Harrison
https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwiest2utaDdAhUhZN8KHfaVCawQjRx6BAgBEAU&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.usatoday.com%2Fstory%2Fnews%2Fworld%2F2017%2F06%2F22%2Fvenezuela-medical-shortages-doctors-health-care%2F103039928%2F&psig=AOvVaw2NM8lgEyMT8tj1vySIFLcj&ust=1536118450992729
There are many people walking or running towards the camera’s direction. They are in the middle of a wet and dirty street, and most are wearing headgear like gas masks or just ordinary cloth. The predominant colors that the people have on are red, blue, and yellow. A few also have stars on their clothing as well. The two people in the front of the camera are armed; one has a garbage lid, while the other is holding a makeshift molotov cocktail. Some of the others in the group are also armed. The shirt and helmet of the person in the front of the camera has Spanish written on it.
From the way the people are dressed and armed, they are in a dangerous situation. To be more specific, the people seem to be protesting, and therefore angry at something, which ties into the idea of pathos. The gas masks suggest that the protesters are expecting to be gassed by the police, which they might have learned from past experiences. From the guy holding the molotov cocktail, it can also be assumed that the protesters are not just going to protect themselves from the police, but also fight them. The purpose of this photo might be to gain media attention about the situation in Venezuela, which may give the protesters support from audiences from foreign countries. The message that the picture wants to convey is that the government of Venezuela is not providing efficiently for the people, and that violent protests are the result.
Dylan Mendoza
Over the past year and a half, Russian involvement in a number of incidents tied to U.S politics, especially within the digital world, has been a focus of the American public’s attention. The Russian government’s alleged involvement in the presidential race between Obama and Trump is one example of the many things that sparked numerous controversies, debates, and heated conversations is one example of such. Alarmingly, due to the amount of attention the media brought upon this matter, it overshadowed the threat of cyber attacks that hit much-much closer to home. Though in some cases, such as the incident that is highlighted within the article that’s linked below, these cyber attacks actually hit home.
Right off the bat, a couple of keywords in the headline such as “FBI”, “malware”, “threat”, “home”, and “routers” immediately grabs the reader’s attention. These words, excluding “FBI”, appeals to the reader’s attention by invoking feelings of danger, fear, and anger due to the fact that these cyber attacks have gone as far as invading personal homes. On the other hand, the inclusion of “FBI” within the headline coupled with the fact that the article is published on a prominent news domain adds a level of credibility to the headline which might also stir up a sense of urgency amongst readers. In both cases, we see the usage of rhetorical devices such as Pathos and Ethos, in the former and latter respectively, to help drive the author’s purpose of raising awareness and urgency home to its audience.
LINK: https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/fbi-warns-about-russia-linked-malware-threat-home-routers-questions-n878276
Jacob Kapustin
Link: https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwj29MLNvqDdAhWuVt8KHcG-A0MQjRx6BAgBEAU&url=https%3A%2F%2Fftw.usatoday.com%2F2016%2F09%2Fcolin-kaepernick-kneeling-cover-of-time-magazine&psig=AOvVaw1i4ElzQToyKZQlDCB4PYx6&ust=1536120900592141
One of the biggest controversies of 2018 was spurred after this photo went viral. The photo is of former NFL Quarterback- Colin Kaepernick, at the time with the 49ers, who is seen kneeling during a football game. When you look around him, the audience and personnel are all standing with their right hand placed on their heart. Colin Kaepernick and the 49ers Safety, Eric Reid seem to be the only individuals not standing in the whole stadium. Little did they know, they would ignite one of the most talked about issues both in the National Football League and the United States of America. Colin Kaepernick was kneeling during the pledge of allegiance in front of the whole stadium, and everyone watching from their living rooms. The NFL consists of many patriotic viewers, and patriotic owners. The performances of the pledge of allegiance at the games consist of active or retired military service men and women being honored for their service. This reaction from America, was exactly what Colin was looking for. His kneeling represents that he isn’t satisfied with recent events and what the flag represents. He was bringing awareness to the overlooked police brutality of unarmed African Americans occurring around America. This image uses many rhetorical devices to convey a message to its audience. The image uses pathos, stirring up emotions in people both negative and positive, from the subject kneeling during what seems to be The Pledge of Allegiance. The use of pathos is really powerful and is what leads to so many people noticing their movement. Audience is used because it targets both viewers of the NFL and the American people, creating an extremely targeted group that can relate to this image. Ethos is used in the image, since both players are part of the most elite football league in America. Their fame and accomplishments, give them much credibility towards their cause and towards the audience.
Ka Lye Chan
https://imagesvc.timeincapp.com/v3/mm/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftimedotcom.files.wordpress.com%2F2016%2F08%2Fscreen-shot-2016-08-17-at-6-03-03-pm.png&w=1200&q=70
This picture is of a little boy sitting on an orange seat, covered in dust and blood. Surrounding him is a contrast of different orange hues to his grey self. His hair is short and messy, his face is stoic and blank, his left eye is wide open but the other is barely opened with blood enclosing it, his body is littered with little bruises, his feet are straight out on, and barely dangling off, the seat, and his hands are sat atop of his thighs. To the left of the little boy is a box that reads, “First Aid”. We can assume, at this point, that the little boy is in an ambulance. This image appeals heavily to a person’s pathos, in which the viewer feels severely for this little boy. It invokes a sense of disgust in what the world allows and enables tragedies like this to occur to children and people, in general. The audience intended for this image is everyone who is able to see this image and be able to speak up on this issue. The purpose of this image is to instill heartache and anger in its audience by showing them this horrible reality. This image is only a mere look into that event; the original medium is a video. A world of difference between the image and the video is that the little boy seems to be the lone survivor of an airstrike in Aleppo, Syria, while the video shows otherwise. The image itself contains an eye-catching juxtaposition between the little boy and the ambulance. It is a contrast between life and death in an image, where the ambulance, bright and vibrant, represents life while the little boy, grey and ghostlike, represents death.
Brittany Cevallos
https://us-east-1.tchyn.io/snopes-production/uploads/2016/01/flint-water-crisis.jpg
(Hey I wasn’t aware that there was an assignment due because I’m still new to the system and i dont know hoe to adapt easily 🙂 so here’s my assignment.)
So I’ve decided to pick this image because it is still an ongoing epidemic that faces more than tens of thousands of civilians in a first world country and by capturing that moment we bring more light to the basic necessities they lack. It moves the audience because this is a situation that can occur to any household, and even though we live in a first world country there is no official to control the situation. You can see how desperate the people behind the picture were to clean the water, the lead filled water has bubbles and the bathtub is surrounded by household cleaning supplies. A plunger, a bucket, detergent and shampoo & conditioner. All items a typical American household would have. This photo applies to pathos because you can sense the desperateness behind the photo to access clean water and how even if they wanted to shower they don’t have that basic human right.