Arianna's RCL Blog who doesn't love rhetoric and civic life?

Artifact: A video by Piled High and Deeper (PHD Comics) about the benefits of vaccinations (10/30/13)

1. Introduction: begin immediately with the Youtube video (only play 33 seconds)
   1. Link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_6QW9sNPEY
   2. Briefly explain the part of the video shown
   1. Attention Grabber: When I was a child, my mother made sure I received a healthy amount of vaccines to help my immune system fight off diseases.
   2. Relevance: Why are vaccines such a big deal in communities? Vaccinations are important to the community, thereby making them a civic artifact. Vaccinations are important because they prevent several diseases such as small pox, polio, pertussis, and many more.
   3. Establish Credibility: Now, the video shown was made by PHD Comics, which at first does not necessarily sound like the most credible source, it is actually ran by a very intelligent man. The owner of the site is Jorge Cham, who got his PhD in Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University, and was a full-time Instructor and researcher at the California Institute of Technology from 2003-2005.
   4. Thesis: This pro-vaccination video made by Piled High and Deeper Comics encourages the viewers to have themselves vaccinated by providing statistics and examples of the benefits of vaccines, thereby appealing to the emotions and intelligence of the viewer.
   5. Preview: Now, I am going to explain how the video shown appeals to logos and pathos through the use of examples and facts mentioned in the video.
2. Body: 3 main points with transitions
   1. Main point #1: Logos- appeal to reason due to the use of statistics
      1. “millions of kids each year get immunized”
      2. “diseases like small pox and polio now affect far fewer people because of widespread vaccinations”
      3. Explanation of what a vaccine is actually made of
      4. “herd immunity”
      5. TRANSITION: Not only does the video appeal to logos, it also appeals to pathos, the appeal to passion and emotion.
   2. Main point #2: Pathos- appeal to passion, emotion
      1. The fact that the video applies to children
      2. Herd immunity refers to when an individual becomes affected by a disease. Rather than the entire community also getting the disease, the vaccine protects them. This also protects the elders
         1. The image of an older women with a walker appeals to the emotions of the viewers
      3. TRANSITION: So, we know some benefits of vaccinations, why do people not like them?
   3. Main point #3: Why should people stop being anti-vaccination
      1. In the past, when vaccines were first invented some of them did more harm than good. Lucky we live in modern America, where medicine and research is something we have excel in.
         1. 1798- Edward Jenner, first ever vaccine—for small pox
      2. Anti-vaccination people claim that vaccines equal autism
         1. Most popular claim is that thimerosal (a mercury-based preservative once common in vaccines) causes autism
         2. Thimerosal does not exist in vaccines (other than influenza, which infants and children do not receive)
      3. One parent’s decision not to vaccinate his or her children does in fact negatively affect the community.
         1. Those who are vaccinated will not be affected by a person who has not be vaccinated, but an infant who has not had their vaccinations could very much so become ill as well.
3. Conclusion:
   1. Reiterate thesis
   2. End with “Why are vaccines your civic duty?”

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 16th, 2015 at 11:10 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.