6 Ways to Get Anyone to Believe a Clearly Fake News Story AOW #24

http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-ways-to-get-anyone-to-believe-clearly-fake-news-story/

This week I read 6 Ways to Get Anyone to Believe a Clearly Fake News Story, which explained to me different ways that could be used to develop fake news stories. It mentioned that our society is ignorant on a lot of subjects and we are also to lazy to research what we read, so believing crazy stories happened to us many times before. I noticed as I was reading that a lot of the topics connected to the appeals. For example, one of the topics was about how we make specific studies more general to make it appealing to the reader. This appealed to the logos by sounding so smart that people do not understand you, but still believe whatever you say. Also, the article talked about how heart-wrenching stories made many believe stories that weren't true and I thought that that was a demonstration of how pathos is the most powerful appeal.

The author of the piece was Christina H, she has written many other pieces for cracked that have been viewed by millions of people. This piece was written in a time where Americans have all of the resources they need to research everything at the tips of their fingers, but never do because they are too lazy. This helped give the article a little humor because they had examples of news articles that weren't true. The reason this article was written was to provide the lazy American a realization of how lazy they are and hopefully change so we do not make mistakes like believing these news articles again. The audience that it was written for was the average, lazy American who believe everything they read, no matter how crazy the stories are. Rhetorical elements in the piece were in the ways to get people to believe clearly fake news stories. One point was that exaggerating scientific breakthroughs works because people do not know much on the subject, so the reader feels like the evidence applied to the logos. Also, the article said that heart-wrenching stories work because people do not want to sound heartless by denying them; this is also an application to pathos. The author reached their purpose because they effectively made me a little paranoid about where the articles I read are coming from and gave me a motivation to research the stories instead of just believing everything I read.

The Genome Revolution AOW #23

http://www.ted.com/talks/richard_resnick_welcome_to_the_genomic_revolution.html

In the video in the link above Richard Resnick talks about the advances in genome technology that many people are not aware of. He explained that the technology we have allows us to genetically sequence a human, and compare it to other genetic sequences to discover the source of a disease or sickness. People who were genetically sequenced and were helped in the end were mentioned to show the audience how useful this technology can be. The speaker in this video is Richard Resnick. He is CEO of GenomeQuest, which is a company that builds software to support genomic medicine. Before this, he was CEO of Mosaic Bioinformatics and a member of the Human Genome Project at MIT. He has been involved in many organisations involving genetics for a very long time which makes him very credible for this topic. The context that surrounds this speech is that we are having breakthroughs in this science that would be very helpful for all humans, but not many are informed of this or are using this science to its full potential. The audience of this speech is all humans who do not know how amazing this technology truly is. This is why the speech was made, to develop interest and inform the uninformed. The rhetorical elements used in this speech are logos, pathos and ethos. The logos was developed through the charts and graphs that project the information and predicted information that support the genetic technology and its usefulness. Pathos was in the piece of this where he tells the stories of individuals who were affected by life-threatening diseases and were saved by the technology of his company. This drew my emotions because I felt bad for the ill individuals and was happy to hear that they were saved by genetic technology. His ethos was established through all of the knowledge he gave us on the subject and the confidence in his voice. I believe that Richard Resnick did accomplish his purpose because he made me interested on this newer technology and informed me of all its amazing capabilities.

The Dog Strikes Back AOW#22

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-9EYFJ4Clo

Since last week was the Superbowl, I decided to rhetorically analyze Volkswagen's commercial which debuted during the game.  In the commercial there is a dog which, upon seeing a Volkswagen car drive by, attempts to run through the door flap to chase it.  The dog gets stuck on the way out because he is too wide to fit through the small exit.  This empowers the dog to want to work out so that he can fit through the door flap.  The dog works out and becomes fit.  The next time a Volkswagen drives by, the dog is able to run through the flap and chase the car.  The commercial then cuts to a scene in the cantina in Star Wars.  Two characters then argue about which commercial was better, this one, or the little kid who used "the force" in last year's commercial.  Then Darth Vader enters the scene and uses the force to choke the guy who thought the dog commercial was better.  This commercial came out while there is also a remake of the first Star Wars in 3D.  The commercial was made so that people feel that Volkswagen cars are better than other cars, leading to more purchases of Volkswagens. This commercial appeals to the general public as the audience, but mainly pet owners and Star Wars fans.  Some rhetorical elements of this piece are its allusion to other commercials and exaggeration of how a Volkswagen will benefit the public.  This exaggeration comes from why the dog exercised.  The commercial tries to say that it was because of its wanting to chase the Volkswagen, which would only add to the benefits of having a Volkswagen.  But the most prominent form of rhetoric in this commercial was the allusion to Volkswagen's previous commercial.  For the people that made the connection between this commercial and the Vader kid who uses "the force" now feel a deeper connection with this company and possibly a stronger wanting for a Volkswagen car.  I believe that the commercial accomplished this purpose mainly through this strong use of allusion.