Image by facebook.com

https://www.facebook.com/bridgechildrensacademy/

1. The company’s website that I will be analyzing is The Bridge Children’s Academy Facebook page. Their page uses different forms of identity strategies to appeal to viewers and to be informative.

a) Association strategies: The page showcases association strategies in a few examples; the heading of the webpage is an image of children. This implies that the organization is associating themselves with children. Also, their logo is a bridge symbolizing their name and their association with its co-partner, The Bridge Church and their relationship with religion. Behind the logo is another image of children which strengthens their association to kids.

b) Differentiation Strategies: Bridge Children’s Academy portrays differentiation strategies on their Facebook page by signifying their reviews two times. This shows that they take pride in their high rated reviews and that they are better than other preschools.

c) Branding strategies in the rhetoric: The branding strategies used on this page are the logo, the reviews of customers, and pictures of the children. The logo is colorful and aesthetically pleasing which catches the attention to audiences. The high customer reviews can be used as branding because potential and currant customers will be impressed. Finally, the pictures of the children act as branding because it shows that they are having fun and learning.

d) In what ways do these strategies help focus on what is central and enduring about the organization? These strategies help focus on the organizations priority of the importance of happy, healthy, and educated children by showcasing images of happy children, educational activities, their religious relationship.

e) Channels of delivery: Ideally, organizations have multiple channels of delivery so that many different audiences will see the advertisements, instead of only having one for of delivery and reaching only one group of audiences. The Bridge Children’s Academy, however, only uses their Facebook page to publicize their organization. This limits their audience because they are only reaching Facebook-using adults. And the web page will only appear if that parents “friend” either likes or shares a post about the organization. The chances of one accidentally finding the web page are very slim.

f) In what ways might the rhetoric use an already-existing identity to advance the goals of the organization? The Bridge Children’s Academy is using an already existing identity to advance their goals. They are an extension of the popular Bridge Church located in Powhatan, Va. By using the same name and logo as the church they are expressing both of their connections with religion and God. Since the church was already well-known, many of their members also joined the preschool, which prevented the organization from having to brand and advertise much.

2. What are the key elements of the rhetorical situation? The rhetorical situation is that many people see preschools as babysitting or people are not comfortable with leaving their child with strangers. The Bridge Children’s Academy must fight these stereotypes and portray the organization as professional, educational, and loving to all children.

a) Identity-building rhetoric and Identity maintenance rhetoric: To successfully portray the Bridge Children’s Academy as holding these qualities they must first implement identity-building rhetoric and then maintain them. You must first showcase these qualities to bring in new parents/customers, but you also must maintain it so that parents do not leave.

b) Audiences: By showing reviews the organization is targeting new parents/customers in an attempt to portray themselves as credible. The images of the children and teachers targets both prospective customers and currant ones.

c) Constraints: The constraints that the organization must face are the stereotypes that many parents may have on preschools, like: not being educational, professional, or loving towards the children. The Bridge Children’s Academy must prove that they contain these qualities.

Artifact: Apple’s Diversity commercial “Inclusion inspires Innovation”

Pentadic Elements:

• Act: Wanting people to be inclusive to better the world
• Agency: Uses many different Apple employees to express the diversity within the company
• Agent: Narrator/Apple
• Purpose: To promote diversity and individualism
• Scene: Apple’s office building

Ratios:

• Act-Agency: yes
• Act-Agent: yes
• Act-Purpose: yes
• Act-Scene: no
  

  ---

• Agency-Act: yes
• Agency-Agent: no
• Agency-Purpose: yes
• Agency-Scene: no
  

  ---

• Agent-Act: no
• Agent-Agency: no
• Agent-Purpose: no
• Agent-Scene: yes
  

  ---

• Purpose-Act: yes
• Purpose-Agency: no
• Purpose-Agent: no
• Purpose-Scene: no
  

  ---

• Scene-Act: no
• Scene-Agency: no
• Scene-Agent: yes
• Scene-Purpose: no

  Dominant Element: Act

The dominant element is Act because all the other elements could be changed and the message would still be understood through the Act; wanting people to be inclusive of everyone. The implications if this commercial is to see Apple as a company that promotes individualism, diversity, and equality and to encourage other people/companies to implement these qualities into their own lives.

For Critical Essay #2 I will be using Ideological Criticism to analyze a 2013 Tide commercial. Tide’s 2013 commercial continues this stigma with a mother as the main spokesperson encouraging the use and purchase of Tide. Ideally the audience would be for anyone that washes their clothing, however, the company narrows this down to a smaller group of people: mothers. The stereotype that has grown from our society is that mothers are the most likely to clean clothes along with other female stigmas. I chose this artifact because like many commercials in today’s society, it stereotypes women and I want people to see where these stereotypes begin and grow. Using Ideological Criticism is the most obvious form of analysis for this piece because it explores the hegemonic views of our culture.

Apple. “Apple-Diversity- Inclusion Inspires Innovation.” Youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxKFDnzluOs. Accessed 4 April 2018

In this post I will be analyzing Lennon and Maisy’s version of “That’s What’s Up” using metaphoric criticism.

The song was originally created and sung by Edward Sharp and The Magnetic Zeros but Lennon and Maisy have done a cover of it in their own fashion. The song uses many metaphors to glorify the love between a couple by using two objects that require each other to exist, implying that the lovers need one another to be complete.

Here are some of the explicit metaphors that compare a couple’s relationship:

• “I’ll be the church, you be the steeple”
• “I’ll be the sun, you be the shining”
• “You be the clock, I’ll be the timing”
• “You be the book, I’ll be the binding”
• “You be the words, I’ll be the rhyming”
• “You be the bird, I’ll be the feather”

Also, here are a few more explicit metaphors in the song that make comparisons about love:

• “Love, it is a shelter”
• “Love, it is a cause”
• “Love, it is our honor”
• “Love, it is our home”

Through these metaphors the couple (the “I” and “you”) and love is the tenor while the comparisons (church, steeple, sun, shining, etc.) are the vehicle. As I shortly described in the context, the vehicles need one another to exist. Without the shining the sun would be a totally different object and a book needs its binding to be a book. If you take one away than the other loses its full meaning, thus without one of the lovers than the relationship would also not have its full meaning. Love is used as a metaphor to show the gravity it has on people. It is where people are safe (shelter and home) and it is their reasoning behind doing what they do (cause).

1.Tide Commercial (2013)

Most laundry and cleaning commercials tend to fall into stereotypical tendencies of using women to promote their product. Tide’s 2013 commercial continues this stigma with a mother as the main spokesperson encouraging the use and purchase of Tide. Ideally the audience would be for anyone that washes their clothing, however, the company narrows this down to a smaller group of people: mothers. The stereotype that has grown from our society is that mothers are the most likely to clean clothes.

2. Preliminary Ideological Criticism                                                                              a. Presented elements:

• Bargain detergents are inferior to Tide because they do not remove stains (1 Tide cup vs. 6 cups of other detergent brands),
• Mother quit her job to take care of children
• Mother is cooking, poorly
• Mother is painting planets with children
• Nana is better at doing laundry and cooking

b. Suggested elements

• Mothers must quit their jobs to take care of the children
• Mothers should be the cookers
• Older generations know what is right
• Mothers are expected to help with children’s school projects

3. Ideology evident                                                                                                   The ideology articulated from the 2013 Tide commercial is that mothers are expected to portray stereotypical mother roles of taking care of the children, cooking, and doing laundry. The commercial does not include any other groups of people which prevents it from appealing to diverse groups. The artifact successfully asks the audience to avoid alternative laundry brands, thus leaving them as the best option. It is stereotypical to assume these gender roles onto a mother role; the Tide commercial discredits her even more by implying that it took her multiple attempts before finally turning to Tide and that she is an unsuccessful cook that has burnt the muffins. She would have been given more power if she was seen as the most intelligent for purchasing Tide.                                                                                                                                                                                        Preece, David. “Tide Laundry Detergent Commercial 2013 – Muffins.” Youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0cAK9ouRXU. Accessed 13 March 2018.

I will be using generic description to determine whether the Netflix original shows Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist create a sub-genre of Misfit Superheroes. Generic description is used when multiple artifacts appear to respond to a similar situation and share come rhetorical similarities. To give you a background on each of these shows, here is a short description for each one:

Jessica Jones

Jessica Jones is a Marvel character with her own show on Netflix. She is a mid-twenties detective with super strength and the ability to avoid mind control. The first season follows Jessica along as she attempts, and ultimately does, defeat her arch nemesis.

Luke Cage

Luke Cage is another Marvel character with his own Netflix show. Cage is an ex-con with super strength and bullet proof skin. Cage has a soft spot for his neighborhood and when a gang member threatens to control the youth, Cage stands up to defeat them.

Iron Fist

Like Jessica Jones and Luke Cage, Iron Fist (aka Danny Rand) is another Marvel character with a Netflix show. Danny has the power of a super-strength fist brought on by chi and must use it to defeat The Hand, a super villain organization of ninjas.

Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist share the following characteristics that make them Misfits:

• Few friends
• Quiet
• Jobs that keep them to themselves
• Alcoholics
• Disliked

Here are the qualities that make them Superheroes:

• Inhuman physical traits
• Ability to defeat villains when no one else can – last resort
• Brave
• Sense of responsibility
• Save those in danger

Although the Superhero genre is nothing new, most heroes are romanticized as having a:

• high moral code
• fighting spirit
• charismatic personality
• costume

Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist do not have these characteristic, yet they are still superheroes because they have inhuman physical traits and save the lives of others. Therefore, it is necessary they have their own sub-genre as Misfit Superheroes.

The organizing principles for this analysis will be:

• Unpopular
• Inhuman physical traits
• Responsibility for others

This post will discuss the rhetorical situation of Jennifer Lawrence’s acceptance speech at The Hollywood Reporter’s Women in Entertainment in 2017. The rhetor, Jennifer Lawrence is a popular American actress that has participated in more than 20 productions. Her esteemed position in the spotlight makes her a prime candidate for taking a stance on the issues of inequality. Lawrence uses this position to highlight these issues and bring awareness to inequality.

The audience for this speech is the attendees at the Hollywood Reporter’s Women in Entertainment. However, the audience is extended to the public because it was televised and is now located on the internet. The audience members watching this are most likely fans of Lawrence and/or feminists.

The topic of this speech is to thank Hollywood Reporter for the award. However, her purpose is to bring awareness to gender inequalities, and to thank and bring awareness of other celebrities who have enriched females, like Angelina Jolie, Meryl Streep, and many others. Her final purpose is to encourage the audience and all females to be “outspoken” about their ideas because they are just as important as male opinions.

Here is the video of Jennifer Lawrence’s acceptance speech at the Hollywood Reporter’s Women in Entertainment in 2017 that can also be located at www.youtube.com:

Hello, I am Morgan Pearce and these is my blog on Method’s of Rhetorical Criticism. I am a student at Longwood University with a major in English and minors in Children’s Literature and Rhetoric and Professional Writing. This blog will be specifically for my Rhetorical Criticism 301 class here at Longwood. However, it is also so that I can keep track of any new method’s of Rhetorical Criticism and I have an easy way to review them after I complete the course while also helping viewers have a better understanding of rhetorical criticism. The method’s I will be focusing on will be Neo-Aristotelian Criticism, Generic Criticism, Ideological Criticism, Metaphor Criticism, and Pentadic Criticism. Other students participating specifically in Longwood’s Rhetorical Criticism course will find this blog helpful, however, students from other schools studying the field of Rhetoric may find it helpful in understanding different method’s of rhetoric and how to apply it when necessary.

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