Final Blog- Let's Move

The goal of my final project I addressed was to inspire the audience to achieve a healthier lifestyle through a video I made for the social movement Let’s Move.

The persuasive function I carried out from chapter 3 was prescribing the courses of action. In my video I prescribe the what by addressing facts about how America is making a change for an unhealthy future. For instance in the video I state, “8 to 18 year old adolescents spend an average of 7.5 hours a day using entertainment media.” This helps to let the audience know that we need to make a drastic change now or else we will become even more unhealthy in the future. I also prescribe the who when I state in the video, “Kids need to be active 60 minutes a day and adults need to be active 30 minutes a day.” This phrase in my video lets the viewers know that everyone watching the video can make a change for a healthier lifestyle. Later in the video I prescribe the how by giving several simple suggestions stemming from the main points of eating healthy and getting active. For example I state, “drink less soda or sugar-sweetened drinks” to let the audience know one way to eat healthier and I state “take the stairs instead of the elevator” to let the viewers know a simple tip to get active. Also to prescribe the how even further, at the end of the video I include the website www.Letsmove.com to show the viewers how to find more tips and a more solid guideline to achieving their healthier lifestyle.

The strategies and tactics from Chapter 6 I used were framing and slogans. In the video I frame several statistics in order for them to be viewed in a negative way. I frame them to the viewers as something that needs to be acted upon. For instance I say, “In total, we are now eating 31% more calories than we were 40 years ago.” This helps to show the audience that society is in fact making a change for the worse. I also use the tactic of slogans. For instance three people state the sanctioned slogan at the end of the clip when they state, “Let’s Move.” The slogan helps to suggest action and inspire the audience.

The genre I chose to carry out my rhetorical goal was a video public service announcement. The video public service announcement could be used as a commercial or a video on YouTube. I chose this type of artifact over others, because I think it does a more effective way of spitting out information than a brochure or PowerPoint would. I also think videos are more popular in today’s society then most types of media. With this being said I think a video would have more viewers than something that was typed or handwritten, which also factored into my decision.

The conventions of genre I chose to incorporate in my video do were informative and how to. I worked within the informative convention by supplying the viewers with facts about unhealthy America. I worked within the how to convention through suggesting several ways to achieve a healthier lifestyle. The genre helps carry out my goal through letting the viewers know of what is happening with society’s general habits and this ultimately inspires the audience through the suggestions of simple tasks that could help them be healthier.