TOW #27- Bruce Jenner comes out… as a Republican

This week Diane Sawyer interviewed Bruce Jenner in the “most anticipated interview of the year.” This interview mainly discussed Jenner’s decision to come out as transgender. However, Jenner also came out in another way, his political views. In the interview Jenner revealed he is a proud conservative and republican. This made political headlines: an Olympian transgender reality star as a republican? Not something you hear everyday. The author of the article on CNN discussing the news used credible sources and background information to give the full story on Jenner. Firstly, there were direct quotes from the interview. There were also quotes from a statement made by the National Executive Director of Log Cabin Republicans, Gregory T. Angelo, which said he “congratulates Bruce Jenner in the tremendous courage he demonstrated tonight being true to himself both in terms of his personal identity as well as his political identity.” This shows the author went out of their way to find more credible information relating to the direct topic. This quote also helps the author prove that the Republican Party is somewhat excepting of Jenner’s reveal. Also, background information is given. Examples of other open liberal Hollywood celebrities are given like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Bruce Willis and Heather Locklear. Also background information about Jenner, stating he was an Olympian however then entered the world of reality television. The author also gives background about the interview itself. The proper context is set up before the main point, discussing how the political discussion came up and exactly what Jenner said. Both credible sources and background information gave this article a great flow and conveyed its point perfectly.

Link

TOW #26- Volkswagen Ad (Visual)

 Volkswagen, a popular car company, effectively achieved its purpose of advertising its new precision parking feature in its new advertisement through the use of humor and analogy. The advertisement depicts a single porcupine surrounded by goldfish in plastic bags, with the only text being, "Precision Parking. Park Assist by Volkswagen." By using these animals, the advertisement has a very lighthearted and humorous nature that helps Volkswagen appeal to its audience of drivers of any age. The analogy of a porcupine to the viewer's car and the bags of goldfish to surrounding cars goes hand-in-hand with this humorous nature because although its use of animals is funny, its analogy is very real: parallel parking a car can be as dangerous as trying to fit a porcupine between delicate bags full of goldfish.

     This text also plays a role as an enthymeme: it conveys an argument as its purpose is to persuade viewers to buy Volkswagen cars with the new Park Assist feature. The major premise states that a porcupine has to be carefully "parked" between bags of goldfish while the minor premise states that Volkswagen's Park Assist can park cars between other cars as carefully as the porcupine is parked between the goldfish. By using this analogy, Volkswagen can easily get its point across about its Park Assist feature without being as dull and overdone as other car advertisements.

TOW #25- Pros and Cons of Body Cameras For Police

TOW #25

            In the past few months police brutality conflicts have hit an all time high. The backlash for shootings and other beatings has been excessively intense. But what stance does the famous source of The Onion take on things? The article The Pros and Cons of Body Cameras For Police does it exactly what it says, weighs the pros and cons of body cameras on police men. The use of humor and sarcasm are the main ways the author gets across their purpose. The humor aspect takes some of the intensity out of this heavily debated subject. For example, one of the listed pros is “more things to watch.” This seems so obvious that it becomes humorous. Another example is a con, which is “Distracting to officers who must now shift focus to cinematography and miss en scene.” These help get across the fact that the article is not being serious and the person they are trying to make seem wrote this is not educated. Another example is under cons, “Police brutality might lose its mystique.” Showing there is no real harm in seeing everything. The other device the author uses is sarcasm. Almost every bullet point is sarcastic. For example listed under cons is “Is still only going to be the irrefutable video evidence’s word against the police officer’s”. This is the author mainly saying that these cameras are not necessary because there is already irrefutable video evidence but people trust the police officers over the video evidence. These two strategies make for a hilarious take on police brutality that I surprisingly enjoyed reading.

http://www.theonion.com/articles/the-pros-and-cons-of-body-cameras-for-police,38405/