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Political rhetoric and the media and the public
The effectiveness of rhetorical devices
The effectiveness of rhetorical devices
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Rhetoric is often used by the media to sway or influence the opinion of the reader. This influence is not always deliberately used, but it is used nonetheless. This influence can affect a number of things, including politics. This influence on politics makes the rhetoric a useful yet possibly dangerous tool. The connotations in the words used by the media in regards to politics can greatly influence potential voters. This rhetoric influences the way that ordinary citizens see the candidates and the election system as a whole. Studying the way that the rhetoric influences these citizens may help future candidates use this language to their advantage. Also, citizens may be abIe to better equipped to determine whether or not they have formed their own opinions without bias from the media or outside sources. Knowing how the media influences citizens can help one to remain logical. Also, …show more content…
candidates in future elections may need people to help translate and use the rhetoric presented by the media. Gillian Fournier, in her definition in the Encyclopedia of Psychology, explains an effect called the "Mere Exposure Effect". The Mere Exposure Effect is “a psychological phenomenon whereby people feel a preference for people or things simply because they are familiar.” In simpler terms, this means that the more often someone is exposed to something, the more likely they are to develop a preference for it. This effect may be partially responsible for the winners of elections. If a person sees a candidate’s name or face often enough, they may begin to have a preference for that candidate. In a study done on the Mere Exposure Effect by Hsin-I Liao, Su-Ling Yeh, and Shinsuke Shimojo, it was found that a visage that was presented more than once was considered as preferential to a visage only presented once. Landscapes had no change, but faces became more often selected as the preferred picture. This Novelty vs. Familiarity study reinforced the principles (of humans but not landscapes) of the Mere Exposure Effect. Mahamat Dodo wrote an article titled "My Theory on the Trump's Phenomenon. Why Donald Trump? And Why Now?" which is part of an issue of the Journal of Alternative Perspectives in the Social Sciences, a peer reviewed publication. Dodo explains the reasons that Trump has become a "phenomenon". Trump makes brash statements and that provides news coverage, which makes his name and face more familiar to Americans (and the rest of the world. This familiarity helps to ensure the maximum return out of the Mere Exposure Effect. Trump's name and an unreasonable quote have become a form of clickbait. The media’s rhetoric also influence the way we see a person.
Rebecca Solnit wrote an essay called “When the Media is the Disaster,” that explains how after major natural disasters, survivors are often discredited by the rhetoric used by the media. Solnit analyzes the way that the media uses words like looters to portray survivors of natural disasters in a bad light. This portrayal extends beyond just survivors to businesses and people. Cheryl Wetzstein, in an article called “Planned Parenthood Kept Aborted Babies Alive to Harvest Organs, Ex-Technician Says,” explains the public claims, by a former technician for Planned Parenthood, that aborted babies’ organs were harvested and sold. Some of the words used, such as harvested and trafficking are used as rhetoric. Although in the end, this statement by the ex-technician is disproven, the damage had been done. Even if a reader has been informed that the information is false, the way that the initial information is presented makes the reader’s perception of the situation change to believe that this could be
happening. Some of this rhetoric comes directly from the campaigns themselves. In an article by Calvin Woodward, “AP FACT CHECK: Trump Aide Pushes False Story of Vote Fraud,” Woodward checks out the validity of a statement by Presidential advisor Stephen Miller, which included some rhetoric about voter fraud. Miller claimed that "You [New Hampshire voters] have millions of people who are registered in two states or who are dead who are registered to vote. And you have 14 percent of noncitizens, according to academic research, at a minimum, are registered to vote, which is an astonishing statistic." Fraud generally has bad connotations and is seen as a detriment. This fact check proves Miller’s claims to be false. In fact, the originator of the study that Miller is referring to, David Becker, said the study never found fraud. “Moreover, he said voting integrity in 2016 was ‘better in this election than ever before.’” The rhetoric used by the media, and the misinterpreted quotes used, helped to increase exposure for the both nominees in the Presidential election. While most experts agree that rhetoric can be useful occasionally, there is an argument that sometime there is an excess or a deficit of it in the media. Rhetoric is continually used in media such as news and social media, with little regard for the impact of the rhetoric on the public. The media exposes the reader to a person and then influences the reader’s perspective of said person. Politics are especially swayed by the media’s portrayal of the candidates.
In the story, What is Rhetoric by William Covino and David Jolliffe, there are a wide variety of topics discussed that are inextricably interwoven with the concept “rhetoric.” Rhetoric, as defined by the authors, is “the study and practice of shaping content.” Consequently, my first thought was: Ok, this is a rather broad and opaque description; my successive thought, however, was one of astonishment, inasmuch as the authors went on to further elucidated this jargon. In doing so, the authors distilled the most crucial elements of what is rhetoric— the prevalence of discourse community, and how appealing language is often a precursor to persuasion.
398).It is also stated that news divisions reduced their costs, and raised the entertainment factor of the broadcasts put on air. (p. 400). Secondly, the media determines its sources for stories by putting the best journalists on the case and assign them to areas where news worthy stories just emanates. (p.400). Third, the media decides how to present the news by taking the most controversial or relevant events and compressing them into 30 second sound-bites. (p.402). finally, the authors also explain how the media affects the general public. The authors’ state “The effect of one news story on public opinion may be trivial but the cumulative effect of dozens of news stories may be important. This shows a direct correlation between public opinions and what the media may find “relevant”. (Edwards, Wattenberg, Lineberry, 2015, p.
...o engage in destructive rhetoric are held to task, rhetoric cannot simply be attributed to some state of affairs, while the rhetorician from whose lips the rhetoric emerges is held to no ethical standard. Certainly it is conceivable that rhetoric can have destructive consequences. Rhetoric seems to have played a central role in the deterioration of people’s faith in their systems of government, or the electoral process by which they choose their representatives. A view of rhetoric in which the rhetorician is accountable for the effects of the change they inflict upon the world could lead to less destructive rhetoric and a society which operates on the solid ground of personal responsibility.
Former president Bush speech "Address to Joint Session of Congress Following 9/11 Attacks" and Malala Yousafzai's speech “Youth Takeover of the United Nation" both shows exemplary examples of how those in power can use rhetoric to affect society. Bush’s speech is right after the 9-11 attack so Bush uses rhetoric in a negative way because his focus is on war, Malala uses it in a positive way because she has just recovered from a getting shot for fighting for women’s education. So her focus is bringing people together and help focus on children and womens rights. The rhetoric appeals that they used frequently throughout their speech are diction, pathos, ethos, and logical fallacies. Rhetoric is a form of writing that authors, speakers use and
It is very common among the United States’ political sphere to rely heavily on T.V. commercials during election season; this is after all the most effective way to spread a message to millions of voters in order to gain their support. The presidential election of 2008 was not the exception; candidates and interest groups spent 2.6 billion dollars on advertising that year from which 2 billion were used exclusively for broadcast television (Seelye 2008.) Although the effectiveness of these advertisements is relatively small compared to the money spent on them (Liasson 2012), it is important for American voters to think critically about the information and arguments presented by these ads. An analysis of the rhetoric in four of the political campaign commercials of the 2008 presidential election reveals the different informal fallacies utilized to gain support for one of the candidates or misguide the public about the opposing candidate.
To the members of the support group Naïve People who are Addicted to Mass media and Believe Anything They Hear or Read Anonymous my purpose of being here today is to help you better understand how to analyze the mass media you come across. Mass media is the news, newspapers, magazines, the radio, and the television. The way I’m going to analyze it, is by rhetorical analysis. Rhetoric is how effective the writer is in persuading the reader by using speech and compositional techniques. In order for you to be able to become more apprehensive when reading information, I will be analyzing the ad for Vitaminwater featuring Kobe Bryant. Vitaminwater was introduced in 1996. It is a mineral water that is given out by Energy Brands. Like many sports drinks they use famous athletes to speak for them and promote them. Vitaminwater’s ad with Kobe Bryant is successful because it persuades people to buy their product because it’s, “The Most Valuable Power.”
Rhetoric is something that has been studied and utilized since the days of Plato and Aristotle to even now in the coming presidential election between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. In order to become a successful “rhetor”, one must learn the art of being persuasive to the audience of choice. In the course of history there have been many successful figures who have used rhetoric to influence people to join their movement. One cannot deny though that over time rhetoric has had to evolve with enhanced technology and new public interactions, such as social media and the internet. This paper will highlight Aristotle and some of his theories, David Ewoldsen and a few studies he contributed to in regards to people being
Charles Krauthammer affectively appeals to pathos by with examples of how Planned Parent Hood speaks about the fetuses they abort and using their organs for sale or research. Krauthammer really grabs our emotions when he explains how a Planned Parenthood official discussed selling fetus organs over lunch in a “cold” and “jocular” way. Saying how her remarks “lacked compassion” (paragraph 2 Krauthammer). The official said she wanted to make enough money off the unborn child’s organs to buy a Lamborghini and laughed. Krauthammer also brings to attention how another Planned Parenthood official explained how to use “a less crunchy technique” to spare as many organs as possible
The way the media frame issues has a subtle yet significant effect on the general public. Studies have shown that frames can help determine which procedures we find medically necessary (Edwards, Elwyn, Covey, Matthews, & Pill, 2001), can influence our ability to recall critical details of a news story (Valkenburg, 2000), and can even subtly influence elections (Shah, Domke, & Wackman, 1996). Given the impact frames can have on the general public, it is important to have a clear way to conceptualize and measure their effects.
Policymaking is a political process which is affected by various social and economic factors (Hofferbert, 1974) and media systems play an integral role in shaping the social context in which policies are developed. Through the media, citizens learn how government policies will affect them, and governments gain feedback on their policies and programs. Media systems act as the primary channels between those who might want to influence policy and the policymakers '' controlling the scope of political discourse and regulating the flow of information. Textbook policymaking follows an orderly sequence where problems are identified, solutions devised, policies adopted, implemented, and lastly evaluated (Mazamanian & Sabatier, 1989). In reality, the policy process is more fluid, where policies are formed through the struggle of ideas of various advocacy coalitions (Sabatier, 1991) in what has been described as a policy primeval soup (Kingdon, 1995). The policies, on which the media focuses can, and often does, play an important part in determining the focal issues for policymakers.
The effective use of rhetoric can spur people into action for worthy causes, bring about positive health changes, and even persuade one to finish a college education. In contrast, like most things in life, what can be used for good can also be used in a negative way to elicit emotions such as outrage, fear, and panic. This type of rhetoric often uses fallacious statements in an appeal to emotion which complicates the matter even more as the emotions are misdirected. Unfortunately, the daily newspapers are filled with numerous examples of fallacious statements. Within the past week, the following five examples appeared in the New York Times and USA Today. The examples included statements that demonstrated scapegoating, slippery slope, ad hominem, straw man, line-drawing, arguments from outrage, and arguments from envy.
In the US, mass media plays a significant role in politics. One of the key roles mass media plays in politics includes the airing of the platforms of various politicians. The media influences the view of people on politics and politicians. As the opinion of individuals is affected, the results of the votes are consequently changed (Holden, 2016).
"Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one." This quote by A.J. Liebling illustrates the reality of where the media stands in today's society. Over the past twenty years there has been an increase in power throughout the media with regard to politics. The media's original purpose was to inform the public of the relevant events that occurred around the world. The job of the media is to search out the truth and relay that news to the people. The media has the power to inform the people but often times the stories given to the public are distorted for one reason or another. Using slant and sensationalism, the media has begun to shape our views in society and the process by which we choose our leaders. There was once a time when the government used the media as a medium to influence voters, committees, communities etc. Recently, it has been the presidents of major media outlets that have not only exercised power over the public but also made their presences felt in government and in the halls of congress. When the word democracy is thrown about it usually has to do with the rights or original intentions for a group or organization. The first group intended to be influenced by the media was the informed voter. Political parties along with the government used a variety of media resources to persuade the voter or in effect receive a vote for their cause. Returning to the thought of ?democracy? the question is, what was the original intention of the media with relation to the theme of democracy and the informed voter? To analyze this thought thoroughly one must first grasp an understanding of the basic definition of democracy.
The current role of mass media in politics has definitely played a significant role in how view and react to certain events and issues of the nation. Newspapers, magazines, television and radio are some of the ways information is passed onto many of the citizens. The World Wide Web is also an information superhighway, but not all of the sources on the Internet are credible. Therefore, I will only focus on the main three types of media: written, viewed, and audible, and how they affect whether or not democracy is being upheld in the land of the free. The media includes several different outlets through which people can receive information on politics, such as radio, television, advertising and mailings. When campaigning, politicians spend large quantities of money on media to reach voters, concentrating on voters who are undecided. Politicians may use television commercials, advertisements or mailings to point out potentially negative qualities in their opponents while extolling their own virtues. The media can also influence politics by deciding what news the public needs to hear. Often, there are more potential news stories available to the media than time or space to devote to them, so the media chooses the stories that are the most important and the most sensational for the public to hear. This choice can often be shaped,
In our democratic society, mass media is the driving force of public opinion. Media sources such as Internet, newspaper, news-broadcasts, etc, play significant roles in shaping a person’s understanding and perception about the events occurred in our daily lives. As long as the newspapers, internet, network television, etc, continued to be easily accessible to the public, the media will continue to have an influence in shaping its opinions. Factors such as agenda-setting, framing and priming help shape the public opinions. Agenda-setting is when the media focuses their attention on selected issues on which the public will form opinion on, whereas framing allows the media to select certain aspects about the problem and then make them appear more salient. Similarly, priming works by repeatedly exposing certain issues to public. As the issues get more exposure, the individual will be more likely to recall or retain the information in their minds. This paper will discuss these three factors played out systemically by media and how our opinions are constantly being influence and shape by them.