Steven Johnson Rhetorical Analysis Essay

The Analysis of Steven Johnson’s Watching TV Makes You Smarter
“The best compositions establish a sense of momentum and direction by making explicit connections among their different parts, so that what is said in one sentence (or paragraph) both sets up what is to come and is clearly informed by what has already been said.” This piece of advice that is mentioned in the book “They Say, I say with Readings” is very useful when constructing an elaborate string of ideas and the writer intends to make them flow smoothly and effectively for his audience. The four techniques that are used in implementing this flow are: “using transition terms,” “adding pointing words,” “developing a set of key terms and phrases for each text you write” and “repeating

yourself with a difference.” The writer that I will analyze that illustrates this is Steven Johnson who wrote the Essay “Watching TV Makes You Smarter.”
One of the examples that exemplify this involves his use of the addition of pointing words. As the author is explaining the some of the simplified devices in past TV shows, one of these devices is the “flashing arrow” which is mentioned by the author about four times to emphasize to the audience the importance of those two words. The reason he decides to direct attention to that is to explain how the device of the “flashing arrow” was used to guide the audience and minimizing the amount of analysis the audience has to do in order to make sense of the show they’re watching. Another word that Johnson uses to illustrate this element is “intelligence” under the section where the author is detailing how television has evolved to be more informative for its audience. By reiterating this word, he is continuously telling the audience that they’ve embraced a development in Television narratives that need more analyses and understanding.
The connecting part of an essay has transition terms as an essential part in order to allow the essay to move fluidly. Johnson makes several cases such as using “Since” which is a word used to demonstrate Cause and Effect. When he states “Since Hill Street appeared,” it means that when this show had appeared a change in the way we see narrative structure started evolving since then which is what Johnson is clarifying to the audience. He says the same thing when he writes “Since the early 80’s,” because he’s telling his readers that since that time a change began which started to allow a more complicated set of elements regarding stories to take place. A final example regarding transition within Johnson’s essay is when he discussing the contrast of bland TV with TV with a more complicated narrative structure he decides to Elaborate on this by using the word “That is” in order to introduce and inform his audience about the Sleeper Curve regarding this contrast of television.
Another one of the devices that Steven Johnson uses is repetition of words with different meanings. One of these examples is used when Johnson keeps referring back to the “masses” as his audience and decides to change up the way he refers back to them by uttering “culture” or “mass culture”. In this manner he’s able to emphasize who he’s talking about and give them importance. The same could be said when Johnson is talking about the narrative structure of shows he references like: “Dragnet,” “Starsky and Hutch” or “Hill Street Blues”. He talks about the narratives of these shows in distinct ways so as to not over saturate the word, he does this by mentioning “narrative threads,” and how the story weaves the “distinct strands” to form a cohesive and fluid narrative. The final example of the author implementing this is when he’s describing how intellectual stories have developed over the years. When talking about Bochco’s “Hill Street”, he states the complexity of the story. He elaborates with how “extended” and “interwoven” the plot is even with the “multiple threads” that are introduced within the show.
The final element that the author uses within his article to connect his essay together is the introduction of unique and variant key terms and phrases that connects the subject for the audience.

One of these examples is introduced early on when Johnson is giving the premise of the show 24 in order to show just how intricate the program is. He introduces key terms such as “Muslim,” “torture,” “kill,” “jihadist,” and “terrorist” to emphasize the controversy of the subject matter and narrative. He introduces this in order to present a contrast to the audience of the shows of today that are shown versus the shows 20 years ago that would have never allowed for such elements as this to be shown. The bland contrast between the narrative structure of then and now gives a unique perspective to how the development of story and narrative elements have become more elaborate and complicated for the viewer and audience to analyze. The last example Johnson shows is the various tasks that the viewer has to keep track of within the narrative structure of a show like 24. The viewer has to analyze various parts of the show such as keeping track of the relationships between characters, make certain hypothesizes of what will happen next and most importantly is being very immersive to spot any details within the show which could be important later on. All of these tasks are mentioned by Johnson to illustrate how a viewer won’t just be content to just watch a show without analyzing it further or

how a viewer is now needed to focus in order to keep track of where the story is going than shows like Dragnet and Hutch and Starsky where you would just have to be guided into the plot.
Johnson keeps reiterating the elements that make up an episode of “24” and how these elements have all risen to cater to an audience that can analyze all the stuff that makes up the show.

The elements that Steve Johnson states are all elements that brings the article together that makes sense to the audience in order to be informed. These elements consist of the different transition terms, the pointing words, key terms/phrases and the reiteration of similar words. The Dialogue is also shown from the author about how complicated conversation has risen between basic and complicated TV shows. He shows that in Woody Allen’s “Sleeper” the dialogue is pretty straightforward where the two characters just point out the obvious while explaining to the viewer what is happening and pointing at the mysteries and revealing them so as to not lose the viewer. However, he transitions this to an episode of E.R where the dialogue feels more realistic in the sense that the characters know what they’re talking about and move on to progress the plot without delay only to stop at certain moments to explain vague things even the audience might not understand but only in the sense of hints rather than full blown disclosure. He transitions all this evidence into why a more smart culture is being developed and why it’s a good thing where more subject matter will be able to develop to cater to a more analytical

audience.
In conclusion, there are many elements that help to construct a well thought out paper to inform your audience. Yet the basic foundation for such a paper is to connect your paper with the 4 parts to allow a cohesive essay to flow smoothly. These parts are the transitions to bounce to different topics, pointing words to emphasize to the audience, using varied phrases and key terms to inform and the repetition of words with different terms so as to not over saturate. Put together, Steven Johnson presents many examples of such parts and when analyzed gives birth to a informative paper dedicated to the audience.