Rhetoric is used to drive home any point the speaker or writer is trying to make. Here in the Northwest the news media is focused on the emotional appeal of "the Northwest connection" to draw the viewer in with pathos of "this could have been you or someone you know". Hearing this rhetoric with every story that happens anywhere else in the world becomes tedious.
The Fox News Channel hits us with the combination of their logo "Fair and Balanced" followed by images of their star reporters to build our perceived ethos of their reporters. Does this rhetoric work for you? It does not work for me. Fox makes further attempts at logos by stating they are America's number one news channel. I watch Fox just for the humor value of the excessive rhetoric. Fox may have a high number of viewers but many could be watching for the same reason as I do.
The attempts to pull at my heartstrings with these pitches become annoying after hearing them continuously. They begin to fall into the clichéd ethos of "4 out of 5 dentists recommends...". I begin to doubt the veracity of the source after hearing the phrases so many times.
I can understand the desire of the news media to build a relationship with their viewers. The result could be beneficial in terms of revenue generated by a growing loyal audience. It may be better to focus on giving us more information in the time slot allowed by reducing the rhetoric.
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3 comments:
Hey Chuck - You are so right! Fox News is exactly the type of thing that gives Rhetoric a bad name.
Makes me glad I've not owned a TV for the last 7 years.
Please speak up in class and remind me to talk about your post. Good stuff, and you got two comments from peers!
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