Elon Musks Twitter Account Social Media Account Analysis

The goal of this assignment is to give you the opportunity to practice applying the rhetorical concepts—ethos, pathos, logos, and kairos—to your selected Project 2 social media account. (You should have already selected one of the final two you submitted for your earlier Project 2 Invention Assignment.) Your goal in Project 2 is to use the rhetorical concepts to help you analyze this social media account’s interesting content, so it’s time to demonstrate your understanding of and ability to apply the four rhetorical concepts. This invention assignment is designed to help you to do some critical thinking and analyzing before you begin composing your “for feedback” draft. (Note that this assignment should not be used as your actual ‘for feedback’ draft.) Here are some helpful questions to consider as you complete this assignment:

How is the creator of this account gaining viewers’ trust (ethos)? What can be seen in the account that makes viewers believe the composer is an authority and knows what he/she is communicating (ethos)? Does the account contain any content that hurts the account’s credibility (ethos)? Does the account and its posts seem organized and rational (logos)? Are its messages reasonable and/or based in fact (logos)? Is there any contradictory content on the account that seems irrational or unreasonable (logos)? Does something in the account inspire an emotional reaction (pathos) in viewers? If so, what is provoking this emotional reaction? Are the emotions evoked on the account consistent (pathos and logos)? Are the posts particularly timely or topically relevant for this particular moment in time (kairos)? Do the posts indicate the creator’s “influencer” status by creating relevancy for a topic (kairos)?

Before beginning this assignment, read the material in the Project 2: Key Rhetorical Concepts resource in this module. Make sure you are familiar with the rhetorical concepts of ethos, pathos, logos, and kairos! Then follow the steps below to complete this assignment.

1. Provide the URL or username/handle of your chosen social media account (i.e., twitter.com/tim_cook or Instagram @beyonce). Please provide a hyperlink if you can!
2. In at least one written paragraph, describe the specific social media site/app of your chosen account and the account’s target audience. How does the particular site/app affect the messages communicated by the account? How does it help or constrain these messages? For the account’s target audience, be as specific as you can: think about surface-level characteristics like gender, ethnicity, age, etc., as well as more beneath-the-surface characteristics like income level, occupation, political leanings, religion, etc.
3. In another written paragraph, identify the rhetorical goal(s) of the social media account (keeping in mind a social media account can have multiple goals). Is it to sell a product or service? Increase brand awareness? Increase awareness for a social cause or charity? Is it to simply inform about its subject? Or to entertain? Try to identify an overall goal/purpose for the account.
4. In a final written paragraph, identify how the account you’ve chosen uses each rhetorical concept to achieve its goal. Provide a single example from your chosen account of each rhetorical appeal. For example, if I were looking at Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s Twitter account, I might comment on how Tyson has a PhD in astrophysics (ethos) and uses verifiable statistics (ethos and logos) along with humor and powerful images (pathos) to convince viewers of the importance of science education (rhetorical goal). I might also mention that Tyson states that the current climate change crisis facing our globe (pathos) is a reason that this topic is especially relevant today (kairos). Make sure to include at least one specific example of how the account uses each of the four rhetorical concepts to achieve its goal; don’t just refer to the account in general. You may also, like above, start to explore how multiple appeals are used together. (This more sophisticated synthesis will be crucial in your drafts later.)
5. Finally, include a 1-2 sentence thesis statement that distills the main idea of your analysis. What is interesting or unique about the way your chosen public figure uses rhetoric within their social media account? Your answer to this question should be the basis of your thesis statement. Include it here in this assignment, as well as in your upcoming “for feedback” draft.

Rhetoric is the study of the means of persuasion available (or used) in a given communication situation. Any “text” can be analyzed rhetorically. Ask yourself: how does the “I Have a Dream” speech by Martin Luther King Jr. attempt to be persuasive? That speech can be examined specifically and Dr. King’s persuasive strategies analyzed. So could a song by Katy Perry, or the film Tenet, or a Stephanie Meyer Twilight novel, or the video game Fortnite. All are “texts” that attempt to be persuasive in some way(s): they have been created by authors/artists with a persuasive goal in mind. It is our job this semester to figure out how to be persuasive when composing our own texts. Being able to analyze the rhetorical choices in a text composed by someone else is an important step along the path to being a rhetorically successful composer.

Logos refers to rational and reasonable (often logical) appeals to the target audience’s intellect and mind. Many of our daily interactions rely on logos. Think about it: how often do you get your way when you are unreasonable and irrational? Not often. In many composed texts, logos is the most common means of persuasion (especially in professional and academic writing). Strong organization, evidence of clear thinking, and level-headedness are expectations most readers have. For all of the writing and composing you do in this class, think about how you can be persuasively rational and reasonable given your target audience.

Pathos refers to emotional appeals. Most advertisements rely heavily on pathos – it is much easier to make a person feel an emotion (hunger, lust, envy, compassion, desire, etc.) in a 20-second TV commercial than it is to make them actively think and change their mind. Humor is one common way to move people emotionally. Ask yourself: does this text I’m examining appeal to my mind? To my heart? Or perhaps somewhere lower in the body? Use pathos carefully but strategically in your own composing and writing. It can be an effective rhetorical tool, but it is also the rhetorical appeal with the greatest potential to backfire if used incorrectly. If you wanted the joke to make your reader laugh but instead she was offended, your persuasive attempt is headed in the wrong direction. Be smart (logos-centered) about the emotional appeals you attempt to employ in your texts.

Ethos refers to the credibility of the author. Any appeals that influence the target audience’s perception of the author’s credibility and authority on the topic are considered to be ethos. Would you trust a medical doctor’s recommendations for rehabilitating after knee surgery? Would you trust your dentist on the same topic? Your banker? Your classmate? How can you make the target audience believe that your words matter? Why should they trust you on the topic you’re communicating about? How can you convince them you know what you’re talking about? Also, what mistakes might damage your ethos? Ethos can be established (or destroyed) in many different ways. It’s up to you to figure out how to effectively establish ethos on each multimodal project.

Sometimes these three rhetorical appeals can be tricky. Keep in mind that a part of a text (a sentence or two, a paragraph, etc.) might actually be persuasive in more than one category. In other words, you might have a single sentence that operates effectively as pathos, logos, and ethos. Any combination is possible.

Kairos refers to the timeliness of the communication: is this the “right moment” for this text to maximize its persuasive appeal? An advertisement for a Zika virus vaccine at the height of the Zika scare demonstrates kairos; such an ad is likely to be most effective at that time. The advertisers of that vaccine have thus selected a strong “kairotic moment” in which to disperse their ad. Powerful advertisements can even contribute to creating kairos within the community they target.