Free Rice

       Obviously, world hunger can be recognized as an inarguable global issue, but luckily, many ways of possible civic engagement have been developed, which allow individuals to help ease this exigence. Freerice.com, acts as a great way for human beings to quickly, and conveniently join the cause to stop world hunger. If your unfamiliar with the website, what happens is...

A category is chosen, and questions within that category are displayed in a multiple-choice lay out. The person at home, online, is expected to select what they believe to be the correct answer, and if they choose correctly, 10 grams of rice is donated to the World Food Programme, an organization dedicated to solving and combatting global hunger. Free Rice allows humans to educate themselves, and feed the undernourished at the same time, for free.

      What I find to be interesting about Free Rice, is it's ability to establish such a strong pathos with the audience, without actually advocating the World Food Programme. Visitors to the site simply find the entire concept so interesting, and fresh, that they motivate themselves to dig deeper into the exigence. In turn, the self-established pathos within the audience, causes the public advocates who've designed and sponsored the site to form an incredible, ethos, as well. It's as if these advocates are introducing the world to a cause, without shoving the facts down their throat, and that technique has worked as a great way to open up the cause to a vast, eclectic group of people.

      It's likely that I could choose to perform a speech that discusses the issue of world hunger, and that proposes a possible solution to the problem. I will definitely use Free Rice as an example of how to establish pathos within an audience, and how to establish ethos within myself. I believe that the best way to advocate a cause is to invite others into the proposed solution, rather than guilting them or forcing them into it, and Free Rice acts as a great example of this strategy. I also believe that ethos should be established silently, which Free Rice also accomplishes. Lastly, a goal for any speech I will ever perform, will be to build interest among the audience, and Free Rice undoubtably builds interest within it's large, global audience.
 

Bono Gathers Celebs for AIDS Campaign

Bono demonstrates civic engagement by getting involved in his community, as well as the vast world around him. He has gathered many celebrities such as Ludacris, Gwen Stefani, and Hugh Jackman to actively make a change in a problem, that problem being the widepsread of AIDS. Their exigence of this rhetorical situation is to raise awareness of this problem, and to get people to help be a part of the solution. By having numerous celebrities in the commerical, their credibiility greatly increases. They establish ethos because they are successful and seemingly sincere people, who appear to genuinely care about the problem. Some of them are actors, however, so that could be why their delivery seems so sincere. They also take into account their audience. Many different kinds of people watch television and go online, so it is very likely that some people watching the campaign video will not be very rich like the celebrities themselves. By emphasising the fact that it only costs you 40 cents, it makes the viewer feel like even they can afford it.

Possibly the most effective tactic in this campaign is the use of hunor. The celebrities give examples of objects that only cost about 40 cents or so, which is the same amount to pay for pills to help people with AIDS. However, some of these purchased items can be found humorous to the audience, such as buying "half a song", which appeals to technology users, or even a man wearing lipstick, because it is unexpected. It holds the audience's attention and makes a point that it only takes a little big to make a big difference.

Advocates for Cyber-Bullying

Public advocates against cyber-bullying and digital harassment are inspired to take a stand against such forms of abuse, because they understand the harmful effects that it can cause to the victim. Their exigence is to raise awareness about this growing problem in society. Because it is such a new issue, advocates must go out and speak about the topic to raise awareness and provide information for those who may be unaware of the signs or severity. Their purpose for speaking out is to inform people about the dangers of digital harassment, to convince them that it is a serious problem that demands immediate call to action, and to motivate people to do something to help to alleviate the problem.

They must be aware of their audience’s prior knowledge on the issue as well as their predispositions and adjust their speech tactics accordingly. If the audience already has a lot of information on cyber-bullying, then they should adjust their style to include words that the audience is likely aware of, such as digital drama. Patterns that they should consider for their arrangement include cause/effect, compare/contrast, and topical format.

Another key tactic for delivering an effective speech on anti-bullying would be appeal to the pathos of the audience. If the audience is made to understand the harmful and deadly effects of the issue, then they are likely to be swayed to the advocate’s side based on their emotions. The advocate could do this by sharing personal stories, showing video or pictures, or playing a song that has powerful lyrics that relate to the issue at hand such as this song by Emily Osment.

Advocating Public Advocacy

When I was deciding what to blog about, I used a search engine to see what kind of celebrity civic engagement and public advocacy was recently in the news. I found an interesting article on the Washington State University website that fits very well with the topics of public advocacy and civic engagement. The title of the article is "WSU Researchers Find That Celebrity Endorsements Motivate Younger Voters." As I'm sure you can guess, it focuses on the impact celebrities have on many areas of young adults lives, even into the realm of voting. History has shown that voters, ages 18-24, have very little interest in voting and have the lowest turnout on election day of any age group. Between 1990 and 2000, attendance of voters this age hit an all time low, but in 2004 the statistics rose drastically. Research suggests that this is due to the celebrity GOTV (get-out-the-vote) campaign. One of the researchers makes this claim, "The results suggest that celebrity involvement in the promotion of civic engagement can have potentially positive effects that have both short-term and long-term benefits for the larger community"

As American citizens voting is a part of our civic engagement responsibilities, which is why this article was a "hit" in my search engine. At first I didn't think this would work because voting is not the type of civic engagement we are dealing with in public speech. As I read deeper into the article, though, I was able to draw out some facts that I found really exciting. Part of the GOTV campaign is a non-profit organization called "Declare Yourself." This organization toured college campuses promoting civic engagement (mainly voting but also community volunteering and personal political involvement) with famous speakers and singers. In affiliation, Christina Aguilera even launched "Declare Yourself Yahoo" which is an online voting registration drive. What is so interesting about all this is that in promoting civic engagement, the celebrities themselves were demonstrating that exact practice. Their exigence was the lack of civic engagement in young adults. This concerning fact caused them to speak out about this issue in appropriate environments. They traveled to colleges and universities so they could reach the audience that needed to hear that particular message. They would then publicly speak about the issue and influence the students to make a change. It worked, and in 2004 (when this campaign began) 44% of new voters were of the 18-24 age group and 43% reported that they expected to stay involved in the political process.

I love this example of celebrity public advocacy and civic engagement in promoting those very concepts. It just goes to show how truly surrounded by these ideas and also by the need for public speech we are. It helped me to realize just how important the skills we are currently learning will be for the rest of our lives.

Public Advocacy and Civic Engagement in Communication

Public advocacy is people getting involved in their community, local government and more, and calling for change with issues they believe exist. Civic engagement is the act of getting involved in the community and actively trying to make a change where they believe there is a problem. It is the process of taking public advocacy one step further. They are both closely related and are both important. They are also both closely related to communication.

It is a rhetorical situation. The problem that inspires people to publicly advocate or get involved in their community is the exigence. The public advocators need to speak to other people who do not yet believe in their cause and inform them about the issue and then convince them that the problem is urgent and needs more help. For people who want to get others involved and actively trying to make a change, the goals of their speech need to be to inform and convince but also to motivate. They need to establish a strong pathos, and emotionally connect with their audience. In both cases, they need to understand who their audience is. If the audience is already aware of the issue they will be speaking about, they need to take more time convincing them to possibly change their views or if they already believe in it, convince them to continue supporting the cause. They also need to be aware of their constraints, maybe their audience has limited information about the topic or they are very stubborn in their beliefs to disagree. Speaking out to the rest of the community is the main way to get others involved in the community whether it be advocating the issues with the local government or actually acting to make a change.

It Gets Better

The video that the creator of the "It Gets Better" project made is a good example of public advocacy. He is trying to get the viewers of this video to be inspired, and become a part of this project. He uses a motivational video to start it out, hoping to capture the hearts of viewers. He also uses interviews with a few people that, in their teens, were bullied or made fun of. Using these personal interviews can help teens relate to their lives, and what they might have gone through. It also shows that the teens who are going through hard times are not alone.
The video also shows how to get to the website via Youtube and Google. The video portrays an exciting atmosphere among the people that are a part of it (shown in the large, screaming crowd scene). It also shows how the number of people that are part of the project has grown increasingly. This helps the project by telling people that it’s popular and everyone is joining.
Another thing the video utilizes is the influence of celebrities. It shows clips of different celebrities saying things along the line of, “It gets better,” which is the name of the project. This is a very clever way to implement popular people into a video meant to get other people to join the project. This is because celebrities, in our society, are looked up to and thought of as popular. Using celebrities to seem like they’re supporting your cause makes it look like everyone else should be doing that too.
Using all these elements, the creator of the video draws you in and makes you inspired. What kind of teen wouldn’t want to know that people are going through the same things they are? The video at one point even shows a line that somebody had said after joining, “I have hope,” which in turn would give other people the idea that they will have hope if they join this project. The creator did a good job of using all these elements to show public support for a cause.

A Dignity Revolution

Throughout history, there have been many different movements, revolutions and organizations that strive for a more fair world. All the successful ones have been filled with strong public advocacy. To get the public behind something, and involved, is difficult, but worth it. An important example of public advocacy, and the appeal to it, happened at the 2011 World Special Olympics Games.

The Special Olympics is an organization, which is leading the movement to form a society that embraces our more special members. Every year, there is a finale to the games that the participants enjoy all year long. This past year, the chairman and CEO Tim Shriver, delivered a speech to define the meaning of this amazing society. The target audience was directly the athletes and coaches, but indirectly, the world. He called on Special Olympics athletes in the crowd and asked them to lead a dignity revolution. This medium of this speech was simple, only using his verbal skills and broadcasting onto larger screens.

The five canons of rhetoric apply directly to his moving speech. He found a way to grip the audience that consisted of coaches and athletes, and persuaded them to listen to him and to take him up on his challenge to start a dignity revolution. He arranged his points in a clear and concise way, but he cut to the chase. His style was pure heart, he truly believed in his message and what he wanted to convey. He also knew his speech very well, he may have looked once or twice at his papers, but the meat of it was coming from deep inside of him. The delivery is so effective, because his voice has such passion behind it. You can tell he actually cares about what he is saying through the use of his eyes, voice and and his hand movements.