The Third Edition of The Rhetorical Power of Popular Culture offers students a step-by-step introduction to rhetorical theory and criticism by focusing on the powerful role popular culture plays in persuading us as to what to believe and how to behave. Stalking someone and murdering their friends is obviously not considered normal or good behavior. With that being said, the various perspectives we covered have helped me to notice the numerous ways in which popular culture, whether it be a movie, commercial, or speech of some kind, is always making a rhetorical argument to persuade us. One could argue that Dexter is an inflected oppositional artifact because Dexter may be considered a good person for only killing bad people. causes you to think of something else. This short essay should show the conventional characteristics of a rhetorical essay, such as a brief description and some background about the artifact (the pop culture text that you analyze), a thesis statement that summarizes the text's overall rhetorical strategies and effect, a few paragraphs that provide examples from the pop culture text that support your thesis, and a conclusion that wraps up the overall effect of the text (see the Tips for Writing an Analysis … Here, the relationship is between the various characters in The Office and viewers. Everybody loves a bit of an argument sometimes, but it takes skill to argue well. Guys vs. Men Analysis Introduction There are many writings in the Norton Field Guide that reflect the way authors feel about certain topics. Perpetuating Pop Culture Postfeminism. You are free to locate a speech from any media, and the speech can be either fictional or nonfictional. Disney’s audience is American families, but especially children. This show may work in favor of some criminals to show that just because their morals go against the grain of most, that they are not necessarily wrong. The model characters, or the ones that exhibit normal, desirable behavior, are almost every other character in the show. I am conducting a fantasy theme analysis for this artifact because FTA is “the tool or methodology rhetoricians use to identify, understand, and interpret those converged symbols” (Sellnow 110). He kills her boyfriend because he was a drug addict working as an entrepreneur for a dead-end company. It is memorialized by the Rolling Stones’ high ranking, so I do not think it will be forgotten any time soon, but I do think it will become lesser and lesser widely known to SNL’s audience and the American public in general. “More Cowbell” is heading towards the end of its rhetorical vision life cycle. indexical meaning. You are free to locate a speech from any media, and the speech can be either fictional or nonfictional. Hello, my name is Amber Thomas and I am a sophomore English major with a concentration in Rhetoric and Professional Writing at Longwood University. Kutcher’s audience is the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee as well as the world because the speech was filmed (a short clip is attached above). These terms, in particular, will carry throughout the rest of my life as we live in a patriarchal society and I identify as a woman, but it will also serve me well as I continue my college career as an English major. The exigence of this speech is to convince the Senate to help fund Thorn’s efforts in identifying victims to prevent trafficking. Overall, Ashton Kutcher’s speech was successful and created a lasting impression on his audience of politicians and those that viewed the video of his speech. He kills her best friend because she was preventing Beck’s writing career from launching and she had a lot of blackmail on her. Each chapter is devoted to one theoretical perspective (e.g., narrative, dramatistic, Marxist, feminist, illusion of … Right now, I believe it is either in decline or close to the decline phase because it is twenty years old and media is growing so rapidly in comparison to when the skit originally aired. I will most likely analyze this for Critical Essay #2 and go way more in-depth ! I do not own the media presented in this video. Thus, one of the main constraints of the film is how the animators presented these complicated concepts as well as how they presented a Chinese legend to a predominantly American audience. Rhetorical Analysis of Pop Culture #1. The goal of using the Dramatistic Perspective is to analyze artifacts like You to better understand why someone like Joe who is breaking away from socially acceptable behavior is still considered an overall good or moral person. If we talk about the essay structure, just follow common rules and to include 5 or 6 paragraphs in your text.It is a quite reliable writing technique, you can use it to satisfy the application commission/jury. Thanks Paul and Andrew for volunteering your time to help me make this video! Some of the things I may be analyzing include speeches, movies, ads, and other artifacts of that nature. The goal of using the narrative perspective analysis, in this case, is to focalize my analysis on the causal relations, the moral, and the overall effect of the film on its audience. In an opening speech of a Senate hearing on February 15, 2017, Ashton Kutcher testifies on the importance of the work his company, Thorn, is doing to fight the enslavement and sex trafficking of children. It has also led many of the actors to be typecasted, or only cast in roles that reflect characteristics of those they had in The Office. This information was only given to viewers – not to the other characters. Watching a female protagonist like Mulan defy traditional gender roles could potentially instill a new ideology in its younger audience of not allowing others to define your abilities. In the legend as well as in the movie, Mulan takes her father’s place in the army and saves China from Shun Yu, the Hun’s leader who murders many Chinese families with his army. I also personally found the more philosophically profound perspectives more interesting, like Burke’s Dramatistic Perspective and ideas about the human condition. CATEGORIES: SAMPLES - Pop Culture Artifact Analyses TAGS: rhetorical analysis NOTE: Whitney originally posted these artifact analyses on the Fall 2013 class blog for … Kutcher also has to overcome the professional setting that can put a barrier between the audience members’ work and personal lives by making his speech personal to each of his listeners. Thus, Dexter hides his desire and only confides in a select few, like his sister, Debra. I had previously been aware of the concept of a celebrity influencing the perception of a character or product, but I had never fully grasped it until learning of the media-centered perspective and Parasocial Relationship Theory. It shows how serial killers like Dexter are being othered by the dominant ideology that murder is not okay (of course there are some exceptions like in self-defense cases). Contrasting this professional language, he uses more so unprofessional terms like ‘internet trolls’ to begin his speech. The tension between them represents the hegemony aspect of the artifact, or the dominant ideology that defines social norms. We would usually recommend using a classic 5 paragraph structure in order to make your text readable and flowing for the audience to read. I chose Dexter because I believe it disagrees with the Neo-Marxist perspective’s goal of showing how egalitarianism would improve society. When applied to a literary work, rhetorical analysis regards the work not as an aesthetic object but as an artistically structured instrument for communication. Major Paper 1: A Critical Conversation At this point in the quarter, you have acquired a number of the writing and analytical skills necessary to compose a more substantial project. Doakes works in the same department as Dexter and has always had his suspicions that Dexter is hiding something. In the movie, Sandler plays Robbie Hart, a wedding singer who’s fiance breaks off their engagement at their wedding ceremony. STUDY. On September 20 th, 2014, UN Women held a special event at the United Nations for the launch of their global solidarity campaign, HeForShe. Root applies rhetorical analysis to the fields of advertising, advocacy, and entertainment, with examples that focus on the written, verbal, and visual aspects of rhetoric. In the case of You, the agent is Joe Goldberg – our protagonist – and the act is Joe stalking Beck and killing her friends. More specifically, some of the causal relations include Mulan taking her father’s place in the army, therefore, she must crossdress as a man. RHETORIC 2 A Rhetoric of style is a provocative and wide-ranging book of Barry Brummett that employs the perfect method to explore the connection between popular culture and rhetoric. When you finish reading and analyzing, it’s time for making an outline of the analysis.Use lecture notes, find out all strategies. It was written by Will Ferrell and Donnell Campbell and it is currently ranked number 9 in the Rolling Stones’ top ten SNL skits. As our textbook describes, the parasocial relationships formed because of the style of The Office has made many fans to refer to characters, like Jim, Dwight, and Michael, by their first name as though they personally know them. one makes you think of the other. The general purpose of doing all of this is to remove obstacles that Joe believes is keeping Beck from falling in love with him. After completing English 301, I feel that I have been given many more analysis tools to use in my future English courses as well as in my personal and professional life. On September 20 th, 2014, UN Women held a special event at the United Nations for the launch of their global solidarity campaign, HeForShe. The only other class I have taken concerning my Professional Writing concentration is Technical Writing with Dr. Lettner-Rust. Of course, I had previous knowledge of feminism, the patriarchy, the gender binary, and the resulting gender roles. Julia accepts Robbie’s love, thus, the movie is creating an admirable relationship. “More Cowbell” has a fantasy type of a classic SNL skit which generally takes something from pop culture and makes it comedic. Pop culture research topic #5: Compare pop culture trends. Dexter Morgan, the main character of the show, is a sociopathic serial killer who learns to act normal in order to hide his obsession with blood and desire to kill others. What setsDexter apart from other serial killers is his desire to use what he recognizes as an unethical hobby to do good by killing other serial killers and criminals that he discovers through his day job and everyday life.