Three Questions for the week of 3/9-3/13, CMJR 205

Olivia Hernandez

3/9/09

CMJR 205

Rhetoric Questions

1. In Shawn J. Parry-Giles’ article about the media representation of Hillary Rodham Clinton, and by association women in the political world, Parry-Giles writes about how the media’s approach to Clinton’s many different roles (mother, wife, politician, feminist, first lady) reflects the media’s typical approach to women in politics. Because Clinton represents such an extreme mixing of traditional female roles and her highly-driven and politically-motivated persona, the media’s approach to her has been fascinating. Parry Giles writes that “the television news texts combine a rhetoric of fear surrounding powerful women with a gendered discourse on first ladies,” continuing with examples of news reporters mixing metaphors of feminine lace with explosive power, “Within such a phrase, the juxtaposition of danger with lace epitomizes the double bind for women who become so powerful that they lose their femininity.” Parry-Giles talks about Clinton as being “equated with images of feminism, power and fear.” I agree with this examination of women in politics. It is evident to me both from the evidence from this article as well as my own analysis of contemporary news that it is difficult for our society to not mix gendered terms with talk about political prowess when it comes to women. Women in politics continue to battle a media that scrutinizes them for being both too-feminine and not-feminine enough by different accounts. Talk of femininity, usually as a weakness, is inescapable for women in seats of power, even though masculinity (too much or too little of it) is never addressed as a problem in male politicians by the media. After reading Parry-Giles’ article, do you agree with mine or the article’s assessments?

2. Charles Larsen talks about “verbal”, “auditory” and “sight” scripts that exist as media “languages” used as persuasive mediums. Especially in advertising do these scripts factor into the persuasive argument of the communicator. Verbal scripts represent the actual message being communicated, while auditory scripts try to evoke feelings and memories with memorable sounds or the creation of effective songs. The sight script finishes the job with images that resonates feelings for the viewer, the image might be connotative to the auditory and verbal scripts, or it may attempt to say something with the way it visually presents the images. Visual scripts create the reality of the words being spoken and demonstrate and deepen the message. If you were to create an advertisement that persuaded a student to take a rhetoric class at Seattle University, how would you structure the verbal, auditory and sight scripts to create an effective persuasive message for your audience? Using the media language as described by Larsen, what would be the most effective way of using these scripts to make your point and create an attractive prospect in your argument for taking the class?

3. In Charles Larsen’s writing about media and persuasion, he notes the differences between “hot” and “cool” media. He defines hot media as messages that have “high fidelity or definition and are easy to perceive…well-drawn or recorded.” Of cool media he writes that they have “low fidelity or definition” and that we must work as an audience to process the messages. Larsen notes that there are also hot and cool persuaders or spokespeople that work within their respectively hot or cool mediums to get their message across. Using Larsen’s ideas about “hot” and “cool” methods of persuasion within a medium, how would you classify Jon Stewart of the Daily Show? How would you classify Stephen Colbert of the Colbert Report?