This episode of, “Last Week Tonight,” showed different examples of digital literacy by showing two different ways of explaining a topic. John Oliver, the talk show host, interviews Edward Snowden, the man who gave secure NSA files to journalists and exposed one of the NSA’s secrets; that they could access our private electronic information like phone calls, and other pieces of information sent via electronics. Mr. Oliver went all the way to Russia to meet Mr. Snowden to ask him various questions about the situation. He tells Snowden that when asked, common people have little to no knowledge of him and the whole scandal. In order for common, regular, everyday people to care about a complex situation like this, it has to be put in a way they
In his speech to the public audience, V calls upon the people and empathizes with their feelings towards the government: “I know you were afraid.” V uses a rhetorical and persuasive approach with the use of pathos, connecting to the audience’s feelings when he acknowledges their fear of competing against the government. Comparably, Murrow also persuades his own audience by directly calling upon their efforts to see the importance of knowledge: “let us exalt the importance of ideas and information.” Murrow has a confident tone that is utilized to coerce the audience into thinking that information is something that is crucial to a part of their everyday
Journalist, Clive Thompson in his book, “Smarter Than You Think”, specifically in the chapter titled, “Public Thinking”, published on September 12, 2013, addresses the topic of technology and argues that because of the internet, we are doing more writing now than ever. Therefore technology is helping us think publicly in new and improved ways. He supports this claim by asserting that there is an improvement in our writing, which is happening because of the “audience effect”, he then goes on to say that anything we write changes the way we think, and finally he talks about how the internet builds connections, which is essential to the spread of new ideas. Thompson’s purpose is to inform readers about how the internet is a tool being used to advance our society in order to encourage more people to partake in online, public thinking. He adopts a contemplative tone for his audience, the readers of The New York Times, and others interested in the topic of technology. It is my intention in this paper to analyze the author’s subclaims and use of rhetorical strategies.
The use of technology has catalyzed society into an era that is increasingly interconnected yet impersonal at the same time. Despite technology’s endless list of assets, many fail to acknowledge its shortcomings when mentioning what is lost as a result of using it. Although in “Great to Watch” by Maggie Nelson, she is not afraid to share her skepticism of technology, as well as the role it plays in desensitizing individuals on a day-to-day basis. The internet is an invaluable resource to many because it is a public domain for sharing ideas, opinions, and knowledge that any and everyone can have access to. In a sense, it does not restrict what someone may see or do, and this can either be a good thing or a bad thing. The booming use of new media
Every year, consumers will spend 2.2 billion dollars on candy this year, witch is 22 teaspoons sugar per day, and 75 pounds sugar per year. In video of “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Sugar”, John Oliver is point out the food or drink company is not tell the truth to people how much the sugar are added to our food. For example, the hidden sugars including crackers, salad dressings, breads, ketchup, energy and sports drinks. These staff including a lot sugar that we don’t know, even most people like eat sugar and things mix with sugar taste good, but the point is excess sugar is not good for us. In the video, John Oliver’s purpose is tell the truth and fact about how much sugar we eat that
Pathos: Pathos refers to an appeal to emotions. It is used to persuade an audience by provoking an emotional response. In the very beginning of the video, Oliver features a couple pictures of cats while referring to the internet as an electronic cat database. He is taking advantage of the fact that many people adore cats and is attempting to elicit feelings of joy and happiness as he begins to discus how amazing the internet is.
Carr writes articles and books on technology, business, and culture, and has written for the Guardian, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal. He is a well established writer and was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in 2011. Carr wrote this article because he found himself having a hard time focusing on any type of deep reading, something that he feels is very important to having a well rounded mind. He emphasizes that because the internet is structured to be a massive amount of information read one small piece at a time, our minds are starting to reflect that. He is writing for an intellectual audience who are probably for the most part highly educated. His audience would be those who can see the importance of the way that we consume information, and how our brains use that information. His writing in this article does a very good job of reaching that audience thanks to his obvious knowledge on the subject, and how he relates to his
It’s a bright Sunday morning; the birds are chirping, the smell of fresh coffee is in the air and you turn on the tv; “Another Leak Of All Verizon Users Personal Information Out On The Web” is today's headline on the news. In our society right now; the government has the utmost power; yet they might not be using their powers in ways you’d expect. If you're a daily electronic users at Urbandale High School who spends at least 30 hours a week using online functions for entertainment or work; then you might not have heard or seen what the government's been doing recently. In an in depth analysis shows that our life we’re living right now could be seen as a dystopian universe over 50 years ago. Yet as our nation advances, its being advanced in
Analyzing communication messages through late-night shows varies. Mixing humor with specific news stories provides an interesting message, depending on the audience. Last Week Tonight With John Oliver uses specific news segments and analyzes it through the use of extensive research and humor. This includes his segment on the New York Yankees, where he makes it very clear which position he is taking on the issue. This segment dives into the elitist practices of the Yankees organization, which include not allowing fans to print out tickets at home and opening the elite Legends Club with expensive premium seats. Through the use of effective theories and
Over the past few decades our generation has witnessed a communication revolution no generation has ever witnessed before. The Internet was fully commercialized in the U.S. by mid-1990s and instant communication including the World Wide Web, email, and instant messaging have all played part of an enormous impact on media, commerce, and politics during that time and up until now. U.S. scholar and activist Robert McChesney has spent the past twenty years studying and documenting the effects of this Internet revolution and its relationship with capitalism and democracy. In his 2013 work “Digital Disconnect: How Capitalism is Turning the Internet Against Democracy,” McChesney addresses the relationship between the economic power and the digital
Greenwald employs superlatives to evoke the responder’s sympathy for Snowden’s plight, describing him as a powerless freedom fighter, bereft of resources, hunted by “biggest and most secretive surveillance organisation in America” and the “the most powerful government on the planet”. By employing tricolon to assert that his silence would be tantamount to allowing “the US government to destroy privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties”, Snowden persuades the audience to support his cause by portraying his adversaries as malicious and irresponsible. Greenwald’s low modality, anaphoric predictions regarding Snowden’s fate further prompt his audience to perceive Snowden as a vulnerable, stateless individual, persecuted by the powerful “Chinese government (who) might whisk him away…Or he might end up being grabbed and bundled into a plane bound for US territory.” Thus, both Levinson and Greenwald employ acts of representation which reveal the capacity for composers of narratives to represent political situations in ways which distort and manipulate the public’s perspective.
Both the article, “Why I just asked my students to put their laptops away” by Clay Shirky, and the article, “The collective conscience of reality television” by Serena Elavia have their differences, but mostly similarities. The article by Clay Shirky talks about how electronics affect students while in school. Many teachers had been letting students use their phones and other electronics during a class but later teachers began to tell their students to put their devices away. The other article from Serena Elavia talks about television and how the producers don’t always show the truth behind the television screen and they are only making the viewers upset. The net Media was described on both of the articles, and how it’s also been affecting us today. Although there are many other differences between the two articles, some similarities include social media, distractions caused, and people’s desire over the topics, both articles agree with the topic.
In the episode “Scientific Studies” on the tv show “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver”, he employs a plethora of rhetorical strategies to depict his point that not all “science” is necessarily science as most might assume; and how we as a people have become blinded and misled because these scientists are contradicting each other's’ findings. He does so by using humor, making comments that some people might be able to relate to, and by presenting basic logic and common knowledge.
The article, “Digital Literacy Is the Key to the Future, But We Still Don’t Know What It Means,” is written by Marcus Wohlsen. He writes his article, to explain to the public what digital literacy is. Wohlsen knows that the increasing there is an increasing usage of technology in the public life, and to adapt to this they are going to need to be literate is using it. In his article, he explains to the public what this literacy is, and how much one needs to be literate in technology. Wohlsen effectively uses multiple viewpoints of experts and relatability to engage the reader and explain to them what digital literacy is all about.
As schools promote 21st-century learning, there has been a push for literacies which encourage students to be 21st-century learners. The two overarching literacies, new and digital, has taken over the three R’s literacy, reading, writing, and arithmetic. New Literacies continuously change due to the new technology emerging providing different ways to get information and communicate with others (Leu et al., 2015). In contrast, digital literacy is the ability to use digital tools to access information for understanding and communication (Jose, 2016). New literacies and digital literacies also differ in aspects of use in the classroom. New literacies are the building blocks for digital literacy; which are the skills students need to understand the internet (Maloy, Verock-O'Loughlin, Edwards, & Woolf, 2017). New literacies can be taught without the use of technology because students are learning to locate, evaluate, synthesize, and communicate information. Teachers can demonstrate these skills using encyclopedias and journal articles to gain a minimalistic comprehension. Once students learn the necessary understanding, teachers can transfer these skills to online which will promote digital literacy; furthermore, digital literacy can only be taught using digital tools. Teachers would teach students how to use computers and the social practices of the new literacies to gain an understanding of the digital literacy (Jose, 2016). Furthermore, digital literacies
In today’s world it is a requirement to be digitally literate in order to be able to function in a capacity that enables one to be more successful whether it is at home, school, at our jobs or even looking for a job. Over the last few decades our environment has evolved into a digital environment. Being or becoming digitally literate is essential in being successful in this digital environment. Almost everything we do today requires some sort of digital knowledge or literacy. From surfing the internet to searching for a job to being able to perform our jobs, we are required to have some sort of digital