Rosario Galceran
University of Texas at El Paso
English 1312
February 22, 2013
Jon Nehls
Gun
Violence
The occurrence of gun violence
happens daily. Individuals are using
guns to either injure or kill others, so advocates of gun control are asking
what can be done to reduce or eliminate this violence. These supporters believe laws requiring the
sale of guns to the public should be stricter.
On the other hand, gun owners argue that it doesn’t matter what the law
states, if a criminal or someone who has mental issues wants a gun, they will
be able to get around any laws and obtain a gun by any means. This paper will discuss a news story aired on
Monday, February 4, 2013 on ABC’s program Good
Morning America, Death of an American
Hero / USA’s best sniper gunned down, reported by George Stephanopoulos and
Ryan Owens (2013). Also, a news article retrieved
from an internet news source, “The
Atlantic Monthly Group, Gun Violence in America: The 13 Key Questions (With 13
Concise Answers}”, written by Jonathan Stray (2013).
The television news story tells how a war hero that was idolized by many,
including his killer, survived a war but was killed at a gun range at home. Ironically he was trying to help another
former marine who was suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. The questions that the internet article poses
are 13 specific questions that Stray (2013) implies everyone is asking about
when it comes to gun violence. The
author of the article also offers some answers to these questions. Television
can be more effective at conveying a shocking message of gun violence to their
audience than the internet, and both genres impact their audiences that gun
control may not be the only answer to gun violence.
Audience
and Purpose
In
the television news story, the intended audiences are viewers who watch Good Morning America on the ABC network and
either are for gun control or oppose gun control. This will include adults who watch and listen
to television before work or school to get informed as to what is going on in
the world outside their community. The
viewers may be eating breakfast or dressing for work as they watch the
program. The viewers may not have a lot
of time and will want to be informed quickly.
The purpose of this story was not only to inform, but to shock the
viewers that an individual “who was the most lethal sniper in U.S. history was
gunned down by someone he was trying to help.” Stephanopoulos (2013), The audience will be interested in knowing information
on why someone was gunned down.
For
the internet news story, the intended audiences are internet browsers with computers
or smart phones. The internet article was
retrieved from The Atlantic Monthly Group
by “googling” the key words “gun violence” and choosing a story with an
interesting title. The audience would be individuals browsing the
internet and interested in what people are writing about gun violence. These individuals could be for or against gun
control. The purpose of this story is
not only to inform the reader but also to persuade them to take specific positions
for or against gun control. Audiences
may be interested in mass shootings and may want to know if gun control will
help reduce mass shootings.
Rhetorical
Issues: Ethos, Pathos, and Logos
Good Morning America
has established its credibility by being on the air since the 1970’s and reliably
reporting many news stories as they happen.
The network ABC is watched by many viewers and is one of the main
networks that aired when television began.
The story is
introduced by co-anchor George Stephanopoulos (2013), who
is well known in politics and is now a co-anchor, and segues to field reporter Ryan Owens (2013)
who is recognized by the viewer as a frequent on-site reporter. So ethos for the
audience in this genre is the length the program has been on the air reporting
accurate information to the public as well as an established reputation of the
reporters.
The
pathos in this genre was to shock the audience about gun violence and to show
the irony in the content of the story since the victim was a former sniper who
killed others in war. During the story, many
photos are shown of the victim, one where he is holding a high-powered rifle
with a telescope and wearing green military fatigues with other soldiers
probably being briefed about the next assignment as the reporter talks about
the victim’s time as a successful sniper.
This photo evokes feelings of the danger in his work. Another photo shows the victim in his marine
uniform accepting an award from a high official as the reporter talks about his
accomplishments, evoking the feeling of pride and dedication. There are several short videos of the victim
himself talking about the difficult transition veterans have to deal with going
from war to home and how he understood this transition. This gives the viewer the idea that the
victim was sympathetic towards others.
The viewer then understands why he volunteered to help other veterans
who have Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder by counseling and using shooting
practice as therapy. The irony is
established by how he was successful as a sniper, successful at home as a
best-selling author of his autobiography and successful in his marriage but
unable to escape being gunned down. At
this point, a photo of the victim and his wife are shown in regular street
clothing, both of them smiling and appear to be very happy which gives the
viewer a feeling of sadness for the loss of life.
The
logos this genre offers is the video of the investigative agency reporting to
the media what they discovered occurred at the shooting. A sheriff is discusses how they think the
mother of the suspect reached out to the victim, how the victim took the
suspect to the gun range for some type of therapy, then how the suspect turned
on the victim and shot him at point blank range.
The
internet news article ethos provides the name of the author and his credentials
stating he is a “freelance journalist, former editor and teaches computational
journalism at Columbia University.”, Stray (2013). Printing the article displays an updated
copyright for the company providing the information.
The
emotion the article evokes is relief or satisfaction. It tells the reader that the author knows
what questions the reader may be asking about gun violence and to satisfy their
questions also offers answers without having the reader do much research. Some questions will give the reader some frustration
and anger because it actually states, “we lack some of the most basic information
we need to have a sensible gun policy debate, partially because researchers
have been prevented by law from collecting it.”, Stray (2013). This encourages the reader to do more
research on their own leaning towards the fact that owning guns is not the
cause of gun violence because there are statistics that are missing.
The
logos this genre offers is evidence from statistics and surveys. There are hyperlinks or citations from
commonly known agencies such as the FBI and New York Times. Specific authors and their books are also
cited in the article. It also provides
more links at the end of the article if the reader decides to research more
such as NRA Stymies Firearms Research and Scientists Say.
Structure
and Delivery
The
television news story starts out by giving information as to what happened that
was shocking, “The shocking killing of legendary Chris Kyle. The most lethal sniper in U.S. History was
gunned down in a Texas gun range…by a troubled former marine that Kyle was
trying to help” Stephanopoulos (2013). Some limitations in presenting
the news story on television is that the information
relayed is only information the reporter was able to access in a short amount
of time. The audience will rely on the
other reporters to ask the questions they think the viewers would ask. At the end of Owens’ (2013) segment, it goes
back to the set of Good Morning America
with Stephanopoulos (2013) who interviews two people who knew the victim. They discuss the problems that veterans have
with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Stephanopoulos
(2013) then states, “If any possible good could come out of this would be to
shine a bigger light or brighter light on these problems that so many veterans
are having” which indicates that this incident of gun violence was attributed
to the disorder. There
is not much time to go into more depth because the story has a time limit. The way the information is structured is by using
visualization, some up-to-the minute updates, and videos for audiences that
need to see and hear what is happening to form an opinion.
The
internet article is organized by making each question a sub-topic. The answers are within the paragraphs of each
sub-topic. The only
limitation is that it is informational and not really interactive with the
author. Stray (2013) starts with the
following statement in italics, “It’s not like no one has ever asked them
before. There’s data everywhere and
decades of research. We tracked down the best of it so you don’t have to.” This tells the reader that the author thinks
the reader is an intelligent but busy person.
The article encourages the reader to “Jump to a question:” and then list
the 13 questions individually in a blue font.
The article on the internet does allow readers to post their opinions after
they have read the piece. Readers can
share it and even post comments if they recommend the article to others or not. This genre takes advantage of the internet to
allow the audience to post their opinions of the article.
Style
/ Language
The
television news story’s language is informal and simple for any viewer to
understand. Owens (2013) describes what
people thought about the victim by saying that the victim was “idolized’ by not
only people who knew him but even by the suspect who shot him. It also discusses PTSD and defines it as
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. The
visual style throughout the story will show a banner on the bottom of the
television that states, “Developing Story”, and it summarizes what happened
with a short title and sub-title. The
banner changes only when it introduces a sheriff reporting facts about the
shooting and close to the end when it briefly goes back to the reporter who
introduced the story to show the reporter’s name. As Owens (2013) introduces the story, there
are various photos of the victim as a sniper, target shooting, on the cover of
his autobiography, and with his wife.
There are short videos of the victim talking about his life as a sniper
and his transition coming home. There
are also photos of the suspect, the possible gun range where the shooting
occurred, police at the scene arresting the suspect, and the suspect’s booking
photo.
The
internet article also has language that is informal so that it is easy to read
and understand. Stray (2013) will define
some language such as; “The FBI defines a “mass murder” as four or more murders
during the same incident.” Some language
features shown in this article start at the beginning with a photograph. Underneath the color photo it states, “A
Seattle police officer inspects an M-16 turned in during a recent gun buyback
event. (Reuters).” The article’s title is bold offering a
specific number of answers to questions the reader may be searching. Each question has its own hyperlink so the
reader can jump to a specific answer they are looking for in no particular
order. This allows the reader to
determine what is important to them. If
the reader places their curser over any question, the reader will notice that
it is a hyperlink that takes them to the answers in the article. Other hyperlinks are offered throughout the
article allowing for further research so readers can take as little or as much
time reading the article as necessary for their own interest.
Conclusion
The
television news story was more effective in relaying its message. It reaches a bigger audience because of the
network and time that it is on. It
discusses that PTSD as the cause of the violence and it gave the viewer a lot
of key information in a short amount of time.
No research was needed by the viewer as it was done by the reporters. If the viewer chose to only hear this
message, they would feel that they had all the basic information they needed to
know what happened.
With
the internet news article, although it states that that it had key questions
with concise answers, the reader will spend more than two or three minutes
reading. The reader may feel the need to
click on the various hyperlinks to get more information and may lose track or interest
of the main idea.
References
Cibrowski, T. (Producer). (2013, February, 4). ABC
Good Morning American [Television
Broadcast]. New York, NY:
American Broadcasting Company.
Stray, J.
(2013). Gun Violence in
America: The 13 key Questions (with 13
Concise Answers.
The Atlantic Monthly Group. Retrieved
from http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/02/gun-violence-in-america-the-13-key-questions-with-13-concise-answers/272727/
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