While reading the article “Hidden Layers” it became even more prevalent to me how much persuasion is used in almost every aspect of life. Almost every form of communication we have includes hidden layers of persuasion in our arguments. The simplest of things like a conversation, all the way to an important debate, and even advertisements can use these hidden layers in order to persuade the general population into believing what the author/ orator/arguer wants. These hidden layers can be found in almost anything. Where I can see these things happening the most is in politics, advertisements, schools and debates. Assumptions can be made by the general public based on what the arguer says or shows. These assumptions shape how the target audience will react to the argument and deem it either plausible or not acceptable. Every arguer tries these subtle ways to push the target audiences thinking in a certain direction. One way is to use underlying values. This is the way in which we use language and wording of things to bring the argument towards the good values like love, kindness, friendship instead of focusing on the negative. These capitalize on how strong our values are. Like I said before, theses are not blunt and have people arguing for a specific value. They are very subtle and try to make you relate to the wisdom, which is what everyone wants to obtain. Another sneaky way arguers try to persuade is by using the objectivity in disguise. This tries to make any information, whether it be facts or a personal account, seem unbiased. To me, the first thing that comes to mind is the news or newspaper. Even though the purpose of the news is to relay the facts to the public, taking a closer look at the actual facts it is stating can sway the target audiences opinions or notions in a certain direction. By the way the news reports on an event, it can entirely sway your thoughts away from the real story behind it. I have heard that there are some news stations are solely democratic and republican. It makes me wonder if all of my thoughts about the government have been radically skewed just because of how they word their reports. Since it is so simple to word their arguments a different way to get their point across, I feel like all of my opinions are what someone else wants me to think. Now that I am learning more about this, it is coming to my attention that I actually have to break down everything the news is telling me and figure out if the facts are skewed or not.
Assumptions are what make up many arguments. People react to certain wordage in either a positive or negative way. Take for example, the difference between politics and celebrities. When a politician is caught committing adultery, the public becomes outraged and eventually the politician's career becomes obsolete (Bill Clinton). Whereas, if a celebrity, such as Charlie Sheen, is caught cheating or acting in an inappropriate manner, the public does not react as negatively as if it had been if someone else had said it . Instead, they are more interested in the details, and is the reason why gossip is so popular. Another example is the time when the Dixie Chicks performed in London. During their performance, they said "Just so you know, we're on the good side with y'all. We do not want this war, this violence, and we're ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas," to the crowd. Even though they only voiced an opinion, the Dixie Chicks' career slowly faded. But if a regular citizen had said the same thing, the outcome would not have been so drastic. It just goes to show how society reacts to certain people and the words they use, then if they would with someone who says the same thing. Assumptions are tricky because it depends on the audience he or she is addressing. Each person usually automatically takes a side in a conversation, and it’s usually due to the vocabulary used. This is presented in presidential campaigns, a candidate who presents themselves more professionally and more proficient in their way of speaking is usually the winner in the campaign.
ReplyDeleteFrom Dillon Turner:
ReplyDeleteYes there are a lot of hidden layers of persuasion in every aspect of life. In order to get someone to do something for you you must persuade them. Some people are harder and some people are easier to persuade. i agree with the simplest thing being a conversation and gets harder as it is a debate and the advertisements. Advertisements are very important because without a good persuasion for one to go buy their product they would go out of business. If you ever watch advertisements and study them by cutting through all the crap that they say you can get a really good idea of how they are trying to persuade you. I agree with your statement that you see this a lot in politics. Politics are run on persuasion. When someone is running they persuade the public to vote for them by offering something in return. I liked how you talked about underlying values and you gave examples for them. Underlying values are good because with out knowing you are pushed to believe one way. Such as certain colors stand for different things. The objectivity in disguise is very important to news stations. Everyone has there favorite news stations based on if they are liberal or conservative. Each of the news stations slant the news in a certain way. I really liked your post and it was written very well. I would add in a few more distinct examples so the reader knows exactly what you are talking about.