Rhetorical Analysis Two Publications by the New York Times - Article Example

Rhetorical Analysis Introduction This paper will seek to compare and contrast two articles published by the New York Times. The article by Brad Stone, ‘Is Facebook going to fast?’ was published in New York Times earlier this year. It started by describing how Facebook begun through Mark Zuckerberg and Cox in a dorm room at Harvard. Stone discussed the potentials of Facebook that are not easily realized. According to the article, Facebook not only reconnects people with old friends and strengthens their bonds with new one; it also has the potential to rebuild families (Stone 2009). Facebook can also be a tool for activism as shown in the global protest of FARC rebels in Columbia. In summary it described Facebook, presented Facebook users’ dislike on Facebook’s new design, mentioned Facebook’s financial challenges and Facebook users’ love-hate relationship with Facebook. The article does not end there, it also has advises on how to properly use the site. One advice given was to take advantage of privacy settings to manage networks in order for them to speak discreetly to certain friends, such as family, close friends, co-workers as opposed to other ‘friends’ such as bosses or professional colleagues. Barton told the an amusing story wherein an employee was fired due to his obscene status message regarding to his disappointment in his work which the boss has read because he is his ‘friend’ in facebook. The virtual world article on the other hand was brilliant in that if one missed to read the title she would have understood it as real life drama. Unlike the Facebook article which was very straightforward, the author took on a different approach. At first, it narrated a story of two avatars that were married and had a property together. The amusing thing was that it was slightly exaggerated though on a healthy level wherein it is entertaining to the readers. The story built up the more serious issue tackled by the paper- access and control. It compared the case of one real person having real, tangible property to some virtual one who has virtual property. The former is protected by law, specifically, property rights. The later on the other hand have the mediation of the network of software and the owner of the virtual environment who has interests to protect as well. It gave examples of real life people who encountered problems regarding accounts (Email, social networking sites and gaming accounts) of their family, close friend or even virtual partners who passed away. It went on to citing the companies’ good reasons in their denying access and erasing accounts in the event of an unfortunate circumstance. The article concluded itself by presenting the solution to resolve the question of who has access to the email/virtual and/or social networking accounts when its owner dies. Over all, the article was successful in its presentation of its author’s thesis. It focused on the main issue and discussed only on what was relevant to it. After a reading of the article, the reader is left with a working understanding of what he had read. As one can see, both of the articles are persuasive even if they did not use the same language or style. As this suggest, an article can be persuasive if the author chose the proper style that is suited to the topic. Rhetorical Analysis The article focused on its main question which is also its title. Nonetheless, the author used the term growing not just to refer to growing, which refers to the size of the users, but to the development of the site or the company in general. For example, the author discussed the way certain age groups have reacted to recent changes on the site such as its ‘terms of service’ and or its new layout. The article was easily understood because its style was simple, it states an argument and then it is followed by an example, or a case study. To site an example, this can be seen when it mentioned that Facebook has the potential to rebuild families. After this statement, the author backed it up by telling the story of Karen Harber who used Facebook to look for her relatives from the Bachenheimer clan of northern Germany, which was fractured during the Holocaust and was then scattered around the world. At first glance, one may think that the Facebook article is logically appealing, but on a closer look, it uses more of emotions to appeal to readers. As stated above, the language used in this article was simple. Its style is also simple. It refrained from using computer jargons and instead used simple, everyday terms as much as possible for readers that do are not too knowledgeable of Facebook to be able to understand. For example, when it said that that it can rebuild families, the writer has written as if the only way to find someone missing was through this site. Not only that, the author also did not just use the word ‘someone’ to refer to the person who was looking for long lost relative but he named her as Karen Harber who has two children. By doing so, the article is using Another case was when it cited a dilemma wherein it asked how facebook can remain a place for both teenagers to share their escapades during the weekend while it continues to be also the place where their parents are exchanging business tips with old friends. As one can see, this appeals to emotions because it is something that most people go through and most can reflect upon. The article’s simple style and its target on emotion, in this case, is definitely persuasive. The second article took on a logical approach therefore falling on the category of logos. What it did was to tell the story of those who were bereaved and they were able to show why they would want to open or maintain the account in case the original owner is already dead. Another good thing is that they were able to argue well why they do what they do. They are erasing the accounts of the users if applicable or they are refusing the access to the digital assets of those relatives or whoever who wants to take hold of it. One of the strongest arguments for this case is privacy. They argued that terms of service do not only exist to protect providers but the users as well. Up until the last, the article appealed more to logic than to emotions. Though it recognizes the feelings of those who were left behind, it also wants them to understand the circumstances surrounding such situations. The concluded with some suggestions to solve the problem, one is to name a digital executor who, in case of death, receives a person’s latest passwords when death occurs. As one can see, up to this point, the article remains persuasive because of its efficiency in explaining both sides of the argument. As compared to the first article, the second one is not as straightforward. The narrative in the first part of the story has a twist. It referred to virtual people wherein the virtual husband’s death caused a problem for the virtual wife in maintaining their virtual property. In this part, it may seem to be appealing to the audiences’ emotions but actually it is just clearing a point about the issue of access and control. Read More