Rhetoric on the Study of Culture - Essay Example

?First Last information Comparative media analysis Introduction This paper is a rhetoric and cultural analysis of different ways of passing on a message using set of objects multiple media. The multiple media will be passing on the same message and the rhetoric and cultural analysis will show the similarity or difference in how the message is perceived in relation to each media. Different media sources can invoke different emotions and understanding of the same message (McLuhan). This is done using different set of objects in the several types of media. There is a difference how a text can relay a message to how an image can relay the same message and this paper will be analyzing the rhetoric devices in each of the media objects. Rhetoric and cultural/critical analysis will emphasize on the study of culture, public discourse and texts, and its analysis processes of the influence to the society in multiple media, including essays, books, mass-mediated, speeches and online public discourse. Different authors in multiple media use texts, videos, films, images and other sets of objects in media in order to express and bring out a message that will be interpreted differently with regard to culture. Context One message that has incorporated several sets of objects was the campaign advert of Ron Paul in 2012 when he was campaigning for GOP nomination. He made use of visual aid to pass on a message that would boost his polls in the presidential election. The visual aid made use of texts and video to create an impression in the minds of people. This advert was run on national television in the different media companies. Running the advert using television media achieved a lot compared to media’s like newspaper that many do not read in depth but are interested in the overview of the message. Using television to convey the message meant that the message would capture a large audience. In America, 98% of the households own a television set hence airing the advert would lead to lots of views (McDonough). Compared to the number of people who read text in newspaper the use of video was best suited to deliver the message. In America the people who read the printed newspaper are estimated to be at 23%. Main aim of using media is to pass on information and thus there is need to choose the best method (PewResearchCenter). The presidential aspirant also made use of newspaper to pass on his message in the campaign but the video is what created impact in the rise of his poll. The text and video are connected in that they both are being used to convey a similar message. Rhetoric Analysis The rhetoric devices identifiable in the set of objects used in the television and newspaper was the use of Enumeration. Ron Paul makes a details summary of the troops in the Middle East and gives a vivid description of the kind of lifestyle in the Middle East with the presence of foreign troops in the land. This vividness helps great a clear picture in the mind of the viewer. He has also made use of metaphors where he tries to compare the situation in the Middle East with the hypothetical situation in Texas. The metaphor is seen where foreign troops have come and positioned themselves in Texas and he says that the same situation in the Middle East. He has also used allusion to make reference of the promise made by President Obama during campaigns that he would get the troops of America out of the Middle East but he has not done that hence he has not kept his promise and thus he should not be chosen (O’Donnell). These are the noticeable rhetorical devices you will find in the video. There was also amplification or the use of the word revolution. His campaign was based on revolution and freedom rhetoric to capture the audience through their patriotism. The similarity between the video and the text is that they are conveying the same message using the same rhetoric devices. The video and the text however have very different impacts to the society that the message is intended for. The Video was aired in Television. The effect of enumeration, use of metaphor, allusion and amplification is to make his message more vivid in the mindset of the Americans. He hoped to capture the attention of as many people as possible (O’Donnell). The text and video may be set of objects in the multiple media, in this case, that are in the same group because they have the same message hence that’s why we are going to compare them together. The difference that will arise in the text and video however is the level of influence they are able to make on the audience and the degree of impact that will be created by message. Playing the video advert in the television brings in rhetoric associated with television. Rhetoric in television works to shape the audiences objectives by noticeably promoting a program and trying to direct the audience perceptions through words and images (O’Donnell). Viewers choose what to accept as message, however, Rhetoric characterized in television actively come up in the shaping of these choices. The video has made use of visual and audio effects that will invoke excitement and emotion in the viewers. The video is very captivating to watch and it attracts the viewers’ attention very fast due to the visual effect in the video. Text in newspaper lack this and thus advertising in the newspaper will have no use of effects that highly assist shape opinion of the viewer through invocation of the desired emotion. To shape opinion using text, one has to use a particular combination of words. The video and text have made use of rhetorical appeal to the audience/viewers in various perspectives. The first rhetorical form of appeal is pathos (John and Bean). This is a form of appeal interested in persuasion by appealing to the viewer’s emotion. This campaign adverts uses the majority of Americans emotions on the view of troops being in the Middle East and thus the video further instigates these emotions so that the audience opinion is shaped to be that of not supporting troops in the Middle East. The second rhetoric appeal is logos which is persuasion through reasoning. The adverts have shown that the promises made to remove the troops from Middle East have not been met. The advert also reasons out the effects of having foreign soldiers in Middle East. The third rhetoric appeal is ethos. This is convincing the audience by depicting the good character of the author of the message who is Ron Paul. These rhetorical approaches led Ron Paul to have an increase in the number of supporters backing him. His policies were persuasive to a large audience hence his rise in polls to a significant level (John and Bean). Cultural Analysis This campaign advert was made by Ron Paul in the United States of America. The advert was to be presented in America with the aim of gaining supporters. The target audience was the citizens of United States of America who were aged between 18 and above. The advert intended to deliver a non-war approach towards Middle East. He wanted to spread the culture of peace and revolution in United States and that it should withdraw its troops from the Middle East region. The main intention in terms of culture that the advert wanted to portray is that keeping of promises was crucial to every president and that President Obama had failed this culture of keeping promises by not withdrawing the troops in the Middle East. The people of United States of America have overtime started supporting the withdraw of the troops from the war torn region in Middle East due to the many deaths to the soldiers and the citizens of the middle east countries. The opinion this advert shapes in the mind of people is that the troops should come back home and thus the immediate effect of the advert to the people of a similar opinion was that of support to Ron Paul (Ron). Culture is a set of attitudes, beliefs, behaviors, and values. The culture in America was highly targeted by this advert in two dimensions. The first point of view targets the Americans belief that they have to keep any promise they make. This will help uphold ethical values. The advert creates an opinion that to ensure these values are up held would be by choosing a leader ready to revolutionize the current system that has got soldiers in foreign land to bring them back home. The promise to bring them back home was made by president Obama but he did not uphold his promise. This is heavily emphasized in the advert so that the opinion of the viewers is shaped in accordance to maintain of good values (Ron). The second point of view that the campaign advert puts across is the culture of maintaining and spreading peace across the world. The soldiers in Middle East were satirically depicted to maintain peace in Middle East with use of visual effects on the video. The satire used brings out that the troops are harming children and women and doing all forms of illegal acts because they are in foreign land where the law there does not apply to them. Those who believe in peace will obviously have their opinion shaped by this advert to support the revolution of America by Ron Paul. Other viewers who did not know of these happenings in the Middle East will base their support of Ron Paul through their prejudiced decision brought about by the advert (Ron). Remediation The use of text in printed newspaper is quickly remediating into online news and quite a number of people have embarked on reading news from online news (Bounegru). Printed newspapers are quickly losing their position in the media and being replaced with online news. The use of video however is holding up strong. The fact that videos are to be used in televisions which are hyper mediated (Grusin and Bolter). Television will be able to merge with recent computer controlled media but it will still be differentiable. Conclusion The paper has well come up with a rhetorical and cultural analysis of videos and text. Reading this paper has equipped you as the reader with the knowledge on how the two set of objects in media influence the perception of the audience using rhetorical devices in the objects and rhetorical appeal as was invented by the Greek. The perception has also been revealed to be dependent on the culture of the audience. Works Cited Bounegru, Liliana. Remediation and Premediation as Medium Specificity in Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin. 26 February 2011. Web. 18 November 2013. D., John and Bean, John. Writing Arguments. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon, 1998. Print. Grusin, Richard and Bolter, Jay. Remediation: Understanding the media. Massachusetts: MIT press, 2000. Hard cover. McDonough, Pat. Media and Entertainment . 29 February 2012. web. 18 November 2013. McLuhan, Marshall. Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. Massachusetts: The MIT Press; (rev)94 Edition, 1964. Paperback. O’Donnell. Rhetoric and Culture. 2007. Document. PewResearchCenter. Number of Americans Who Read Print Newspapers Continues Decline. 11 October 2012. Web. 18 November 2013. Ron, Paul. Ministries, Wrb. Ron Paul 2012. IMAGINE (New Ad Campaign). 2012. web. 18 November 2013. Read More