The Use of Persuasion Techniques - Essay Example

Critical analysis of news reporting relating the ISIS crisis in the middle-east and the use of persuasion techniques. Critical analysis of news reporting relating the ISIS crisis in the middle-east and the use of persuasion techniques. News channels have different ways of persuading the audience and making the masses appeal to their ideology. ISIS is one of the most discussed topics right now in the media channels. The formation and the rising of the Islamic state caused more alarm in the United States of America which readily had to form a coalition to get rid of the extremist bodies. Using military strategy and conquering land by the use of force and machinery ISIS soon captured huge amount of land on the middle-eastern side. Posing a threat to the United states of America and other countries of the world, President Obama launched the program of Air attacks on ISIS and destroying the bodies responsible for the spread of Islamic extremism. Many news channels provided their analysis on the launch of air attacks on the Islamic state, while others positively hailed the Obama administration for stepping in and countering the terrorists. There were some media bodies that criticized the administration for stepping into a new war not of Americas making in the first place. After the key city, Kobani was under the ISIS control many media outlets openly ended up criticizing the government in the first place. News channel manipulate the mind of many watchers and try different tactics to persuade the audience to agree with them. The ethos, pathos and logos are tools used by the media and they play a vital role in making the audience agree with them. When talking about the three persuasion appeal methods, ethos is defined as the appeal made using moral ethics which are backed and based on the character, credibility or the reliability of an institution or the person who is trying to persuade. This means that the broadcaster is trying to use the method of moral ethics as a way to get the audience to agree with him. Pathos is defined as the technique of using emotions and trying to trigger the audience response by using appeals that arouse certain emotions in the audience and use the values and emotions as a way to get the results via emotional reasons. Finally, logos are defined as the appeal used that contains logics and reasons to get what you want. Using information and logical deductive reasoning as a way to make the audience agree with what you want. The is the use of pure logic based on the calculated facts and deductive measures of reasoning and persuasion (Weida & Stolley 2013). The three broadcasters in the news channel of CNN, ABC News and Aljazeera have used different methods of persuasion to try to get the people to agree with them. All the media outlets analyzed hold a very credible spot in the world of reporting and are credible news channels. Thus, they have a large established audience of various races and ethnicity not to mention age that they have to keep in mind when giving facts or providing with opinionated news. While many news channels try to remain unbiased in conveying the message and letting the audience make up their own mind about the issue, there are hints of biasness seen in certain reporting issues when it comes to it. The three broadcasters have remained loyal to the target audience by trying to use the three techniques of persuasion while appearing totally unbiased but the language used differs and the way of broadcasting also differs which has led to the formation of different viewpoints. This paper focuses on the analysis of three different news channel providing coverage to the same news but using different ways of ethos, logos and pathos to have the audience agree with their idea in the first place. This is media manipulation and how news channels end up shaping the opinion of the general audience about a certain happening in the world. The story broadcasted by the three broadcasters is about the air strike of America on ISIS and the elimination of the Islamic extremism that prevails in the area of the middle-east. In the reporting done by the CNN, the broadcaster opens with a question, asking the audience what has the government done to eliminate the threat. The next method used by him is to quote the figures and showing the map where he then quotes the American officials as saying that “territory does not matter and attacking weapons and sources of funding” (CNN) The broadcaster gives out a general opinion about the ISIS advancement in the area and questions the American officials on the progress of the air strikes by making a few statements which include “In Iraq territory does matter”, “Syria has no ground force”. Using logos and ethos mostly in his way is a method of persuading the audience that international and national citizens are very unhappy with the progress made by the American air strikes and so far they have not been able to eliminate the spread of the Islamic state or control the existing crisis faced by the whole world. This has also led to the use of pathos in the end where he leaves with an open ended question concluding and laying the emphasis on the point that so far ISIS is progressing the area while U.S airstrikes have not been able to do much about it (CNN 2014). ABC news is another credible media outlet that has made in depth analysis on the ISIS progression in the middle-east and the implications it has had in the international and national genres. The headline made by the news channel is clear and precise in the idea that it wants to convey and has formed an opinion already about the news it is going to report. Strong wordings such as “failed” and “acknowledged by the officials” are used which give out the same idea that U.S airstrikes have failed in stopping Islamic state. Statements which include “General. Martin Dempsey acknowledged that U.S airstrikes have failed to stop ISIS” are used by the reporter in conveying the main ideology of the failed attacks of American airstrikes. The ethos in the reporting are mainly claiming the ethical appeal of making the audience consider the point that the strikes have failed. Logos is used in the reporting when the reporter provides facts and mentions the “15 kilometers of the Baghdad airport.” The reporter highlights through facts and figures the army has failed to make any real progress in the area and that the ISIS is progressing at a rate that is out of control of the U.S army. The headline used “can U.S airstrikes save town” is a more pathos appeal to the audience and is asking them a rhetorical question which is already answered by the reporter eventually in the broadcast. This gives out the idea that news broadcasts leave little or no space of personal thinking but end up asking the questions whose opinion they have already made in the mind of the audience. Thus, in the end the target audience ends up replying in the manner that they want to (ABC News 2014). Aljazeera is a news channel that has established its credibility as one of the most unbiased one in the reporting industry. The Iraqi blogs are one of their series that aim for the coverage of ISIS in the middle-east on ground basis. They have used statements like "they can use logistics very well. They fit to their surrounding and are very flexible”, to provide a more strategic basis of the ISIS advancement in the Iraq and Syria. “More mobility and fighting in Kobani for instance” is one of the strong ideas that the channel holds and which is trying to give out the strategic analysis of the advancement rather than openly criticizing the air attacks and bashing down the American officials for the failure in the first place as the two previous news broadcasters had done. Analysis on the fighting strategy give out the audience an option to form an opinion for themselves. Logos and ethos are well used in the persuasion method where they want the audience to form their own opinion relating the advancement of the ISIS army. Pathos are not used much in the broadcasting since, the generalized opinion is based more on the military strategy of the Islamic state (Aljazeera 2014). In conclusion, what is seen mostly in the broadcasting is that news reporters and the anchors do try to shape up the opinion of the general audience in a manner that remains very sly in technique. The methods of persuasion are very well used and are aimed at making the audience agree with the ideology of the news channel. Where on one hand, one channel openly bashed the U.S airstrike, the other one used facts and figures to do so. The advancement and strategic level of it was very slightly discussed but the audience due to the method of persuasion would form the same opinion as the news channels. The media though tries to remain unbiased in the reporting but by giving out analysis, it usually ends up making the decisions for the audience itself and this is where the media manipulation comes in. The difference in the persuasion methods come into the light when the words are manipulated in a way to convey the same ideology but the tone of voice and the use of sentence structure changes the whole outlook. References ABC News. (2014, September 12)."Despite US Airstrikes, ISIS Forces Draw Nearer to Baghdad." ABC News. Retrieved from http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/us-airstrikes-isis-forces-draw-nearer-baghdad-26145183 Karimi, F. & Smith-Spark, L. (2014, October 14). "ISIS militants march on despite airstrikes, international outrage." CNN. Retrieved from http://edition.cnn.com/2014/10/13/world/meast/isis-developments/index.html Regencia, T. (2014, October 16). "Iraq Blogs." Aljazeera. Retrieved from Weida,S. & Stolley, K. (2013, February 11). "Using Rhetorical Strategies for Persuasion." OWL PURDUE UNIVERSITY. Retrieved from https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/588/04/ Read More