Analyzing a Rhetorical Situation

          Before actually discovering the "extravagance" of Biological Sciences, I studied Mass Communication briefly.  The field of Mass Communication is both expansive and comprehensive at times, however, it covers an entire spectrum of information that relies on the opinion of the writer. When writing an essay for a communications course, the writer must imply structure and detail in order to allow the paper to fall in place. Making sure the topic coincides with the body of the paper, knowing the audience that you are addressing, and applying massive amounts of research, are all of the instructions that are needed to construct a communications paper. The technical aspects that are essential includes: learning specific “languages” of the audience, terms, cases, and scenario’s are needed in order to apply then to communications material. Every method, step, and or guideline carries its own weight. Moreover, the most important concept is to apply research, the only option into completing an error less essay in Mass Communication.

          During the 2008 presidential election, there was an enormous amount of coverage surrounding our nation’s first African American president. An average of 35% of the media’s coverage on Barack Obama included false accusations that could possible sway the decision of voters. As an assignment, I was instructed to formulate a paper that focuses on the use of propaganda in presidential elections. My job was to evaluate every presidential campaign commercial, obtain and analyze the message, and contrast whether or not if the use of propaganda is present. After a topic is chosen, the process of research begins.

          Dating back to my earlier days as a Mass Communication student, with the progression of every course level, the topic of propaganda has been discussed. However, in this particular course, MCJ Gender, Race, and Media, just as any other MCJ course, a student must apply previous knowledge with current knowledge in order to show your comprehension of the situation. However, there was in fact a larger debate within my field that sparked my decision in evaluating propaganda which involves being the pedestal and forefront of propaganda; The media.

          Addressing the target audience is less difficult than expected. The moment a student declares his or her major as communications, automatically, the audience is known. For example, if a student were to declare advertising as their major, then they would consist of business savvy individuals that can maintain an enormous amount of creativity and is conversant upon every aspect of advertising. Moreover, most emphasis within the communications major will and can have the same audience. A broadcast journalism major, which consists of mainly reporting, would have the same audience as a broadcast production major which is the entire public itself.

          It is very important that when writing a paper, a communication paper in particular, the language of the audience is established. When referring to languages, actual languages or dialects such as English and Spanish do not apply. However when referring to language, you are describing the jargon that is used within. To give a better example, we will take the communication’s paper into perspective. As mentioned earlier, an individual that is not proverbial upon the certain terms and aspects of the mass communication field would find it very difficult in trying to understand the content of the paper. Of course, it is not written in a foreign language, however the word choice is somewhat different. Terms such as propaganda, masses, and dilemma will somehow make their way into a communications paper.

          Throughout the duration of the paper, I carefully explained and gave specific examples of the uses of propaganda in  presidential commercials. Within my conclusion, I was able to reflect back to my thesis and presume the main point which includes the usage of defamatory footage in order to precede in winning. The School of Mass Communication and Journalism offers a wide variety of options when creating an actual media paper. However, determination and a keen eye is required when writing. The small papers that are being written now, are the stepping stone for future newspapers, magazine articles and books that are to be written. Technical writing is cannot be avoided.  Without it, the world would be ill-informed  upon everything on the account of grammatical errors and poor writing.