Propaganda Analysis
Since the dawn of time, man has always sought to manipulate and control his surroundings for his own benefit and survival. In many societies, this desire has carried itself over into public life in the form of propaganda, a “deliberate, systematic attempt to shape perceptions, manipulate cognitions, and direct behavior to achieve a response that furthers the desired intent of the propagandist” (Jowett and O’Donnell 2015, 7). One such example of modern day propaganda is indubitably the campaign ad released by presidential hopeful Ted Cruz on March 23rd 2015 entitled “Ted Cruz for President”. As William J. McGuire explains in his theory of persuasion however, failure at any stage in the persuasive process can result in
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As can be inferred from the title, a glittering generality is usually characterized by a series of beautiful but ultimately meaningless series of words. In this particular case, the public sees itself told that it is “a time for truth, a time to rise to the challenge just as Americans have always done and give bold voice and action to reclaiming the unlimited potential of each and every one of us. Your fight is my fight. I believe in America and her people. I believe in the conservative principles upon which this country was build. And I believe that we can stand up and restore our promise, honor the constitution and re-establish our leadership in the world.” Exactly what this means is unclear as no defined stance or position is taken, however it nonetheless serves as a very effective method of persuasion. Whether this is because it is particularly good at motivating unsophisticated audiences given its resemblance to heuristic cues, or because it allows the voters to substitute their exact ideas for the candidate’s we have no way of knowing. Regardless, it is a clever tactic to use on the part of the Cruz campaign as will doubtlessly help to increase their candidate’s appeal with potential …show more content…
In essence, this is a rhetorical persuasion system based on the character of the speaker, their authority and their credibility. Logically, this typically involves a heavy reliance on authority based argumentation, though this certainly does not always have to be the case. In this particular case, the speaker makes frequent reference to how he is different from most other politicians, and will work for the people and their values. In particular, he points out that he has always fought to defend “hope, freedom and Faith in God”, which he subsequently illustrates with a series of examples. As mentioned previously, all of this will also build trust in the candidate and their basic values, which is quite clever on the part of Ted Cruz’s campaign as it is likely to drive his support further and increase his chances of winning the
Meaghan Ramsey believes in business growth that stems from real social change. She has origins in nutritional science and has worked across FMCG and multiple organizations dealing with media, charities, and pharmaceuticals. Ramsey was also the Global Director of the Dove Self-Esteem Project at Unilever in London. Her TED Talk, “Why Thinking You’re Ugly Is Bad For You” occurred in September of 2014 at TED@Unilever in London. The audience that Ramsey is trying to target is the parents of young men and women who are struggling or may begin to struggle with body image/low self-esteem. She speaks to the parents directly about what can be done to minimize the use of the internet and social media at such a young age. Ramsey’s talk is affected by the audience in the sense that she uses
Summary – It is quite difficult to avoid any persuasive acts while resisting them at the same time. Being prepared with knowledge of how easy it is to be manipulated, controlled, seduced, etc. allows us to open up to the use of rhetoric.
Politics is dirty and competitive and has not changed between 1879 and 2018. It is a complex system of jargon, charm, facts, and lies. Mark Twain’s “The Presidential Candidate” satirically expresses the essence of both old-world and modern politics as a presidential candidate who blatantly tells the truth of his wrongdoings. As a politician, one must be an open book. Their life must be truthfully written on the pages for the readers to analyze and evaluate their credibility as leaders. “The Presidential Candidate” resonates both in 1879 and 2018 with his use of humor, use of diction and use of subtlety.
Bernie Sanders is running for President of the United States of America as a democratic candidate. His competition for the primary elections is Hillary Clinton, a well-known politician with plenty of experience under her belt. Bernie is running as a non-traditional candidate, which is a main factor of why his campaign is extremely successful and popular with the American people. A recent political ad released by Sander’s campaign team called “Real Change” emphasizes his family values and dedication to the working class, fighting for the votes of the average American. The ad implies Bernie is the right man for the job due to his long history of experience and commitment to the issues he believes in. This political ad illustrates how Bernie
Forty-fourth president Barack Obama on August 29, 2009 presents a eulogy for Edward Moore "Ted" Kennedy a few days after his passing. Obama’s purpose is to pay tribute to Ted and all of the good he has done. While employing pathos, altruism, and some anger, he adopts a respectful tone in order to look back with the Kennedy family and treasure him one more time.
Many would argue that President Obama is one of the most effective speakers in the decade. With his amazing speeches, he captivates his audience with his emotion and official tone.
“The beauty of me is that I am very rich” according to Donald Trump. His ignorance has lead him to do things that he shouldn’t being doing or has done. In the past few months he has been racist man that would insult people that are from a different race. When Trump started running for president he would insult and bully everybody in general not knowing the people’s stories. He made people seem like they are poor and have nothing to live for, Trump’s inability to see past his greed. He wants to separate the United States and wants people to think he is the best of the best; Trump should not be President.
In the book, Propaganda, author Edward L Bernays, who is nephew of Sigmund Freud, transcends the public relation industry. This short, 13-part instructional manual delves deep into the intricacies and usage of propaganda. Bernays claims that the public is in a constant state of manipulation. He argues that in order for a society to be highly functioning and stable, public opinion must be manipulated and swayed. While I find his claims disturbing, it was refreshing to read something so blunt. Bernays’ use of psychological techniques to work the mechanics of public opinion truly classifies him as the “father of public relations.”
McCain starts off his speech by using self-disclosure and describing his time as a young man as a navy liaison, and eventually senator, on the senate and working alongside former vice president Joe Biden. “Joe was already a senator, and I was the navy’s liaison to the Senate. My duties included escorting Senate delegations on overseas trips, and in that capacity, I supervised the disposition of the delegation’s luggage, which could require – now and again – when no one of lower rank was available for the job – that I carry someone worthy’s bag” (McCain 2017). Self-Disclosure is the the speaker telling the audience of their personal experiences and tells the audience why they have the personal convictions that they have. (Hamilton 2017)
One of the many types of rhetorical strategies present in the speech is Logos. Logos is a type of rhetorical appeal that utilizes information to persuade the reader into believing the author’s argument. King utilized Logos in the speech as an effort to persuade the
Bush’s method of topic by topic argument along with many emotional appeals was a rather effective way of winning the audience’s support. By appealing to the emotions of the audience Bush was able to give the audience issues they could relate to as well as issues they would feel strongly about. With an emotionally involved audience Bush was able to gather a great number of supporters of his party, just as he intended in his original purpose. The further reference to the character of the people involved in the issues really paid off by drawing the crowd closer to the people working for them. With the topical structure and the appeals used, the speech was a very effective tool in gaining support for the Republican Party from the northern Arizonan audience.
In republican Ted Cruz’s ad titled, “Opportunity,” there are many demonstrated uses of Rank’s Model of Persuasion. Rank’s Model of Persuasion states that persuaders usually either intensify their strong points or downplay their weak points and they do this as they see fit to work in their best interest. According to Larson (1995 P. 2), “On the strategic part of the model, persuaders can choose to intensify their own good points, intensify the weak points of the opposition, downplay their own bad or weak points, and downplay the good points of the opposition.” Cruz aimed the ad “Opportunity,” which was released on March 30, at Wisconsin voters prior to the Wisconsin primary. Wisconsin is a big state, which is why Cruz released this and several
sense of commonality between himself and his audience. This technique is utilized in the quote “
Granger states, “Trump is activating what in neurological terms are referred to as emotional triggers, which the brain uses to avoid the energy and difficulty of analytical thinking” (Granger). Whether deliberately or by intuition, extraordinary persuaders tap into the elements of the emotional brain where choices are made with great speed. One emotional trigger that Trump uses quite often is called the Contrast Trigger. Contrast Trigger is a is a well-worn and corporate marking figure of speech used to accentuate the significance of qualification – of being unique in relation to the next “brand” or “item” (Granger). Trump is a great representation of that. Granger also indicates the use of emotional words in his speeches, like “going down the drain”, “they kill us”, and “it's terrible”. Believing that Trump uses his emotional connection to his loyal supporters really helps his political
Understanding propaganda is extremely important to putting together an understanding of politics and popular opinion. Americans that watch average amounts of television and spend average amounts of time on the Internet are exposed to hundreds of thousands of news articles, advertisement and other forms of argument and persuasion every year (id at 4-6). We often feel that we know propaganda intuitively when we see it, and academic definitions reflect this. “The purpose of propaganda is to send out an ideology … with a predetermined plan of pre-fabricated symbol manipulation” (Jowett and O’Donnell at 2-3). In order to accomplish this, propagandists employ “dexterous use of images, symbols and slogans that play on our prejudices and emotions” (Pratkanis and Aronson 2001 at