TOW #20- Challenger Speech by Ronald Reagan

 

Reading goal: Analyze a piece besides a regular a news story

Writing goal: provide detailed but concise analysis
   
 There can be no progress without sacrifice. On January 28^th, 1986, the space shuttle Challenger exploded upon take-off, killing all seven astronauts aboard. In his speech later addressing the nation about this tragedy, President Ronald Reagan expressed his grief and condolences towards those affected, as well as the impact of the legacy left by the astronauts. He spoke of the bravery of the astronauts and also the future of the United States space program. Through his use of empathetic diction and appeal to pathos, Reagan effectively consoles a nation shocked by such a tragedy.
     Reagan’s uses powerful diction throughout his speech. He says, “For the families of the seven, we cannot bear, as you do, the full impact of this tragedy. But we feel the loss, and we're thinking about you so very much. Your loved ones were daring and brave, and they had that special grace, that special spirit …They wished to serve, and they did. They served all of us.” By directly addressing the families of the seven astronauts and using the unifying word “we”, Reagan echoes the sympathy felt by all Americans . He also repeats the word “special” and “serve”, acknowledging the astronauts as invaluable individuals who exemplified service. Reagan furthers the power of his speech by appealing to emotion. He says “Nancy and I” when talking about his own reaction to the tragedy, making the statement seem more personal with the mention of his wife’s name. He also ends with a poignant allusion to a poem by  John Gilliepie Magee Jr., an American aviator who died before his time as well. Reagan says, “We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and "slipped the surly bonds of earth" to "touch the face of God."”  By ending his speech on a uplifting note, Reagan is telling the nation that the space program will not be shaped by this disaster and will continue to advance into the future.
     Ronald Reagan was the President and speaker, and therefore the figurehead of American exploration and advancement. The audience of this speech is the American public, most of whom had seen the take-off on television. In his speech however, Reagan especially addresses the children, the future explorers and pioneers of the nation, who had watched the tragedy unfold while at school. In a fatherly way, the president explained that the future belongs to the brave, and that unfortunately accidents happen. The occasion is the Challenger tragedy, which happened to coincidently be on the same day as the State of the Union Address. This is why Reagan uses a solemn and grave tone throughout. Reagan’s purpose was to eulogize the astronauts and assure that the United States would continue to expand its space program.  Despite the great loss, seven heroic men and women died for the sake of something they loved and believed in.

TOW #19: Media-Coca Cola Ad

In this Superbowl Coca Cola advertisement, the song "America the Beautiful" is sung in quite a few different languages. Accompanying the song are images of American families of all different ethnicities. The advertisement displays just typical scenes like people eating, playing, or traveling. It begins with a classically "American" scene of a man in a cowboy hat and ends with a symbol of a Coca Cola bottle with the #AmericaisBeautiful. Throughout the ad., there is also subtle Coke advertising as the people are portrayed holding Coca Cola bottles in some scenes.
Coke mainly plays upon an appeal to pathos in this ad. Through the use of "America is Beautiful" and its depiction of the "American melting pot", it strikes a feeling of patriotism. The strong emotion associated with patriotism then serves to make the ad. more memorable.What's interesting about Coke is that it doesn't need to use explicit advertising, since most of the world already knows its product. The more understated ways the product is expressed in the commercial give the ad. a somewhat bigger purpose of celebrating the diversity of America, and not just promoting Coca Cola. At the same time, this ties Coca Cola with being truly an "American" drink.
Coca Cola's ad. is effective mainly because it targets the right audience. This ad. was shown during the Superbowl, which is considered as a pretty important yearly event in the U.S. Americans all over the country are watching, so the ad. is very easy to relate to since it's celebrating the beauty of the very country that the most of the ad's audience is from. And just as America is proud of its football, it's also proud of its diversity. By basing the ad. off this fact, Coca Cola successfully creates a strong emotional association with its product. Of course, it also adds the #AmericaIsBeautiful to keep people buzzing about the ad. on social networking sites even after the superbowl, further spreading the product.
The Coca Cola company was founded in 1892 Asa Griggs Candler. The current CEO of the company is Muhtar Kent.

IRB # 3 Post: The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

The book that I plan to read this marking period is The Glass Castle. This is a memoir by an author who had a very unconventional upbringing. She and her family constantly moved when she was a child, traveling from the deserts of the mid-west to Phoenix to Tennessee, often living in abandoned houses. Jeannette's mother was a free-spirited artist and her father a brilliant man who also drank and lied. One of my friend's recommended me this book, which is why I plan to read it. The author's adventures sound almost fantastical. Sometimes, just sometimes, I wish I would have an interesting upbringing like her.

TOW # 18: To Help the World's Poor, Give them Real Jobs by Charles Kenny

There is a discrepancy between what statistics show and what developing countries experience. In this article, Charles Kenny describes the world's "self-employed"- people who often make little money and are part of an unseen "informal sector". Most of the 1.3 billion workers who make less than $2-a-day work in this sector. Understanding the "self-employed" in developing countries is crucial to tackling the big problems of economy development and poverty and helping  citizens who continue to depend on informal occupations that make volatile pay.

Throughout the essay the author uses various rhetorical devices and strategies. Primarily, he focuses on statistics to make a cohesive logical argument. He writes, "That low productivity helps to explain why, even though only around 200 million people in the world are considered unemployed by the ILO, 1.3 billion workers lived in families below the $2-a-day poverty line." This includes statistics from various countries as well, which adds to the broader importance of his argument. For example, Kenny cities statistics from India's shop-owners to Chinese farmers. Kenny also uses a rebuttal-style organization, where he states what opponents may believe can help the economy of these countries and then uses statistics to back why they are either wrong or to show a better method of action.

Overall, Kenny does make a convincing argument. His audience was probably Americans who care about business, as the article appeared in BusinessWeek and was also fairly easy to understand. The use of statistics really added to the author's credibility. However, he doesn't really cite a viable solution to this issue. Although he says the current method of helping economies in developing countries is not working, his solution is vague, which detracts from his credibility.

Charles Kenny is a senior fellow at the Center of Global Development and author of The Upside of Down: Why the Rise of the Rest is Great for the West.