More Propaganda and Visual Rhetoric

While reading the chapter on visual rhetoric and how certain artists/creators can do things specifically to gain attention or a response, I was brought back to themes that have been discussed in both my art history and my literature course this fall.   One thing that has really stuck with me is the idea that nothing in art is ever an accident; the artist has always planned every aspect of his or her work out exactly.

One of the pieces for which this was true for me was a World War II propaganda piece which depicts Adolf Hitler as a knight in shining armor.

With this image, so many things are going on, just as were discussed in “Compose, Design, Advocate.”  First of all, the image draws off of common knowledge of the audience.  The Nazi flag in the background quickly establishes the audience itself, as the German people, and gives the knight an evident source of loyalty.  This also establishes the ethos of the artist himself, as the person clearly supports Hitler and the Nazi regime.  In addition, the flag is very bright and contrasts greatly with the mostly neutral colors of the rest of the image.  This is most likely done to draw the viewers’ eye immediately to the flag itself and to quickly establish the position of the artist.

Furthermore, the Arthurian knight-in-shining-armour image was a well known image in Europe as the legends surrounding King Arthur spread from Britain across the European continent even in the 14th century.  In this way, the creator of this piece is drawing a specific parallel between Hitler and King Arthur, two men who came into power in the hopes of changing power structures and society itself.  This connection will immediately create a logical response within the audience who has most likely grown up with some knowledge of the Arthurian legend (even I read about King Arthur in my ninth grade English class).  Even if the King Arthur comparison is not immediately evident, the image of a knight marching to battle will not only inspire the viewers of this image, but will also give them a sense of purpose and increases the intensity and necessity of the changes in the era.  In this sense, the artist is effectively using an understandable image to create a logical purpose and story for this image.

Though I have been looking at many different pieces of art in my art history class, this one stood out to me when it was shown in my literature class (about the Arthurian legend, in case you couldn’t tell,) the other day because this really is a piece of visual rhetoric.  Propaganda is used by countries and regimes all the time in order to encourage people to buy into a school of thought and support the ideas they are espousing.  This piece does that in carefully calculated connections and color choices.

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Art as Rhetoric

Recently I completed a paper for my art history class in which I compared two pieces of art that I felt were used for political propaganda.  This paper pushed me to consider the real impact of images and how each one can create its own conversations and encourage rhetoric about current issues.   Most of the time, artists have this incredible ability to notice and capture a fleeting moment of kairos and preserve it in a nation or world’s memory.

The two pieces I analyzed in my paper were The Death of Marat by Jacques-Louis David

  and Migrant Mother, California by Dorothea Lange.

These two pieces amaze me because they capture a single moment, but there is so much history and thought behind them.  In David’s Death of Marat, the well-known (at the time) Marat’s assassination is turned into a martyrdom through David’s incredible portrayal of Marat and the anguish and seeming tragedy of his death in such a horrible way (despite the reality that Marat himself was calling for the heads of many).  The bleeding, grieving, and even vaguely Christ-like Marat is depicted as a helpless victim; David used pathos to create drama over the death of a single man, thus inciting more support for the French Revolution that was surrounding him at the time.

Lange took an extremely similar path with the purpose of her photograph.  She chose to depict a mother and her children with a bleak coloring and clear distress in their faces and body language.  The strength of the mother, despite the concern in her eyes, spoke to the American people and this photograph would spark major public concern over the continuing Great Depression.  (Ultimately, this photograph brought food and other support to the state of California itself.)

Throughout this class there has been a bit of an emphasis on vocal or performance rhetoric, at least recently, since we have looked at some advertisements.  These two pieces of art are drastically different in their existence—David and Lange are not trying to get people to buy a product or support a football team, they are trying to encourage people to buy into a revolution and to support families around America.  The pathos that these artists are able to provoke is amazing and hard to avoid, even if one wanted to ignore the situation.  It is incredible the power that an artist can have within a society, and I think we sometimes forget that.

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The Caesars Knew How To Work A Crowd

This week, a discussion in my Roman history class really reminded me of some of the things we have learned about in regards to rhetoric through this course.  In depicting the accomplishments of Julius and Augustus Caesar, many authors and people have very different opinions as to whether the men were tyrants or visionaries who pushed Rome to its fullest potential, and it is interesting to see how they attempt to portray the characters.

For example, Julius Caesar wrote “Commentaries” as he was leading Romans in the Gallic Wars.  These “Commentaries” were truly just propaganda on the part of Caesar as he used exaggerations to overemphasize his contributions.  His adopted son, Augustus did the same thing with his self-written “Res Gestae” which was essentially a list of Augustus’ accomplishments to be published after his death.  Augustus’ use of the word “I” as in “I led Rome in many civil and foreign wars” was a rhetorical tool that was very effective in controlling the viewpoint of the audience.  The “I” put Augustus at the forefront of every action that happened during his powerful presence in Rome, whether he directly played a hand in the event or not.  This set up such an incredibly strong ethos for the character of Augustus, that the people happily appointed him leader of all of Rome.

This discussion led me to think about the fact that during the ancient Roman times, politicians had a great handle on how the public viewed them.  Though the Senate of the Roman Republic was nearly always concerned about certain members because it wanted to retain its authority as a governing body, outside of the Senate, many people did not view leaders as tyrannical or threatening just because they desired power. (This, incidentally, is a great example of networks of interpretation.  The Senate, who wants their own power, is obsessed with controlling the influence of others, whereas the public is willing to support whichever leader best supports them).  It was incredible to look at the ancient accounts and see how much control the politicians of this time had over their own public image, and therefore their ethos.  Even though Julius Caesar was feared by the Senate (enough for a group of Senators to plot and kill him), his popularity had been so well cultivated with the people that they wept at his funeral and eventually led his murderers to either death or exile.  The character of a man was something that he could easily mold and present to the people as he wanted, cultivating favor by being generous, well spoken, and in favor of the people always.

It’s kind of amazing to see how effective rhetoric was for these ancient politicians.  They really knew how to play up their strengths and cultivate a favorable character for themselves that the people would eat up.  This proved to be a very useful skill to have, and the most successful men at this time had complete control over their portrayal and the public opinion through great rhetoric and calculation.

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TED Talks Give Information a Voice

The idea of a TED Talk is something new that I’ve recently been introduced to, but the whole concept fascinates me.  Bringing together the world’s best and brightest to speak and inform people is a great idea that will keep many more engaged with their surroundings.  With the world progressing so rapidly in regards to technology and international connections, I think that the TED platform helps to propel ideas around the world in one of the most efficient ways possible.

The people working at TED take a lot of the hard work out for us.  For the most part, we don’t have to sit through boring speeches about topics we don’t care about; rather, the TED program highlights only the best ideas, those that are sticky and easy to be shared with many to really make an impact on communities, possibly local, possibly international.  For me, TED does an incredible thing by bringing in speakers with already well-established ethos (if they were invited to the TED platform I am much more likely to believe them over something I read off of Twitter), and TED gives me a reason to watch, listen, and learn about subjects that I might not normally approach.  From the several videos we have watched in class, along with a bit of my own research, I just find that nothing TED produces seems boring to me, and every single thing that I have watched has left me feeling informed and enlightened.

In addition, the TED talks have provided great examples for a student in a class on rhetoric.  The speeches I have watched have been effective, use great visuals, and are always explained clearly and in the allotted amount of time.  The TED examples for me have been great for helping me to discern what body movements and gestures are normal during a speech.  TED’s emphasis on the visual as well as the content has been extremely helpful in preparing for all speeches or communications I’ve had in formal settings.

There is so much to learn from TED, even beyond just the content that the fabulous speakers are bringing to light.  Personally, the TED videos have been excellent examples of what to practice in preparation for a speech; the TED talks almost make Ancient Rhetorics for Contemporary Students and all of its tips come to life.

 

 

 

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Political Frustrations

A Presidential Debate featuring vastly different ideologies.  Two men arguing with each other to prove their side.  Two men not accomplishing their goal.

This week I watched the last presidential debate (which was actually my first debate of the election year).  I had a general idea of what to expect due to past experiences watching political or academic debates, but my interpretation of the debate has changed after spending some time in Rhetoric and Civic Life. Despite the great intelligence and rhetorical capabilities of both candidates, I was extremely bothered by the way they handled the subject matter.  I realized that the conversation was probably in stasis for only around 10 minutes of an hour and a half debate.

Judging the reaction by some of my friends regarding the previous debates, this disagreement over what to discuss has happened quite frequently, even this year. It seems that the candidates have often used a pivot, so as to take each question posed by the moderator and alter it so that they can answer the question that they would prefer to answer.  As a viewer, this is extremely frustrating and hard to watch.  How can an argument come close to stasis if the two sides aren’t even attempting to address the same question?

In the debate that I watched, the topic was supposed to be foreign policy.  At some point in the night the candidates were arguing over unemployment and the economy and I had stopped paying attention.  Though both President Obama and Governor Romney are excellent orators, they lose a lot of ethos when they refuse to address a question or choose to focus on entirely different topics.  For me personally, it did not matter what logic the candidate used in his reply; if the conversation was not on par with the topic or question as posed by the moderator, the discussion was not going to be effective.

I understand that sometimes in an argument one side can get off-topic a bit, but the stasis of the overall conversation should remain relatively intact.  With this presidential debate, however, the topic was so inconsistent that neither side could possibly agree on the conjecture or definition of the issues in time to move on and truly debate quality, or policy.

Honestly, the debate left me frustrated and feeling like no progress had been made.  I could not pick a candidate that I preferred throughout the debate, and I wished that we could have redone the whole thing and had a real conversation.  I recognize that others probably did not feel this way and may have been greatly influenced by the debate, but I feel that due to the way modern presidential candidates shirk some questions, the whole conversation is left in a state of merely shouting over one another and never making any progress. Stasis is key to making progress and beginning a true deliberation; without it, this debate was lacking in content and character. 

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Study in St. Petersburg!

This week I attended an Education Abroad fair to get some information about potentially studying abroad at some point throughout my college career.  I ended up walking out of the fair with at least 12 different pamphlets that give me all the details to various programs, countries, and opportunities.  These pamphlets have been really interesting to me, because these are some of the first persuasive objects I have found that use very little pathos, but instead focus on logos.

For the most part, these information packets give me the facts of each program.  The specific school one would be attending, the approximate cost, and the courses that are offered are all things that may appear in the packet.  These little pamphlets work long and hard to ensure that they are readable and that it is easy to find exactly what you are looking for.  The pamphlets are logically organized with a table of contents and the appropriate information for each program.  How does one decide which program is best, however?  This is where ethos comes into play.

The groups creating these pamphlets use student testimony, photographs, and statistics to establish themselves as successful organizations that are going to help each student achieve the ultimate study abroad experience.  First, with their use of photographs, each pamphlet chooses students that are not only diverse, but are also always smiling.  This entices students to want to choose this program; if it made other students happy, I’m sure that it would work for me! The diversity of the students shows that the groups is very accepting, and therefore encourages students to want to study abroad with them.

In addition, by using pleased student testimonies and statistics of successful student experiences, the organizations are able to prove their eminence and give concrete examples of why their program is to be preferred.  It is almost used so that one thinks if the program has been a positive experience for so many people, the program itself must be a positive thing.

Overall, when I look at the smiling faces of countless students in the countless pamphlets I picked up at the education abroad fair, I can’t help but laugh.  It is clear that these organizations are doing their best to appeal to large groups of people and to make things easy to access and understand so that the audience is enticed to sign up for their program.

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How to Gain 100,000 Followers with One Tweet

A recent example of pathos that immediately comes to my mind is something that is a very current issue, and still a concern.  The other night, I think it was perhaps September 30, a young girl, Kara Alongi, tweeted “There is somone in my hour ecall 911” which immediately leads one to believe that she is in great danger.  When her parents returned home later that evening the girl was missing.  This tweet had brought huge fear to all who read it; the idea of knowing that someone was in your house and the realization that this girl was kidnapped and could be in grave danger is utterly terrifying.

Upon further investigation, police believe this tweet to be a hoax, as the house did not show any signs of a break-in.  Recently, even, surveillance shows a young girl that looks like Kara at a train station.

Regardless of whether or not this was truly a runaway scheme, why did Kara choose to tweet that?  What was she trying to accomplish with it?

For me personally, this tweet struck me with fear.  Not knowing at the time that in reality this girl has probably just run away from home, the idea of being kidnapped out of my own house – in which I always feel supremely safe – was absolutely frightening for me.  Others clearly felt this way as well; #helpfindKara soon began trending on twitter and many expressed their worries for the girl’s safety as well as their own.

Though I don’t think that this girl knew that she was employing pathos, I have interpreted this tweet as a desire for attention – and she has certainly gotten it.  Not only has social media blown this up, but there is now a police investigation and many news stories about this event.  This young girl now has over 100,000 followers on twitter and even more following her “kidnapping” through other types of media.  By sending out this terrifyingly engaging tweet, Kara has wrapped us all up in what might usually be just another teen being upset with their family.  She’s grabbed our attention and made us care about her position.

Even if she has just run away, I hope for her safe return.  I think it will be very interesting to see how this plays out.  You can’t make up things as outrageous as real life.

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Musings About “The Bread, My Sweet”

Sometimes it amazes me how rhetorical techniques can overlap to even further the success of the rhetorician.  I’m thinking of this specifically because the other day I thought about which movie in my life had made me cry the most.  I’m not quite sure why this thought was bothering me, but I soon realized that the answer was The Bread, My Sweet, which is a touching movie about a bakery owner and the elderly couple that live above his shop.  The thing I began to question, though, is why I cared so much about this elderly couple.

Then I started to realize that in this case, I think it was the establishment of the character, or the ethos, that in turn made the pathos, or the emotion of the movie, that much stronger.  Early in the film the adorable character of Bella, who lives with her husband above a bakery, is well established.  Bella is caring, sweet, kind, thoughtful, loving, and appreciative.  The knowledge of her kindness and her fabulous relationship with the boys who own the bakery makes it all the harder when it is revealed that she is dying.

I realized that the only reason I really cared that Bella was dying is because I felt for the people that would lose her from their lives.  I sniffled for her daughter, cried for the men that owned the bakery, and sobbed for her husband.  I think that I had this emotional reaction, or rather the movie received the pathos reaction it was hoping for, because the character of Bella had been so well developed, even in just a few minutes.

So now I have been considering further the fact that pathos really cannot function without at least one of the others.  Logos can stand on its own, especially now as society seems to be obsessed with fact after fact after fact.  Ethos is fine because if a company gets a celebrity to endorse a product, people will purchase that product just because of the endorser.  But pathos is nothing without character or facts.  If you read a statistic that 80% of children in Africa do not have two sets of shoes (Note: that statistic was totally fabricated,) well that is going to get to you!

After considering it, I really think that while pathos can sometimes be part of the most effective uses of rhetoric, it generally has a backing from ethos or pathos, making those tools more useful than I originally thought.

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It Really Didn’t Seem That Weird

Three days ago on twitter, a young hockey player that I follow tweeted the caption “Didn’t take long…” and a photo of his smile, which featured either a missing or an extremely chipped tooth. I quickly laughed it off and thought “Poor kid, it was bound to happen eventually.”

My whole view of this situation changed when I relayed this tweet to some of my new friends at school, none of whom are hockey fans. I brought up the player’s missing tooth and said something along the lines of, “It’s kind of adorable. I know so many players without teeth now!” What really threw me off was when I got “Ewww!” and “That’s so weird!” from my friends in response. Losing teeth wasn’t weird to me at all, so I couldn’t believe that they were so freaked out by it! Why even flinch about something that normal?

I then realized that our different reactions occurred because we were all viewing the situation from different networks of interpretation. In the most basic sense, the network of interpretation is the framework for how one processes new knowledge. As a hockey fan, missing teeth is pretty commonplace and I’ve gotten used to the sight of it. It is almost as though the hockey world has made me immune to the fact that missing your front teeth is not a normal, or usually attractive, trait. My friends, however, who are used to seeing only people with full sets of teeth, were shocked by the idea that hockey players could easily be missing their very front tooth. I realized that the missing teeth didn’t actually seem normal to them, in fact, I think they were pretty disgusted by the whole idea of it.

Though I generally remain pretty mainstream and unoriginal with all of my actions, this whole event made me think about the fact that the hockey world essentially has its own counterculture, where missing teeth, or punching people in a game, is okay. I think this is true for a lot of things, whether you listen to certain bands that make tattoos seem totally normal to you, or whether you think it’s cool to wear chains around your neck. Ultimately, even in a single society, American society for my specific example, I realized that there are so many different networks of interpretation. I also thought, though, that this is what makes individuals so unique; throughout life your interpretations are changing based on what has happened in your life up to that point, and in which areas of society you are actively participating.

For me, as one who is very engaged as a hockey fan, losing teeth is pretty normal and sometimes even to be expected. I realized this week that to others, this may not be the case, but that difference is part of what separates me from everyone else, and that’s a cool thing.

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Join or Die

Getting involved at my high school always seemed like such a chore: picking out which activity sounded the most impressive, attending meetings, actually participating, doing some project to get credit for being in the group, etc. This not only added stress to my life but also made days seem long and laborious. Now, in the wonderfully large realm of activities at Penn State, this process has completely changed for me. I get to go attend things and join groups of which I actually want to be a part. The question is – what matters the most to me?

This question brings me to my personal experiences with rhetoric over the past few weeks. I’ve attended the first meetings for a fair amount of clubs, and these meeting are fascinating because the officers are essentially thrown to the front of a room in an attempt to put on a show about why this club is amazing and fun. The rhetoric used in these situations varies, but the objective is always the same: entice new members to join.

The rhetorical devices that most commonly come up would be an appeal to the ethos of the group, in which the leaders of the session discuss fun they have had in the past; they may even show a video of the group’s antics in order to show the positive experience all members will have. This is usually followed by an activity such as a name or trivia game as a proof of how much fun the group actually does have while including the potential members. In many cases, simple as these actions may be, I have found them to be effective as I sit there thinking “I really do want to join this club, befriend everyone, and have the best experience of my life because of it!”

Though I probably won’t die if I choose not to join a club, the officers are certainly doing everything to assure me that my social life just might perish.

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