A Miniature Rhetorical Analysis on Project for Awesome

This is the official logo from last year’s Project for Awesome.

Project for Awesome, created by the infamous Vlog Brothers, is a Youtube video competition/charity drive intent on “decreasing world suck.” The gist of Project for Awesome is that people upload videos to Youtube that advocate some sort of charitable organization, and viewers watch these videos and vote on their favorite ones. During this time, an IndieGoGo fundraiser page is available for viewers to make donations to Project for Awesome. The five (or ten in 2012) videos with the most votes then split the donations amassed by all of the viewers. The 2012 Project for Awesome alone raised $483,296.

For my final project in my Comp 2 class, I was assigned to investigate a case of using digital media such as social media or online videos to support some sort of cause or community organization. I chose to perform a case study on Project for Awesome, or more specifically, the winners of the 2012 Project for Awesome. By investigating these winning videos and identifying the characteristics which led them to gain the most votes from their viewers, I can glean insight regarding writing or media techniques to apply to my own work. It would be especially relevant if I ever end up making Youtube videos.

Here’s a list of the videos/organizations that won the 2012 Project for Awesome:

1. Office of Letters and Light
2. Not Forgotten
3. Wildlife Waystation
4. Alzheimer’s Society
5. Harry Potter Alliance
6. Save the Children
7. BGSU Dance Marathon
8. Uncultured Project
9. Techo
10. Love146

Now for the rhetorical analysis. Here’s the agenda: (1) Identify the author and the intended target audience (2) Determine the intended purpose (3) Point out examples of ethos, pathos, and logos being used (4) Evaluate its effectiveness in achieving its intended purpose.

So what is the author of the winning videos? Obviously, there are many of them. Some examples would include Charlie McDonnell (AKA CharlieIsSoCoolLike), Gunnarolla, and the Harry Potter Alliance. The intended audience of these videos would be (again, pretty obviously) the entire Youtube viewership, which could be a combination of all sorts of different people (here is a page of the Youtube viewer demographics, courtesy of Youtube).

Next, what is the purpose of these videos? Well, as we’ve previously established, the videos are designed to advocate a charitable organization of some sort and to gain votes from viewers in order to win a share of the donations for the charity.

Now here’s where it gets fun. What are some examples of ethos, pathos, and logos within these videos? With all of the different videos that won just in 2012 alone, I have seen examples of all sorts of rhetorical strategies. For ethos, the most common strategy was charisma, using charm or humor to draw the audience in. Also, the fact that a lot of these video makers already had massive followings prior to Project for Awesome would have been helpful, since many of the viewers would have already been familiar with or were fond of the video makers. Some of the videos included firsthand experience from the speaker. One example would be Charlie McDonnell who, in his video advocating the Alzheimer’s Society, described his experience of having a grandfather who had Alzheimer’s disease and eventually passed away as a result. This one was particularly effective for me as it showed that Charlie McDonnell had a strong reason to be advocating the organization he/she was supporting.

These videos also had numerous instances of pathos. Since most if not all charities are established to solve some sort of world problem, it is easy to appeal to the audience’s emotion by describing in detail the problem they seek to solve. Appealing to emotion can also be easily achieved simply through language. One video supporting the Wildlife Waystation was effective in using pathos by making me feel responsible about helping their animal sanctuary since they are primarily funded by donations. The video said that it was up to me to help these animals. I immediately felt an emotional response. I didn’t want to feel the guilt of seeing those animals suffer, so I felt compelled to donate and support them. Now that’s pathos.

Finally, we have logos. Logos is probably the most upfront of the rhetorical strategies, and that makes it effective when used correctly. The most common use of logos I noticed in these videos was the use of statistics and general logical statements. The Harry Potter Alliance video showed an impressive use of statistics to inform the viewer of how many members they have amassed, how much money they have raised, how much supplies they have donated, and other useful information. While doing so, the video remained organized and engaging.

Overall, these videos were fairly effective. By using a mix of the three different rhetorical strategies of ethos, pathos, and logos, they got their points across and compelled me to take action as well. I saw instances of authority through firsthand experience, charismatic presentation, appeal to emotion and morality, and factual data and evidence. In addition, what I believe to be effective about Project for Awesome is that even though it is over for this year, the videos are still online and can still raise awareness about these various charities and nonprofit organizations. I hope to gain even more insight into the effectiveness of Project for Awesome through my digital activism project.

I got a Tumblr.

Tumblr is enthralled with pugs at the present moment.

So recently I succumbed to peer pressure (my brother, that is) and signed up for a Tumblr account. If you don’t know, Tumblr is yet another of those social networking sites but with an emphasis on sharing content instead of simply conversing. The setup is simple. Get a username and password, start subscribing to pages, and presto! Those subscriptions will begin filling your dashboard, and you can begin posting your own content or even repost other people’s stuff. Honestly, Tumblr wasn’t what I had originally expected. I had thought that Tumblr was more of a blogging site much like WordPress. However, once I dove into the Tumblr world, I realized that it composed mostly of one single thing:

Gifs.

Oh yes. You know those short little videos that people post everywhere on the internet? Well they’re called gifs, and they’re everywhere on Tumblr. People love to post gifs of scenes from their favorite movies or TV shows, or perhaps from other visually pleasing video footage. One of my favorite things about Tumblr is the many “#What Should We Call —” sites, which are dedicated to using gifs to illustrate certain common feelings and reactions to events. The prime example of such a site would be “#What Should We Call Me,” which I believe was the first Tumblr site of its kind. One that is especially relevant to me, being a musician, is “#What Should We Call Conservatory,” which is chock-full of gifs relevant to any aspiring musician. As an example, this one illustrates the horrifying feeling of being called in for an audition. The gif humorously represents the common gut-wrenching experience of music auditions. That’s what I love about Tumblr, and especially about gifs: they’re so relatable! It’s always a refreshing feeling to see that other people go through the exact same things on a regular basis as you do.

Despite the heavy focus on visual content like pictures and gifs, there are some writing aspects to Tumblr. I’ve seen many instances where internet celebrities will use Tumblr to host Q&A sessions with fans. I’ve never participated in one, but I would love to in the future. Also, I do believe that Tumblr has a blogging/writing option, although I’ve rarely seen it used. Indeed, Tumblr is very addicting mainly because of the plethora of stuff on there. And yes, I’ve taken many a few breaks from writing this to look at Tumblr. I’m sorry.

Now my goal is to actually start sharing some original work on Tumblr. So far I’ve only been reblogging other users’ content, which is fine, but I really want to start contributing to the Tumblr community.

My Service Learning Project with the Intergenerational Computer Center

“A Positive Tomorrows first grader uses JumpStart on a computer at the Oklahoma City University Intergenerational Computer Center in Oklahoma City.” – NewsOK

This week is the climax, for lack of a better term, of my composition class this semester, the week of our service learning project with Oklahoma City University’s Intergenerational Computer Center. The ICC was established last year to offer free computer access to those of the local community who don’t have regular computer and internet access. The ICC also works with various public schools and children’s groups such as Boys and Girls Clubs and Positive Tomorrows. This week, the ICC is hosting various public school classes during their intersession to engage in learning activities.

I went Wednesday morning to put my time in helping out the young’uns at the ICC. In all honesty, I was expecting the whole ordeal to be much more labor-intensive than it turned out to be, but it still kept me on my toes. We were basically there to assist the students in their projects. If they ever had questions or couldn’t get something to work properly, we would give them pointers.

The students (around 3rd or 4th grade) began by writing poems based on the question “What if I was a rock star?”. They then took these poems and made them into storybooks using an online program called Kerpoof. (Check it out. It’s pretty fun.) The program does have a bit of a learning curve, so we had to help the children frequently with things like backgrounds, text boxes, and various other features (or in other words, functional literacy). Once the students got the hang of how Kerpoof worked, they really went to town. I observed a great deal of creativity going on. They all were using the same resources (same topic of poem, same program), yet each student’s finished product was vastly different from the next student’s. It was a truly amazing sight to see the students achieve advanced literacy with Kerpoof so quickly. There was one student in particular who managed to create the entire storybook without help, then proceeded to begin toying with the movie function of Kerpoof! I was astounded.

This experience has been an enjoyable one mainly because I didn’t do much. It’s not that I’m lazy or anything (although I am), but it delighted me to see these children being so independent. Once we helped them reach functional literacy, they managed to achieve great results all on their own. I was flabbergasted by their ingenuity. I am glad that I got to help these children exercise their creativity at the ICC this week. After all, creativity is an essential part of a good education.

 

An Unintentional Fasting

I found myself unintentionally going without my computer for 24 hours. I know. I’m so hardcore. It so happened that this Friday was an extremely busy day for me. I got up around 5:30 that morning and headed straight to Edmond, OK to play with the Oklahoma City University Symphony Orchestra at the three different Edmond high schools. When we returned from Edmond, a good deal of us had to go straight to pit orchestra rehearsal for the upcoming production of the Barber of Seville (insert obligatory Youtube video here). Then, right after pit orchestra I had a rehearsal with a fellow student having her senior vocal recital the next day. I was asked to play in a baroque string quartet that would be accompanying her in a piece.

Immediately after that rehearsal, I met some old high school friends for dinner, and we later went to the Project 21 concert that evening. (For those of you who don’t know, Project 21 is OCU’s student composition program, and they hold monthly concerts featuring student-written pieces. Check out their website.) But of course, my day couldn’t end there. I was invited to go to a friend’s house to watch a movie. I stayed there until the wee hours of the morning, and by the time I returned to my dormitory around 2:00 AM, where my laptop was eagerly waiting for me, I was too tired to do anything with it. I decided I would leave it alone until morning.

When I woke up, I realized that I had gone a full 24 hours without using my computer. Crazy, I know. Yet when I opened my Facebook up after 24 hours of not checking it, I found myself with eight notifications. . . . Just eight. And none of them were important or even very interesting. I went all that time without getting on Facebook, and lo and behold, nothing had happened. I check my Facebook almost obsessively, but I found that I really have no need to.

It was then that I had a miniature revelation: I’ve become so obsessive-compulsive about checking my Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Tumblr, and the like, but it’s not really necessary to be checking these things as often as I do. I know the internet is an amazing tool, but the way I’ve been using it has been shallow and unproductive. This little epiphany has spurred me to do something rash (and just in time for the Lent season!): I’m gonna try to stop getting on the internet so often. With all of the time I spend on Facebook or Reddit, I could easily be much more productive than I am now If I take that time to do more important things (like homework, reading the Bible, or simply letting my mind rest). And if I can go a full 24 hours without using my computer without any remorse, I’m sure it’s possible for me to consistently lower my internet use.

While writing this, however, I checked my Facebook about six times. . . . This may be harder than I thought.

Photo credit: Slawekgruca

Exploring the Blogosphere

Hello.

As I am fairly new to the blogging world (unless browsing Reddit for hours on end counts as blogging), I have begun to immerse myself in other blogs to get a feel for this new field of journalism. At the behest of my composition professor, I browsed the Technorati Top 100 Blogs hoping to find some blogs that I could read, and thankfully, a couple of these made a good first impression. Here I will introduce two of these blogs and some of the content I read from them.

I apologize for all of this being related to video games. It was (somewhat) unintentional.

1. Joystiq: Joystiq, #44 on the Technorati Top 100 Blogs list (at the time of this post), is dedicated to keeping up with information on all things regarding the video game industry. Honestly, I do not have much to say regarding this blog other than that they featured an interview with an all-time favorite composer of mine, Joe Hisaishi, regarding his work on a Japanese role playing game by the name of Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch that was just released in the United States. This game had been on my radar ever since I heard that it was making its way here to the U.S., and I almost fell out of my seat when I found out that Studio Ghibli had done the animation on it. (If you don’t know, Studio Ghibli is an animation studio in Japan responsible for animating such classics as Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke.) On top of that, Joe Hisaishi (who composed music for the aforementioned films that Studio Ghibli animated) composed the entire score for the game. In short, by featuring an interview with such an amazing composer as Joe Hisaishi, Joystiq has piqued my interest. Hopefully Joystiq will have more interesting content such as this.

2. Ars Technica: Ars Technica (meaning “art of technology”) is a blog seeking to keep up-to-date with technology news, recent technological advancements, new products, and various other related topics. Of the several technology/electronics blogs I explored on Technorati’s Top 100 Blogs, Ars Technica (#14 on the list at the time of this post) made the best first impression, mainly based on a posting of theirs that I read regarding the recent outcry against violent video games and their influence on their players. Ever since the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary, gun control, mental health, and the influence of violent video games have been hot issues. Being a fan of video games, I have been hearing quite an uproar from the gaming community stemming from their fear that violent video games will be banned or otherwise censored without sufficient evidence to suggest that these types of games really support violent behavior in society. While I do not believe that violent video games could have any more of an influence on people than books or movies of the same nature, and while I do not wish congress or anyone else to make any hasty decisions on the issue, I fully support further research and investigation.

The Ars Technica article cleared up a lot of cobwebs for me (and for many others, I assume) as it explained that in no way will the federal government somehow ban or censor violent video games. They simply are calling for research on any and all possible causes of violent behavior, violent video games being a possibility. At the moment, the only ones actively attacking the video game industry is the NRA, who would gladly use video games as a scapegoat for gun violence in order to keep the issue of gun control off of the table. (Please know that I am a supporter of the NRA for the most part, but I do not appreciate their gratuitous accusations against the video game industry.) In my opinion, the Ars Technica article took great care in dispelling the worries of the gaming community regarding the recent issue. While I have not read much more of Ars Technica’s content, they have definitely intrigued me.

Photo credit: XKCD Comics