better late than never! post #10

1. My overall exigence is to address the often overseen problem of immigration reform in the United States and bring it to life to the American People. Immigration reform is an issue that we should tackle for it being such a domestic hassle, yet it doesn’t phase most people. My ultimate goal is to educate those who do not have a side and opposers for immigration reform on the facts of how a new policy would benefit all as well as put immigrants in a positive light.

1. I am trying to alter the perceptions of social reality of the present. Like I stated above, the general public are immobilized as well as unaware of the on going issue of immigration reform. Hundreds of thousands of people a year are forced to detention and deportation, and less than half of the people are for not criminals. This should be stopped for it costs us millions of dollars in spending as well as takes the opportunity away from deserving people.

1. The main tactic that I utilize in my prezi is framing. Illegal immigrants are often given a bad reputation by the media as well through word of mouth. In the book, it states “facts are neutral until framed”. I used primarily ethos in my rhetorical artifact by throwing dozens of facts on immigration reforms and immigrants themselves that are positive, such as the fact that immigrants create jobs for the american people through their small businesses or the fact that it would save us millions of dollars in savings if we merely altered our policy. It also says that they “suggest solutions to a problem and provide a rationale for action”. Towards the end of my artifact I provide ways one can contribute to the movement in a simple manner for regular people to use and understand.

1. I decided to use a prezi presentation format for my rhetorical artifact. I felt that since my movement is so broad, it would be difficult to project my rhetorical message through a short video or tangible form such as a pamphlet or a flyer. Plus, so I could skillfully frame my argument, with all the facts and info graphics I utilized, it would be easier and smarter to use a prezi and/or other presentation format to do so.

1. The main conventions I used in my prezi are the infographics. They are colorful with inviting fonts that are easy to catch the viewer’s attention without losing them in the vast amount of information that is given to them. Another thing that keeps the viewer’s attention is how dynamic the format of a prezi is. A prezi, as opposed to PowerPoint or another similar presentation format, is creative and different in the sense that you can do things like jump around and zoom in to specifics to make it easier for the viewer’s eye. With a movement like immigration reform that is often only valued by those who are affected by it, you have to lure the audience in and keep their attention when you can. 

http://prezi.com/2k6r_pezfbgn/we-are-america/

Artifact sources:

1 - http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1112/83552.html

2 - http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/12/19/the-real-deal-on-obamas-deportation-record/

3- http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/09/19/high-rate-of-deportations-continue-under-obama-despite-latino-disapproval/

4- http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/07/12/ten-ways-immigrants-help-build-and-strengthen-our-economy

5-http://www.thedreamisnow.org/take-action#section-write-senators

6-http://detentionwatchnetwork.wordpress.com/2013/07/16/infographic-the-whole-truth-about-immigration-detention/

such final very blog

For my final I chose the Anti-Nuclear movement. This social movement targets nuclear power and weapons stating that they are destroying lives and societies all around the world. The persuasive functions I used within my artifact was transforming perceptions of social reality, specifically perceptions of the present and the future trying to transform the social norm of people being under the influence that society needs to rely on nuclear energy for power and weapons for protection. Also my artifact tries to transform the future by saying that if we transform our social reality in the present and stop nuclear energy and weapon we can transform the future society for the better. Also my artifact uses perception of victimage by showing the damage and death that has been caused to families and children from nuclear reactors meltdowns (Fukushima and Chernobyl were two examples I used) and providing photos of what nuclear radiation does to the victims of fallout/meltdowns of nuclear powers and weapons. The strategies and tactics I used within my artifact were an identification tactic by at the end of my pamphlet I stated "only YOU" can stop nuclear power and another statement saying "together we can help the environment" thus establishing a feeling of comradery. Also I gave examples and various facts of  how nuclear power is harming the environment and hurting the U.S. economy, also it gives historical examples of how nuclear meltdowns destroy lives thus framing nuclear power as a cause of horror and death to all these lives. Also I framed nuclear power to the destruction of nature and the environment by showing how nuclear power plants pollute the atmosphere and sea through showing pictures and stating facts of nuclear waste in the ocean and pollutants in the sky from nuclear reactors. The genre I chose to carry out my rhetorical message is a 3 sided pamphlet. I chose to make a pamphlet because I thought this was the easiest to hand out to people in public, rather than tell them to physically go on a computer and look up a website or sit someone down and show them a slide show. Also I personally felt that with a 3 sided pamphlet I could easily and quickly provide quick facts and information and pictures that wouldn't bore the person reading through it. The conventions of the genre that I chose were an introduction that told the audience what my movement stands for followed by a small paragraph that gave facts and small bits of information that show how nuclear reactors and waste destroys the environment and hurts the U.S. economy. The inside of the pamphlet, after the introduction is followed by examples of Fukushima and Chernobyl to provide information and a historical context of what horrors nuclear power can do. On the back of the pamphlet it provides a 'slogan' of how YOU can help and provide service to the movement and stop the use of nuclear power and weaponry. Also in the end an email and phone number is provided that you can contact. Lastly the whole pamphlet itself is yellow, with anti-nuclear symbols on each corner and as a center piece of the first page showing a form symbolism of how much the movement wants to end the use of nuclear energy and weaponry. Also on the back, where the contact information is placed is pictures of a city ravaged by nuclear fallout and a doll holding a sign with the saying "stop killing the future" providing strong tactic to reach out and transform the social reality of the audience to stop thinking that the use of nuclear energy is beneficial to any form of life.

final blog

The exigence of my project was too enlighten people about the anti-bullying movement and to also persuade others to stand up to bullying. Bullying is an on going problem in many schools nationwide that has only frown due to the expansion of social media sites. Many efforts have been made to promote anti-bullying laws like spreading awareness on the matter and forming global campaigns. Through some research though I discovered that many anti bullying campaigns have been directed to just bullies. I think that those who just watch it happen are just as culpable as the bullies and should instead of step up and do something about the situation. 

By writing my research paper I’ve found that the use of visual rhetoric has been quite beneficial in many social movements and can spread both awareness and deliver shock value to the audience. This is why I decided to make a poster for my final project. The picture that I took was of my friend acting like a bully and giving my other friend a wedgie. Then I photoshopped them to be in a high school and also photoshopped the “bully’s” face onto the bystanders bodies. I did this in order to give the impression to the audience that bystanders who do nothing but stare and laugh at victims are nothing bullies as well. 

The persuasive functions that I used within my project were persuading a course for action and changing perceptions of social reality. In order to do this I used a slogan at the top of my poster which said, “Bystanders are Bullies Too. Don’t Watch, Do Something.” This slogan empowers the audience to stand up and take a course of action to defend the victims of bullies. The  part of the slogan that says, “Bystanders are Bullies Too” also changes the perception that most audiences have that only the people inflicting violence on others are the bullies. 

Some language tactics or strategies that can be found in Chapter 6 and my poster are slogans, framing, and story telling. Through this image the story of a kid being bullied while his peers are just laughing is told which represents the hundreds of similar stories that are told nationwide. Slogans are powerful tools that can become the catch phrase of the movement.  Additionally, the use of framing can be seen in the image. When I photoshopped the bully’s face onto the bystanders bodies I was framing the way the audience perceives the bully. This goes hand in hand with changing perceptions of reality in the slogan because it gives the audience a visual representation of what the slogan is conveying. 

This poster could be spread a number of different ways. This poster could be displayed on a website like stopbullying.org or any other anti-bullying website. Another means of circulation could be billboards which can seen by thousands of people each day. I can also see this image being used in a rally or other form of demonstration. 

Final Blog Post

1) The exigence you are trying to address.
2) The Persuasive Function(s) (Chapter 3) you were trying to carry out, aka your rhetorical goal.
3) The Strategy(ies) and Tactic(s) (Chapter 6) you used to accomplish your rhetorical goal.
4) What genre did you choose to carry out your rhetorical message? Why this type of artifact over others, i.e., why a pamphlet instead of a youtube video?
5) What are the conventions of the genre you chose? How did you work within them and/or go outside of them to compose your artifact? How does the genre help you carry out your goal?

        The exigence I am trying to address is the creation of the independent state of Palestine. Since it's creation in 1947 Israel has been a country under heavy opposition from the Palestinian people and the movement of the Palestine Liberation Organization has been making an effort to eradicate Israel and when that didn't work, coexist with Israel. The PLO is a huge movement that has used a variety of rhetorical strategies to ultimately reach their goal of a State of Palestine. The two rhetorical strategies I used to accomplish this goal are the most common used by the PLO today, altering perceptions of social reality, mobilizing to action, and framing. Altering perceptions of social reality is a huge rhetorical strategy for the PLO as "a problem is not really a problem to an audience until they perceive it as such." (50, Stewart, Smith, & Denton) Much of the world does not think Palestine is worthy of a State or has had their country shrink over time and to prove to the public that they are worthy of an independent state the PLO attempts to re-frame the situation and portray Israel as terrorists and aggressors, which is often the light they are shown in. I used mobilizing for action as a strategy which is used in all parties of the PLO in different ways. Hamas mobilizes native people to often take arms and Fatah mobilizes people to join legislation and diplomacy, but since my artifact is to the general American public rather than people living in Israel, I used the only form of action likely to cause any change: a petition with 1.6 million people. I chose the genre of a presentation, specifically a prezi. I did this is an easy way to relay the information cited by the PLO. The facts and statements made by the PLO most of the time are better presented in a visual manner, such as a map of Israel today vs 30 years ago, and I felt a prezi could accurately relay that information while also be aesthetically more pleasing than a similar presentation like a power-point. The conventions of the genre of a prezi were having a linear path. With a prezi I had to make a flow map and create a visual story, having another genre such as a pamphlet I could have just presented all the information at once to make an argument. A prezi required me to use my rhetorical strategies in an order to make an effective argument. First I had to re-frame Israel in light that the PLO sees them, alter perceptions of reality showing that Palestinians are the real victims in this international crisis, and then finally mobilize for action by offering the petition at the end. Any other rhetorical order and the argument would not have been as strong.  

THE LAST BLOGPOST

The exigence I decided to address is the use of animals as testing subjects for cosmetic products. In the world we live today, there are two things that seem to reign superior when it comes to society: Superficial beauty and consumerism. These two concepts drive the way that the world perceives men, women and even children. Men are only truly powerful if they are wealthy in the US, children are only seen as well liked or popular if they have the newest toy or gadget in school. Women are only seen as worthy beings if they are beautiful. This pressure to be pretty puts a lot of strain on women to do things to fit the image of “beautiful”. Women work to keep up their image with their hair, their clothing, their body shape/image, and most of all, their cosmetics. Finding a woman who has never worn makeup might be more rare than finding a unicorn. Then, the consumeristic society we live in today strives to make as much money as possible with as little costs going into their product/service as possible. This is why makeup companies test their products on poor, helpless animals, and the extreme demand for makeup and other beauty products only encourages this behavior. Beauty is such an imperial part of a woman’s self-worth and societal success, that its incredibly difficult to overcome this terrible system that tests on animals.
Social media is one of the most common things that people use the internet for. It is on the up-and-coming, and it is already incredibly popular amongst people. You might be seen as weird or different for not having Facebook, you might seem distant or mysterious if you’re not on twitter. People are ostracized for not being connected to the world through their computers. The bright side of this is that everyone is on their computers! If you have something to say, or you want to get something done, turn to the internet. Trying to get famous? Put a video on youtube. Hell, you can even become “Vine Famous” now-a-days. Another social media that has over millions of users is tumblr. Tumblr started out as a “secret society” of people “trying to get away from Facebook.” I had a tumblr back when it was under the radar, and I would constantly see on my dashboard (equivalent to newsfeed) “Rule Number One of Tumblr is not to talk about Tumblr.” It was like flipping Fight Club. Now, obviously, more people have jumped on the bandwagon. That is why I picked Tumblr as my genre. Lots of people have blogs about things that they are passionate about. People look at each others blogs and help promote them by “reblogging” them. Its an easy and creative way to get my message out into the world.
The tactic I used to try to overcome this exigence is the use of shock value and appalling content. The use of these two factors helps bring people’s attention to the issue at hand. The title of my blog is “F*** ANIMAL TESTING.” It is made to bring people’s attention to my website. Then I continue by reblogging things that would pull at your heartstrings; cute pictures of bunnies and kitties playing in the free world juxtaposed to pictures of animals being harmed in labs. This draws a lot of rhetorical strategy from Pathos since it is emotionally driven. No one wants to see cute small animals being tortured. Its gruesome. But it needs to be seen because then people will want to stop it from happening on such a massive scale. Then I provide a call to action by telling people multiple ways they can stop this terrible exigency. I give them links to sign petitions, I give them websites to buy cruelty-free cosmetics, and I give them links to pledge to be cruelty free to help save these innocent creatures. My rhetorical goal is to get people to pay attention to the issue, then to show them that they can change small aspects of their lives to help make a ripple in the cause.

Boyz II Men- End of the Road (Blog Post 10)

    The exigence being addressed is ending slut-shaming and rape culture, a problem across the world that just is not spoken about very often. By placing myself within the Slutwalk Movement, I am saying that sexual assault is NEVER okay no matter what a female is wearing and that rape victims should NEVER be blamed for being the victim of such a heinous crime.

     Since slut-shaming and rape culture are talked about so little in the media, the most important rhetorical goal is to inform the public and change the preconceived notions. The persuasive function of transforming perceptions of social reality is so important in fighting my exigence because getting the public to realize that the preexisting meanings of "slut" and "rape" are flawed is a majority of the battle. Once people realize that directly or indirectly participating with the perceptions of the past and present is toxic to combating the exigence, then they will understand what movements like Slutwalk are fighting for. Change is difficult, but changing people and the way they think is even more difficult. 

    I used the language strategy of framing and the language tactic of slogans to reach my transform perceptions of social reality. Framing is important for social movement identity. Framing can take a phrase, that alone has a general meaning, and make it into a linguistic weapon specific to a movement. A popular phrase for the Slutwalk Movement is "Because We've Had Enough", which by itself could mean a number of different things. Slutwalk framed the phrase into meaning that the concerned many have had enough of slut-shaming, victim-blaming, and a flawed rape culture. Slogans are one of the most important tools of altering social perceptions because they are brief but packed with so much meaning. The average person is not going to sit through an entire video presentation nor read an entire manifesto, but the vast majority of people will take three seconds of their time to glance at a slogan. Many slogans are catchy or controversial, making the person think longer about what they have just seen. If people think long enough then they grow curious as to what they movement is about, getting further informed and changing the way they previously thought. 

    I chose to go with the genre of slideshows. This genre allows for a series of independent images to stand alone while still being connected to the overall theme. More specifically, a powerpoint presentation lets me stay on an image as long as I want before switching to the next one, whereas a video would have to be paused and played repeatedly. 

    The constraints of a powerpoint are that the information put on each slide is limited and there is not much room for creativity. For a concise message though, a powerpoint is most certainly best. I not only created a powerpoint, but I also blogged the PDF version of it onto the Slutwalk: Toronto official blog. Making my work accessible to anyone and everyone. Powerpoints help me transform perceptions of social reality by giving images of slogans that are framed to fight slut-shaming and rape culture.

Final blog post

The exigence I try to address with my Prezi is to inform the population of America about the horrifying crimes that our fellow citizens face daily through human trafficking. Human trafficking is a major global issue today, but I focus mainly on the industry in America and what can be done to reduce the number of victims. The persuasive functions I was trying to carry out were persuasion to help make a change, by helping victims and informing the younger generations about this issue, by gaining sympathy and legitimacy with survivor stories. My rhetorical goal is to get facts and information out to teenagers. We need to get this information out to them before they become victims. The realities of this issue can often be graphic and disturbing, which I believe is why this issue is so often neglected, but by not doing anything about it the numbers just continue to grow and more and more innocent children become victims to traffickers. The statistics of the number of American’s (especially teenagers) keeps growing and in order to stop this people need to be informed. Human trafficking is not something you typically hear about in the news. It is an issue that does not get nearly enough attention, considering how many of our fellow citizens are affected by it. There are many different websites with information regarding what human trafficking is, but many of them lack basic facts of how you, as an individual, can help fight this cause. 

I chose to carry out my rhetorical message through a Prezi. At first I started to create a website, but a Prezi allowed me to more creatively include pictures, facts and videos that were different from the other sources I had been reading online. By including pictures and videos I was able to appeal to the sympathetic side of people. When watching the videos full of powerful words and imagery, it forces one to reflect on what they’re saying and realize it’s true. One video focuses on the issue with a global viewpoint. There is so much wrong that occurs in many third world countries, and it is horrifying that children have to be put through such traumatic experiences because of this industry. Although it is a huge international issue also, I believe that by starting small at home the message will carry on to other nations and eventually this horrible industry will no longer exist. We need to inform the younger generations, starting at around age 13/14 because a large issue with this industry is that the victims are unaware that they are actually victims. By identifying what a possible trafficker’s motives or persuasion methods might be, as well as possible ways to get out of a situation and where to reach out and get help, even one high school at a time, will slowly start to make a positive change for America. American victims of human trafficking are our fellow citizens. We must use our rights, to ensure that theirs are also protected.