In light of my advocacy project focusing on making a short form video pushing for nuclear disarmament, I thought it would be fitting to find and analyze some videos that attempt to do the same. The video that got closest to my purpose was this video by USA Today, which provided viewers with a brief overview of the nuclear arsenals of the world and the treaties that have been successful in lowering the quantities of weapons in these arsenals.  

In contrast to my project, however, this video’s purpose is more to inform than persuade and motivate viewers to act on the issue. Still, the video does emphasize why nuclear weapons are a problem and the consequences that this issue poses. The video begins with shots of nuclear explosions, which instantly grab the attention of the viewer. To further draw the viewer in, the narrator cites statistics of the devastating effects of just one nuclear explosion, from environmental effects to human deaths. While thought provoking, I feel as though just listing statistics doesn’t make the issue feel very personal however, and the video could receive more engagement if it related this to a narrative of an individual in the midst of a nuclear war. If I have time in my project, I should include something like that. After emphasizing the threat, I also think that the video should have included a clear path to action, something else my project should include, however I guess this wasn’t the intention of the video.  

Since the primary intention of this video was to educate and not necessarily persuade, it did an effective job achieving this purpose. Directed towards an audience of everyday Americans without background knowledge of the history of nuclear weapons, the video breaks the issue into separate aspects, and devotes short portions of the video to each topic to fully explain the issue while retaining attention. To enhance ethos, the video includes verbal or visual attributions to the sources for statistics. Similarly, the video uses clean graphics and smooth transitions to further enhance its credibility and remain interesting to the viewer.  

Overall, the rhetoric used in this video efficiently captures the main issues and background information relevant to the nuclear weapon crisis and presents it in an appealing manner to the average American viewer. The short, fast paced layout of the video coupled with appealing visuals is a strategy that would be beneficial to mimic for my advocacy project to accomplish some of the same objectives as this video.