Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Interesting Appeal to Emotion
What I found interesting is how every day things that we do not even realize we do are labeled as certain actions. For example, the using of fear as an appeal to emotion did not even cross my mind as something that is used every day. Maybe it is because I do not use this sort of appeal myself but when the text described how politicians and advertisers manipulate people, I thought of the examples that I have seen on TV or newspapers as well as other forms of media. An example would be shows such as Law & Order: SVU. I personally love this show because it depicts the atrocious crimes that have happened in the past or ones that could potentially happen in the future. It evokes such strong emotions that you cannot help but get hooked. The show focuses on detectives that investigate sexual crimes against men, women, and children. In some episodes, I have seen organizations that spread the word of child molesters as well as other sexual offenders living in neighborhoods where children are always present. These organizations/neighborhood watch groups invoke the fear of others in order to keep their neighborhoods safe. They invoke fear by revealing the identities of sexual offenders, where they live, what crimes they have committed, etc. Fortunately, groups do this to protect themselves as well as those around them. Even though this show is fictional, it does depict how life is in certain parts of the country. Not all places are safe and it does seem plausible to bring others to see reality as it is by bringing out the fear of people in order to protect the innocent.
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Your post was very interesting to read! I personally love that show also; it is a bit scary because some of the material in the show is based off of crime scenes that have actually taken place, which is creepy and sad to think about. I agree with you that the shows motive is to not only produce good television, but to also scare the public. Many are oblivious to the horrendous crimes that are committed every day, sometimes even in their neighborhood. Many go unannounced, which is why people are so unaware of these people and what they are capable of.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoy reading you post, especially the comment on the tv's show: Law and Order. I think that in many situation, there are always the use of appeal to emotion to a certain extend to convince people. The appeal to fear is what get use a lot to allow people to take action toward something. For the most case, people do not want to go out of their ways to do something for someone else. However, if there are fear that something bad can happen, than it will usually encourage people to take action. This help link back to your point that when fear is invoke, people are willing to take action to protect them selves and people or things that they care about.
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