Visual Rhetoric (9/9/2012)

In class, we viewed the videos preceding both of the presidential candidate's speeches. The first thing that I noticed about either of the videos was the use of pathos within each of the videos. Each of the videos used an incredible amount of attention-grabbing phrases to draw in the viewer. For example, Mitt Romney's video  began by appealing to families, and they he goes to say, "If we give everyone a fair chance, we are going to see this country come roaring back." Similarly, Barack Obama's video begins by appealing to families by mentioning his grandparents coming out of the great depression and knowing what it is like to be poor. He goes to motivate people by saying, "[Americans] don't quit, they don't give up; patriotism and pride in this country." These videos both do a great job of catching the attention of the audience, but both have less important details such as the over-emphasis of their families. Despite this, they both did a great job of being very uplifting, due to the style and color in the videos. The music in either of the videos was very good, in my opinion. Romney's music was much more noticeable, but not in a bad way. It was uplifting and happy, changing subtly with the scene. Obama's was quick and hurried, but motivating at the same time. The images presented in Obama's video were great, snapshots of him working, his family, etc. Romney did not have these snapshots, but the videos of his family with him, speaking, interacting; they did fine as well. The argument being made was that of proving themselves to the audience as a candidate to become the next president of the United States. There were many aspects with in each video proving very much pathos. Ethos was harder to come by. An example of that would have been Obama's time spent in office, his credibility in establishing a new health care system. Romney had his state of Massachusetts in three billion dollars in debt, and he gave them a fantastic foot hold to get them out. That fact both stood as to prove Romney's credibility as well as logos. Pathos was prevalent throughout the videos: the stress put on Obama's marriage ring, Romney's children speaking highly of him, Romney's "cheap" attitude about spending, Obama's mentioning that he sits around the table with his children at dinner nearly every night-- all of this appealing to the emotions of the audience.