My groups issue was the media’s portrayal of the death of Iranian General Solemani. In the process of our project we discovered, and identified several rhetorical strategies such as an antithesis (drawing a justified connection between the killing of the general and sustained piece), the others strategies used were ethos, pathos, and logos. Using ethos to describe the effect of the strike as either “devestating” or “necessary” making the reader either feel the strike was essential, or an act of terror. Pathos was used when they needed to prescribe an emotion to the consumer, by either painting the Generals shortcomings to better paint the picture of who they want you to believe he was. Lastly through the use of logos they were able to again use past mishaps, or terrors preformed by the General to paint the need for him to be eliminated. This was all done to make the targeted audience of patriotic citizens to feel as if the government was acting in their best interest.
“UNITED STATES LAUNCHES NEW WAR-PREVENTERS WITH THE INTENT OF ELIMINATING ALL FUTURE THREATS!”
What I am illustrating is the way nationalism is used against the population. Propaganda like this can be found all over the country, whether it’s someone only buying American made products, or a politician claiming to want to make America great again, nationalism is being used to influence the masses. Like painting a war machine whose only designation is to kill with the flag to make it more stomachable for the population. If that’s not enough we can also label all of the killings as a national threat to scare the people into believing what is being done is right. I think this is an accurate depiction of how in today’s society we pride ourselves on the mass amount of spending on our military even if there is no need.
ENG-4610 Joseph Villella 