Rhetoric in Social Media

Social media plays a huge role in modern society.  One of the most difficult questions to answer is whether that role is positive or negative.  For instance, social media sites such as Facebook enhance advertisement opportunities by allowing companies to reach out to the public.  On the other hand, they can lead to negative ramifications such as cyber bullying, leaking of private information, and the destruction of relationships.  When it comes to the discussion of rhetoric, it is once again difficult to determine the nature of the connotations of social media.

Rhetoric is the art of using language to successfully persuade and impact others, and when it comes to social media this art is often overlooked.  However, the rhetoric involved in appealing to others through sites such as Facebook cannot be analyzed in the same terms as rhetoric used in daily life and nonviolent argumentation.  For instance, in order to catch a viewer’s attention, a Facebook status must be short, to the point, and intensely interesting.  Therefore, rhetoric on Facebook is not as elegant, detailed, or developed as the rhetoric utilized in a face-to-face setting.  Nevertheless, rhetoric can still be utilized much more successfully than it currently is in the world of social media.

One of the rhetorical benefits of social media is the opportunity it provides to build one’s own ethos.  However, this does not mean simply bragging about one’s accomplishments through egotistic statuses.  Instead, ethos can be built effectively by creating unassuming yet complimentary profiles and statuses that focus on positive impacts on society.  Too often, social media contributes to a negative image of its users because they do not monitor what material they post to the Internet.

Another element of rhetoric that can be taken advantage of through social media is pathos.  For example, many charitable campaigns are started through Facebook using emotional persuasion to gather more support.  These campaigns draw on personal experiences with the cause, sympathy, and empathy to influence Facebook users to join the campaign and spread awareness through status updates.  However, these campaigns lose their credibility if an effective ethos has not been established.

While rhetoric is adapting constantly as communication methods evolve in modern society, it is often difficult to identify rhetoric within these new mediums of contact.  Within social media, rhetoric is often underutilized or incorrectly utilized.  If social media users learn to take advantage of rhetoric within sites such as Facebook, they will build their credibility through ethos and be able to create more of an impact.  They will also gain the ability to use pathos to gather support for causes they believe in.  Social media can be a platform upon which to develop an influential position in society, but only if rhetoric is utilized effectively.

Kairos..How It Impacted My Vote

Bright posters and loud students urging me to choose the candidate they support create a sensory overload that I have difficulty transcending.  All around me I hear and see appeals to “Vote Romney” or “Choose the Candidate who Supports Students.” Before me is a man holding a white sheet with large bold lettering.  He is standing in front of the voting lines, so I assume he is important.  As I walk toward my designated line, he does not make any move to get out of my way.  Instead, he thrusts the sheet into my hand with zeal.  Due to the man’s position, I perceive that he has just handed me voting directions, and I am grateful for his help.  However, as I begin to read the paper, I realize that I have been misled.

The man has not gifted me with help as I prepare to vote for the first time.  Rather, he has attempted to affect my voting choices, as all the other campaign posters and extremely opinionated students have tried to do.  The sheet is a rhetorical persuasion to vote for a candidate who (according to the sheet) supports Penn State and its students.  Information on the handout includes claims that the candidate’s opponent has approved bills and acts that hurt Penn State.  My first thought is to throw the sheet away.  After a second, though, I decide to look for the candidate on the ballot.  In the end, I vote for this candidate due to the paper I had been handed minutes before I received my ballot.

The importance of the incident I experienced while voting exemplifies the significance of kairos in the rhetorical arena.  I had been handed information at a time when this information was most relevant and I was most vulnerable to its appeals.  Moreover, I did not receive any data to counter the information I was given.  Therefore, I had no contradiction from the opposing candidate and no reason to doubt the information.  The man who handed me the data, knowingly or not, utilized kairos to impact how I voted.  He achieved his goal due to his ability to time his appeal perfectly.  When utilized appropriately, kairos can be the deciding factor in the effectiveness of a rhetorical appeal.

ASPCA Overdoes It

The slow lamenting music starts.  The singer sounds so bereaved and despairing that it’s all you can do not to burst into tears. It gets worse.  Next, the image of an abandoned Golden Labrador slowly enlarges on the screen.  Now the tears are really coming on strong.  Oh god, you say to yourself, not again.  It’s the commercial for the ASPCA and you immediately change the channel.

The goal of ASPCA advertisements is to raise money to help abused or abandoned animals through donations, or to gain homes for these helpless animals.  While not all viewers change the television channel when an ASPCA commercial is aired, in my experience that has been the common trend.  The reason for this ineffective advertising is an overuse of pathos.  ASPCA commercials are characterized by morbid music and doleful depictions of abused or abandoned animals.  While emotional appeals are very efficient in many arguments, the ASPCA is overbearing in its emphasis on upsetting imagery and statements.  While pity and sympathy are successfully drawn from the audience, the feeling of guilt is also evoked because viewers are made to feel bad if they do not immediately support the cause.  This could possibly be avoided if the commercials expressed more positive ideas and logistics.

Viewers do not only avoid the message imparted in ASPCA commercials because they feel guilty, they also change the channel because the advertisements are simply too upsetting.  The overwhelming sadness evoked by the commercials is not an enjoyable sensation, and it is common for viewers to try to escape this feeling.  While the commercial is trying to convey the importance of engaging in a particular civic duty, it does not utilize rhetoric in a manner that portrays the civic duty in a favorable light.  It is unfortunate that advertisements for such a commendable civic duty are not more effective.

Rhetoric in Reporting

What draws you to a newspaper article or online article? Is it the size of the article, the picture that accompanies it, or the page it is on? Generally, the major enticement when it comes to reading an article is the loud title.  When writing an article, reporters must consider who their audience will be and how their audience will react to a title.  Reporters must ask themselves if they want to attract readers through pathos, logos, or ethos.  In this way, rhetoric is an intrinsic element of reporting and news delivery.

First, I’d like to analyze the use of pathos in advertising the news to the public.  Let’s take a look at this article: http://www.thenews.com.pk/article-68222-Seven-dead,-22-hurt-in-Khi-twin-blasts.  How do you feel when you read the title presented on this Web page?  Shock, horror, and sympathy are the emotions that come to mind. Therefore, we can conclude that this reporter utilized pathos to reach out to his audience.

Next, let’s discuss how a reporter could attract his audience with a logos appeal.  Take for example this article: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2012/09/18/2300481/us-futures-follow-global-markets.html.  In the title, the reporter makes a logical connection between the mixed stocks for FedEx and a glum outlook for the company.  This logic based on fact might cause readers who are interested in FedEx or stocks to become curious as to why this sequence of events occurred.  If this is the case, then the reporter has successfully drawn in his audience using logic to appeal to their curiosity.

Finally, I’d like to analyze how ethos can be expressed within an article title.  Ethos appeals are found in article titles that address a specific community or community ideal.  Often commonplaces are found in ethos appeals because commonplaces are central to community ideology.  An article title that exemplifies the use of ethos is “NCAA sanctions lead discussion as Student Town Hall Forum.”  The article  (http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/2012/09/20/Administrators_address_public_at_town_hall.aspx) discusses topics that relate specifically to the Penn State community.  Therefore, this title is going to attract readers who have an interest in Penn State.

Presenting the news is a task that requires comprehension and correct application of rhetoric.  Reporters must recognize the best approach to attracting their audience and be able to manipulate rhetoric appeals to fit their needs.  Furthermore, reporters must consider the networks of interpretation that their audience utilizes.  Networks of interpretation can depend not only on the type of news that is presented, but the method of presentation as well.  For instance, local community newspapers are going to consider different networks of interpretation than global news sources.  While rhetoric can be difficult to identify, it is constantly surrounding us in places such as newspapers.

 

Gladiators & Rhetoricians v. Competitions & Arguers

We emulate the ancient philosophers because of the ability they had to maintain peace through their words.  Yet, we condemn them for the enjoyment they derived from violence.  For example, the Romans believed in finding solutions through rhetoric, but they also cheered as gladiators brutally slaughtered each other.  In today’s society, we yell over each other instead of patiently debating.  However, our forms of entertainment have evolved into athletic competitions instead of battles to the death.  How is it that we have lost our ability to be civil though language, yet have increased our ability to be civil in athletic activities?

The answer to this question is simple enough when considering athletic competition.  As society has advanced, we have learned to value human life to a much greater extent.  Unfortunately, in this transition to modern society, we have lost the ability to value perception and opinion.  This imbalance in values seems like a paradox, because valuing human life should logically correspond with valuing human opinion.  Society is not always logical though, which is why this strange trait exists.

Although our present world experiences difficulty utilizing rhetoric in the ebb and flow of everyday life, applications of rhetoric can still be found in surprising places.  For example, opponents in athletic competitions make appeals of a pathos nature when they “go down” from an aggressive play.  In soccer, many players exaggerate injuries in order to persuade the crowd that they deserve a free kick (which can lead to good opportunities on goal).  As a result, the crowd and referees usually favor the hurt player and his or her team.  Another example of rhetoric within soccer occurs when participants are penalized for yelling at a referee instead of calmly debating with him.  While today’s athletic competitions are a far cry from the debates of ancient rhetoricians, they are often more civil than the violent arguments that commonly occur in modern society.  This could imply that we respect the implications of being a civic society within boundaries (such as a game that has explicit rules), but we lose sight of civic duties within undefined settings such as everyday life.