Analyzing James's Visual Rhetoric

I find it interesting to read some of my classmates’ blogs and see how they relate concepts we learn in class to topics of their own interest. One particular blog post that stood out to me was written by my classmate James. Here is the link to the post:

http://jdavid88.blogspot.com/

The first thing that caught my eye about this post was the visual images. The words “About 50%” are written in large white letters across a black page, and this leads me to wonder what the rest of the advertisement says and how this will relate to James’s post. I then referred to the title, which I found clever because it was set up like a math equation, and is relevant to teaching. Reading the title allowed me to see that James was encouraging his audience to take action, which is the goal of a persuasive post. After reading a bit more, I find that James’s post is about how low income students are less inclined to graduate from high school, and how this is a problem. There is a picture of an overcrowded classroom shortly afterwards, which keeps my attention. It makes me wonder how classrooms can be overcrowded if more and more students are dropping out of school. The visuals are what initially drew me into James’s post and made me want to read the supplemental text that came with the images.

James is able to effectively engage the reader of his blog by presenting situations the reader can relate to. He allows the reader to take on the identity of a low income student who is not being challenged by presenting questions such as “why don’t high schoolers push themselves to graduation?”. This makes the reader think about the ethos of low income students, and what they aspire to do with their lives. James provides many examples of the frustrations faced by low income students that obstruct their higher education. He then transitions into why there is a need for dedicated, caring teachers who genuinely care about their students and can challenge them enough to stay in school. James uses logical paragraph structure to present a growing problem, and a possible solution to that problem. Each paragraph has one main idea, and transitions into the next.

Next, James presents the opposing viewpoint, about why people do not want to enter the teaching profession. He uses evidence from a scholarly journal to show that factors like low salary and under appreciation are enough to sway people away from wanting to become teachers. However, James uses several different kinds of evidence to refute this notion, and support why teaching is a valuable profession that those who truly want to reach out to others should embark upon. He ties in personal experiences, by quoting his coworker about the social benefits of the job, such as extended vacations and health benefits. But more importantly, James uses expert evidence to show the emotional gain from teaching, and how giving back to others outweighs any tangible benefits. He establishes common ground with the audience’s belief system. Most people want to be empathetic and reach out to those in need, and James structures his argument by appealing to these values, and relating them to the teaching profession. He goes on to end his post with a somewhat gloomy picture of an empty ceremony. This foreshadows what could happen if there is a shortage of dedicated teachers. Overall, James makes strong statements using visual images and supports these images using text. The text is easy to read and understand, and James presents the viewpoint of frustrated low income students and dedicated teachers to allow readers to delve into these identities and realize the importance of the teaching profession.

Midnight Fantasy: Unleashing the Spontaneous Side

For my homework assignment this weekend, I looked at several advertisements to see which ones had the best appeals to the intended audience and therefore held the highest powers of persuasion. The ad I used (check it out at http://www.papermag.com/blogs/britney_midnightfantasypromo.gif) was for a perfume by Britney Spears, called Midnight Fantasy. It was initially from a women’s magazine, probably something like Cosmopolitan or Vogue, so the intended audience was college aged women or older. This ad uses sensuality as an attention grabber; Britney Spears is immersed in a moonlit lake, and looks like she is about to embark upon a daring adventure. The image evokes a sense of mystery and elusiveness, and is probably intended to make women feel like they can be edgy and bold if they use the perfume. I think this ad would appeal to many middle aged women in their 30’s as well as college-aged women because it may help older women feel like they are regaining their youth. Some women may become caught up in their daily routines, such as jobs, household chores, and attending to their families. This may make older women feel like they no longer embark on anything adventurous or spontaneous. By seeing this ad, these women may be lured in by the fact that this perfume will help them relive their youth and add some spark and mystery to their lives. Wearing the perfume can allow a woman to take on another identity, one that is more carefree, seductive, and daring than the social identity she conveys on a daily basis. Even the name of the perfume, Midnight Fantasy, implies that women can take on different identities depending on the time of day. During the daytime, women can be responsible, mature adults and attend to what is expected of them by their peers, families, and society. However, when the night arrives, women can escape from the pressures placed on them to be good housewives or employees. They can do things they secretly “fantasize” about, such as going to glamorous clubs and parties, but are not able to do during the day due to social responsibilities. This ad doesn’t use any text because the image speaks strongly enough to its viewers. Britney Spears is a huge celebrity, and the fact that this perfume is from her line is enough to convince women to buy it because of the brand name. By displaying a picture that is elegant yet somewhat sensual and bold, this ad can convince women to buy Midnight Fantasy so that they can unleash the side of themselves that they want to experience but generally suppress.

Oh How I Hate Ohio State

Today in my English 225 class, we had a discussion about persuasion and tactics that are used to persuade an audience to follow a certain belief or leader, or buy a product. The example used in class was Hitler, and the propaganda he used to gain followers of his socialist party. By greeting citizens, shaking hands with women, and holding babies, Hitler made himself approachable to German citizens and promised to unite them as people under one nation. He instilled a sense of German pride, and strived to create a sense of uniformity among his followers. In the movie Triumph of the Will, visual rhetoric was used to exemplify this unity. These images included showing men bathing each other and scrubbing each other's backs, lines of men wearing all the same traditional German uniforms, and an aerial view of tents fashioned into neat rows. With this type of propaganda, it is easy to become swayed into following the party. After all, who would anticipate at the time that in just ten short years, the same leader who was advocating peace and strength would slaughter six million Jews? I admit, if I had been living during that time, I would not have predicted that massacre and would have seen the best in the leader who was trying to earn my vote. Generally, I am not one to be a heretic and lead a movement against someone that the majority of people support.

However, a parallel was made to the Obama campaign. Obama possesses several of the same public speaking traits as Hitler and uses this eloquence to gain the trust of Americans. If someone told me that in two years, Obama would be responsible for a world massacre, I certainly would not believe it. At this point, my instructor pointed out that working for a political campaign can cause someone to become so caught up in that politician's view, that he starts to become blindsighted and denigrate any opposing point of view. For instance, if an ardent Obama supporter saw someone with a McCain bumper sticker on his car, he would probably become enraged that someone would not support his point of view and not understand how anyone could possibly support McCain. In his mind, Obama is a much better candidate, and this should be apparent to everyone. This brainwashing can result from associating with groups of people who all share the same political stance and feed off of each others' fervor.

I can apply this idea to the university level as well. Going to a school as renowned as the University of Michigan, of course I am going to feel a sense of pride for my university. We are the leaders and best, one of the top 20 universities in the world, and are in the top ten nationwide for several graduate programs, such as medicine, law and business. What is not to love about this school? Aside from Michigan’s reputation, coming to Campus Day and other informational sessions influenced my decision to attend Michigan for the next 4 years. The campus buildings were beautiful, the extracurricular activities were endless, and students looked like they were having the time of their lives. By showcasing these points about Michigan, the university is successful in recruiting thousands of students.

However, another part of going to Michigan is having a rivalry with Ohio State. It is a consensus among students that Ohio State is to be hated, especially in football, but it is generally all in good fun. However, there are some students that are so caught up in Michigan pride that they will stop at nothing to bring down anyone from Ohio State. These are the types of people who vandalize a car that has an Ohio State bumper sticker, or scream out profanity and throw objects at an Ohio State fan during a football game. In fact, this year during the weekend of the Notre Dame football game, my friend had some guys from Notre Dame staying at his house. One of the Notre Dame students’ cars was completely demolished after the game-tires slashed, spray painted with obscenities, keyed. It was outrageous, and this wasn’t even for the team that was our greatest rival. A little rivalry never hurt anyone, but is it really worth taking it to the point where someone gets hurt? The propaganda that Michigan has historically displayed in bringing down Ohio State has caused some students to blindly hate anything and anyone affiliated with OSU without even thinking why. Although nowhere near as serious, this brainwashing can somewhat be related to the propaganda that Hitler used to gain trust, to the point where his followers did as they were told without ever questioning why. I have nothing against a rivalry; if anything, it helps to unify the students of Michigan against a common cause. But I do not think it is necessary for a student to become so caught up in a superiority complex that comes with going to Michigan, to the point where he is verbally or physically abusing those from Ohio State or other rival schools. That in itself would make Michigan look disrespectful as a university and chip away part of its excellent reputation.

Thinking about Identity while watching Gossip Girl

Last night, I had some time to kick back and relax after an eventful Halloween weekend. I started catching up on some episodes of Gossip Girl, which is a show I have strangely become quite addicted to. And of course, five minutes into the show, I started thinking about how the characters and plot in that episode were relevant to the theories of identity I have learned about in English 225. I guess English class finds a way to creep up into me even when I am taking a break! There is a character on the show who is an actress, yet she disguises her name and enrolls in NYU because she wants the experience of a “normal” college student, without constantly being followed by paparazzi. While attending NYU, she meets a student who does not recognize her as a celebrity, and enters into a relationship with him because he saw her beneath all the glitz and glam and liked her for her personality. However, later in the episode, the actress’s cover is blown, and she attends a red carpet premiere in which is she is told to tell the press that she is dating a fellow actor, instead of an ordinary college student. The entertainment industry only cares about what will attract the most viewers. Therefore, there will be more hype about an upcoming movie if a celebrity puts on a false identity and pretends to date her co-star. I could relate this to Riesman’s false self, in which a person puts on an appearance that is not representative of his own identity for the sake of a particular audience. This got me thinking about how many celebrity relationships that we read about in magazines and tabloids, or see on TV, everyday, are actually substantial and real. I am no expert on celebrity gossip, nor do I even follow it except for the occasional glance at a magazine in the grocery store or headlines on the internet. However, I wonder what would happen if a celebrity did indeed decide to date someone who was not in the entertainment industry. This certainly would be frowned upon by the media because of the difference in social status. Ideally, the rich and beautiful should be dating others who are rich and beautiful, and this would attract more viewers. But I think by contriving some celebrity relationships, the entertainment industry takes away the opportunity for some celebrities to be happy. What if a celebrity wanted to be in a relationship with someone who didn’t share the same lifestyle as him? That celebrity shouldn’t be forced to abandon that thought because the media wouldn’t approve. The fact that celebrity couples are always breaking up, getting divorced after a month of marriage, and somehow end up dating co-stars of recent movies makes me question if these relationships are ones that came to develop of their own accord, or if they were forced by the media for publicity. I guess for a celebrity, there is a lot of pressure on how the audience views him or her. Therefore, sometimes appearance and portrayal of the false self, rather than the real self, is more important for their careers. After all, some celebrities act for a living, and therefore must put forth these skills in real life, acting as if they are happy. This relates to Goffman’s theory of identity which states that we are all actors on a stage, portraying various roles for particular audiences. Whoever thought that a simple episode of Gossip Girl could spark so much thought into the identities of celebrities in relationships?

The Organizational Self: Man in the Middle or Two Heads are Better than One?

I have been re-reading some theories of identity that I read about earlier in class to see how I can tie them in to my convincing paper. I drew on a lot of ideas from Mead and James for my inquiry paper, and wanted to broaden my perspective. While flipping through “The Self We Live By”, I stumbled upon the organizational self, and looked deeper into it. This led me to think more about how one’s individual identity and social identities differ, and which identity is more important. There is the concept of the Organizational Man, which puts “the group’s interests above individual goals and priorities”(45). It says that an individual by himself is nothing, and needs to be part of a group to make a meaningful contribution to society. While I think this theory has some valid points, there are parts I disagree with. Being an engineering student, I know the importance of teamwork. There is the preconceived notion of a scientist being a recluse always spending time running experiments in his lab, until he finally makes an important discovery. However, nowadays in research, it is rarely an individual that comes up with a new development to benefit society, but rather, a team of scientists that does so. For instance, in the 1800’s, an individual, Thomas Edison, was given credit for inventing the lightbulb. But today, developments in medicine and engineering technologies are given to groups of scientists from corporations or universities. It is this combination of resources and great minds that has advanced technology to the level it is at today.

However, I do not necessarily think that someone should sacrifice his individuality for the sake of the group, as the Organizational Man states. Every individual has different goals that he or she wants to get out of life, and it is up to that individual to achieve those goals. Sometimes, collaboration with others is necessary to accomplish what that individual wants, but I think it is easy for someone to lose their own sense of identity when with a group. It is rare to find a group of people who all want exactly the same things. Rather, groups are drawn together by similar interests, and each person contributes a bit of his ideas and individuality to the group to accomplish what one person alone could not.

From a non-scientific standpoint, I feel like I sometimes act differently in groups than I would if I were alone. I have a group of very close friends that I have known from high school, and I tend to take more risks and be more bold when I am around them because I know they will support me in my decisions. However, without that network, I would probably never have the courage to be as carefree as I am with that group of friends. In that sense, the sense of belongingness in a group influences my identity in a positive way. But it is also easy to become the “man in the middle”, when someone is part of a group and conforms to group behavior. Although sometimes I do become influenced by group behavior, I still try to stick to my own individual values and stay true to my individual identity. When people see me with my group of friends, I would hope that they don’t see the entire group as having the same identity, but rather as a collection of individual identities that all share some parts in common.

My Way or the Highway

I started to look into some possible reasons and evidence for my convincing paper. In conducting my research, I found several articles that endorse George Engel’s biopsychosocial approach to patient interaction. In fact, I even found this handbook that gives guidelines for etiquette between doctors and patients. This handbook states that it is crucial for a physician to respect his patient, and display empathy for the patient’s situation. The physician must maintain eye contact with the patient as he narrates his personal account, and remain engaged in the conversation in order to establish a sense of trust. The physician must also give clear responses to the patient, using terms that can be understood by those unfamiliar with medical jargon.

After reading this article on etiquette, I started wondering why a physician WOULDN’T follow these guidelines. After all, empathy and treating others with respect seems like common sense to me, especially in a service profession. It almost made my argument seem too easy. My goal is to convince pre-medical students that extensive verbal communication is necessary for physicians to provide the most effective treatments for patients, but what convincing do I have to do if there are no opposing viewpoints?

So I sought to find articles on alternative approaches that doctors take while interacting with patients, and surprisingly found that this biopsychosocial model has not been historically used. I learned that some doctors assume a sense of autonomy, and although they interact with patients and listen to their stories, they are biased and carry a superiority complex. They already have an idea of the diagnosis, and are firmly entrenched in their idea. This stubbornness and show of professional power leads to misdiagnosis because the doctor is not really listening to the patient, but only pretending to. I wasn’t aware that these ideas were instilled within some doctors, and thought that medical training would make doctors more open to understanding the ethos of patients. Even if doctors do assume a superiority complex due to salary and years of schooling, the whole point of the healthcare profession is to serve others and put them first. On one hand, this tactic keeps doctors from becoming emotionally involved with their patients. However, they are far from being objective because they are too confident in their own judgments to listen to the situation from the patient’s viewpoint. I am trying to tie these points in somewhere in my convincing paper.

The Things We Do When No One is Looking

For the past few weeks, I have been really focused on identity and how it pertains to doctor/patient interaction, since this is the topic of my inquiry and convincing paper. However, last night, I was reading some of my fellow classmates’ blogs, and it made me realize that the theories of identity we studied in class can be applied to everyday situations, and both small and significant events that take place in our own lives. I was reading my classmate Julie’s blog, and she had some thoughts about how people do things like community service and volunteer work just so society will perceive them as good people, and not for purely altruistic reasons as they should. This difference between a person’s identity in a public sphere and his individual identity led me to think of a how a person’s internal values and morals affect his identity. I started questioning why we value the things we do. Is it because of something we personally believe due to how we were raised or experience, or something we hold to just because that’s what is generally accepted in society? Cooley’s looking-glass self can play a role here because people can center their values based on how they want others to view them, and think of themselves as they would want society to see them. I think parts of a person’s true identity can be revealed by the things he does when no one is looking. For instance, suppose a person who considered himself to be honest found a 50 dollar bill on a crowded street. That person could easily pick it up and take it. After all, with so many people on the street, who would notice? However, if he did take the money, then that would show that he is not completely honest, even though that is how he identifies himself. His rationale would be that, since society did not see him commit this act that might be considered theft, he still has the reputation of an honest man, and thus views himself in the same way. However, he has his own conscience to deal with, and even though society views him one way, as an individual, he knows what he did, and that can affect his perception of himself. This can cause dissonance between James’s self as a subject, “I”, which is the self that takes action, and Mead’s social self.

Similarly, suppose you were driving on an empty road at night, and there was a red light. Would you run it? There are no other cars in vicinity, and no police around, so that reduces the negative consequences for your actions. Some people would stick to their values of being law-abiding citizens and not run the light, while others carry the philosophy that it is ok to do something considered “wrong” in society as long as no one is watching and they do not get caught. Goffman’s theories about how the world is a stage and we are all actors can be applied here. People seem to follow a script, of societal norms, so others will perceive them as good people, even if some norms are not what they personally believe. It is in situations where no one else is looking that a person’s actual values surface, away from their social selves.