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Topic of Choice: ATT “iPhone” Commercial Analysis
Given this last week of school, the “topic of choice” assignment must be the hardest decision of all. From what we’ve learned in this class, ranging from RIBS to even Media and Journalism, the choices our endless. To end this class and these assignments I wanted to go back to commercials, primarily to talk about Apple and how the way they execute their ad’s effectively. With their recent talk about the June 29th opening of the new iPhone 5, i felt it was necessary to explain what makes people so eager to jump right in and get Apple’s last item.
Audience: The audience is very key to our society. The way they present this to the community is that the iPhone 4 works for young adults as well as parents and older people.
Purpose: It is developed so that business workers and people who travel the most, find this convenient tool a must need to their daily lives.
Evidence: The video shows us how a father can easily skype with video to his house far away and see his wife and kids with no problem. It also shows us that it is simple and easy to use.
Ethics: The ethics of the iPhone commercials is that they show you exactly what the item does and what it can do to help your everyday lives.
Delivery/Visual Communication: The video is very colorful and shows us how the apps help out each individual, whether it be ranging from a business worker or your average person.
Remuneration: With videos and pictures, people can easily see whats going on and communicate effectively.
Influence: The commercial is intriguing and keeps you there every step of the way.
Belonging: The ad makes you want to have the item because of its display and sense of ease. It is an item that comes off as simple and that cool gadget.
Significance: You are able to use the item in order to communicate with business or with just friends.
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RR #5: Taking Sides Issue #1
Question: Are American values shaped by the mass media?
So after reading the section about taking sides, I felt is was best to take my own. For the most part American values are shaped by mass media, but I also believe that there are certain values and morals in most people that have been instilled by our founders of our country. America, the rest of the created world, and even third party countries are now given “information and ideas predominately through television, not by print.” In a culture so based around receiving news from a TV, it would seem apparent that this medium can shape a peoples’ belief system. What people see is what they believe. Very few have access to real information not censored by the government. The reasons are easy to understand. Our government wants society to really see what is happening behind the scenes because it will give them a reason to be alarmed and rise up. Anyways, the population doesn’t want to face reality. They want to continue their routine lives. Get up, go to work, sit in traffic on the way home, have a family dinner, and do it all over again. It’s true. So, if the people don’t want to see it, don’t show it to them. And if they do want to see it, don’t show it to them. As long as we can all believe that we are involved in the way this country is run, then everything is fine.
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Company Facebook Page- “Starbucks”
http://www.facebook.com/Starbucks
The Facebook page I chose to go further in depth is the page for Starbuck’s fan page. Basically, the audience here is people who regularly eat or get coffee at Starbucks, and the purpose is to promote the company and its coffee through the social media aspect of Facebook. The page describes through frequent news posts and occasionally posts what people like and what specials are going on.
Remuneration - The positive benefit that users receive is to receive updates on the new drinks/specials going on in Starbucks, as well as special features and notifications when there is something new going on.
Influence - The page sometimes will get fans to respond to a question or ask what people thought about a new drink or new product they are working on. Sometimes, it will provide a coupon to try out this drink for a cheaper price.
Belonging - Facebook is already phenomenal at achieving this goal. The comment box parts always have a name and a picture to establish individuality, and fans can like comments to give positive feedback to fans with great posts.
Significance - The page was made by Starbucks themselves and is continued to be updated by higher staff members in the corporation.
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RR #4: “Design to Thrive”
Social networks and online communities are reshaping the way people communicate, both in their personal and working lives. In Chapter 1 of Howard’s book “Design to Thrive”, he describes how even though businesses are becoming more user friendly, they are also well-equipped to evaluate and create a variety of interfaces, requiring that social networks make a set of design principles and ways of thinking about the user in order to be successful. The chapter ”Why Design to Thrive?” presents tried and tested design methodologies, based on the author’s decades of research, to ensure successful and sustainable online communities — whether it be a Google for employees to share procedures and better practices or for the next Facebook or Myspace.
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Website Analysis: ESPN.com
Audience Analysis: It’s primary audience is sports fans. This ranges from anyone with interest in baseball, basketball, football, golf, tennis, etc. The secondary audience would probably be someone interested in finding out the headline story in the sporting world. This does not necessarily mean they like sports.
Purpose: The purpose of this article is to inform fans about what’s going on with their favorite teams as far as standings, games, schedule, etc. Also, this informs regular individuals about what is headlined in the sporting world today.
Evidence: Most evidence from the website is generated from the scores and articles posted from well-known sources and journalists. Because of this, we get our information and stats.
Ethics: Their ethics is made because of the insiders they get: interviews after the games with players, coaches, and other programs. They also have people doing interviews and press conferences, as well as commentating that have played the sports before professionally.
Delivery: The website is portrayed as having this sporty feeling to it and not only that, it gives off the impression, with photos and images, that your experiencing the information live.
Visual Communication: The visual aids are amazing. The red background that fades to white creates a calming soothing website for all-comers. Text, images, headlines, and pictures are all very catchy, original, and supportive to ESPN’s claim.
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Kostelnick’s Ch:1 Visual Rhetoric RR#3
After reading Charles Kostelnick Ch:1 abut the background of visual rhetoric, we see how he picks apart the visual rhetoric of statistical graphs and experimentation with standards for such graphs in the Statistical Atlases of the United States during the periods of 1874 through 1925. A great point that Kostelnick clearly shows us is how he asserts the atlases he is refering to having “built a rhetorical bridge to contemporary information design” through trial and error. In addition, many of his graphs seem weird and disorganized and rather oddly shaped. This extends his article, explaning that it took a plethora of tries to discover which graphs are more easily processed than others. In short, we can conclude that these graphs that are seeking to visually represent such tasks about community movement are examined for their structure as well as what the graphs lack in information.
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After a tough first speech, I have learned a lot about what is expected from this class. Staying on my speech topic even though it was not chosen, I felt the urge to explain the commercial used in my oral. The Make-A-Wish is by far one of, if not the biggest, charities across the world. In this video done by their organization, we can break down all the aspects of how the video relates to our class topic and main discussion of APEX. To begin with, lets talk about the audience analysis. The video clearly reaches out to all audiences including other kids with terminal diseases yet other families, kids, adults, and even business looking to give back or make a donation to fund this progressive organization.
Furthermore, this visual aid also has a purpose. It’s message most definitely is to show what the organization does as well as reach out to people interested in helping or aiding the non-profitable company. It also has the other purpose to touch the lives of other individuals with the Pathos factor. It attracts individuals with emotions and feelings to feel the need to give back.
In addition, the evidence factor is also easily seen. As the video begins, we are drawn to a room with a sick child who gets the chance to leave and go home finally. While she is pushed in the wheelchair though she is contemplating what her decision is, yet we do not know what it is about. This keeps us interested in finding out what she decides to do as well as why is she making this decision. In the end, we see that she has the opportunity to get a wish, one wish to change her life.
Moreover, the ethics part is described in the fact that the Make-A-Wish foundation creates this appeal to all audiences leaving questions, asking ourselves: Will we help out this organization? Should I give back to these helpless children suffering each and everyday?
Lastly, we have the delivery topic. The video is quite short, yet long enough to make a statement to our society. Also, it is attractive in the sense that from the start to the end it keeps us watching like your everyday “thriller” movie.
In short, this video’s embedded form of the APEX theory leaves us asking, when can I start helping?
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Email Analysis: “University Housing”
Tell us about your University Housing experience!
University Housing is committed to providing you with a living and learning environment that enhances your Clemson experience. We know that your residence hall is your “home away from home” and we want to ensure our facilities, programs, and services meet your needs.
Our goal is excellence. One of the ways we accomplish this is through an annual University Housing Survey. The results from this survey let us know how we are doing in your eyes and help us set our priorities for improvement.
For the survey to be accurate, we need as many responses as possible. Knowing how busy you are this time of year we are offering you an incentive to participate. Those residents who complete the survey will be entered in a drawing to win one of 20 VISA Gift Cards valued from $25 to $500, which are good any where Visa is accepted!
The web link to the survey is located below, simply click on it to begin. The survey should only take about 20 minutes to complete. If for some reason you are unable to finish the survey in one sitting, you will be able to finish it at a later date by simply returning to the link.
Click the link below to begin your survey -
https://wess.webebi.com/wess/language.aspx?stidx=3hrOowX3xeE=&1
(This link is unique. Please do not forward it.)
Lastly, please know that your responses are completely confidential and your name will never be associated with the results of this survey in any way.
We look forward to reviewing your responses. Thank you for your assistance!
Your University Housing Staff
Click the link below if you do not wish to be contacted again regarding this survey:
https://wess.webebi.com/wess/surveyoptout.aspx?stidx=3hrOowX3xeE=&1After reading this email, we can see what the university housing is trying to aim for: feedback from on-campus university students. To begin with, we can easily tell that the audience for this email is Clemson students that live in on-campus housing. Furthermore, we can dig deeper into the message and see that the true meaning of the letter is to attempt to get students to fill out a survey about housing. Purpose? The University Housing staff is not looking for a yes/no answer, neither a good/bad response, but feedback on their housing experience so far this year. So, how do you attract students participation in these surveys? The incentive. The email says that if you respond to all questions with complete responses you will be entered in a contest to receive a gift card. “Those residents who complete the survey will be entered in a drawing to win one of 20 VISA Gift Cards valued from $25 to $500, which are good any where Visa is accepted!” Ethics? They say your responses are confidential and that it will only take 20 minutes to complete. This is late due to Tumblr. It was down most of yesterday.
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“Response to Katz Reading” (late due to sickness)
After reading this piece from Steven B. Katz, we see how ethos in communications within a discourse community must exist in order for it be stable and ultimately healthy. With that being said, in his article we see how Hitler managed to actually create an “ethical” justification for the Final Solution. All in all, I agree with must of Katz assertions. The lesson I take from the reading is that by ignoring the emotions inherent both in the writer and reader, or by manipulating the means-to-ends relationship, the final product will be false. Basically, I mean that the writing will fail in its goal to give us the truth in a way that is familiar with the audience and author.
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Reading Response #2: Ch.17
After reading Ch.17 from Lunsford, we see how fallacies are defects that weaken arguments. In this section, it leads us to look for them in your own and others’ writing. In addition, I strongly feel you can strengthen your ability to evaluate the arguments you make, read, and hear. It is critical to realize two things about fallacies. First, that fallacious arguments are very common and can be quite convincing, at least to your average reader or listener. You can find a plethora of examples of fallacious reasoning in newspapers, advertisements, other sources,etc. Second, it is often difficult to analyze whether an argument is fallacious. An argument can be that of 4 things: very soft, somewhat soft, somewhat strong or supportive, or very strong/supportive. Another point I learned from the article was that arguments that has several stages or parts might have some strong sections and some weak ones. The goal of the section to me seemed that it was not trying to teach you how to label arguments as fallacious, but to help you look critically at your own arguments and move them away from the “weak” and toward the “strong” end.
