Americans often relate human trafficking with other countries such as India or China. However, not only does human trafficking have a broader scope of definition, it is very prevelant in America, a seemingly established, first world country.
Out of the three articles that I found, two were from an actual news source such as night-time news on FOX or ABC. The other articles was found on "the Onion." Keep in mind, our general views about these two outlets. I want to generalize the common reaction that an audience would have when hearing something about human trafficking. Human trafficking is viewed as immoral under any circumstance, therefore a common reaction to an article about it would mainly be of disgust or a similar response.
The first news article I read was about a man by the name of Vincent Edward Broussard abducting two women and planning to obtain money in exchange of the girls demonstrating sexual favors on another man. Without going into further detail on the story, the article seems objective enough. Very little pathos was displayed from the news source itself. However, the beauty of displaying a "side" on a certain situation by a media source is letting other people share their thoughts and opinions on the subject at hand. Many comments were made about the stupidity of women getting into a stranger's car and the concern/relief that they were lucky enough to live another day. This obviously shows discontent towards Vincent and his schemes. Key words can also play on pathos of an audience through the knews. For instance a quote from the article states, " Luckily, that's when Sand Springs police intervened chased, stopped and cuffed Broussard."
Along with the article just mentioned, the video clip of another human trafficking case uses logos to induce its audience with an emotion. With a common knowledge that human trafficking is represented as a despicable act to ever commit throughout any given population, simply reporting an instance of this stirs negative emotions towards the violators. The consensus of the act is already weighted towards the favor of the innocent people who are victimized by human trafficking. However, this is the general ethos of a regular news station: report the facts, possibly investigate foul play and share it with the public. There aren't visible agendas people are trying to take care of.
Finally, we arrive to a short article found on the Onion. This article makes light of human trafficking by using sarcasm and witty comments. Although the blurb is literally a sentence with some quotes by different characters, the pathos is definitely greater. This article can literally be seen by anyone who has internet access and has a desire to go to the website. That's a quite diverse population. Since it's so diverse, many people will have their own ethnocentric view towards it. An old, white woman might be appalled that anything like this would be posted, a younger adult might find it humorous, yet a woman who has been subjected to trafficking or even a similar type of violence might find it crude and unsympathetic. The ethos of the organization is to be judgemental towards no one particular group or person but to make fun of everyone equally. There is already a predetermined thought process before any article is written that you can't please everyone with your opinion, so you might as well say what you want. Despite the jokes surrounding a serious matter, there is still a weighted opinion, shared between writer and reader alike, that human trafficking is atrocious. Ultimately, even though these type of articles do evoke pathos from most people (even if it is a laugh and not a grunt of disgust), logos provides common ground between the author and its audience on this situation.
Interesting post, but it is more than double the word count Hart suggested for these assignments.
ReplyDeleteAnd at one point you state "two [articles] were from an actual news source such as night-time news on FOX or ABC." It would have probably been a better idea to state the actual networks instead of phrasing them as examples (and Fox is one of the networks you used, so I'm confused as to why you phrased it as an example). Also, it makes me think you're not writing confidently about your topic - which as your audience, makes me less inclined to take your appeals into consideration.
You clearly put a lot of effort into your blog post (and I commend you for it). I'm interested to see what else you post throughout the semester.