Ethos video

Thanksgiving - what do you think?

With Thanksgiving right around the corner, many people have wondered about what this holiday means, how it should be celebrated, and whether there needs to be changes in traditions or not.  To get us thinking about it, please read this article: Thanksgiving article

Then, to give us one last opportunity to think about pathos, ethos, and logos, you will respond to the article by writing a post on your blog.  What do you think about Thanksgiving?  How would you like to see it celebrated, if at all?  Make your argument using all three forms of persuasion.

If you need to remind yourself about pathos, ethos, and logos, click here

Making Videos with Popcorn Maker - Round 2

Yesterday was play time, experimenting around with this fun web movie-making tool.

Today we'll show the films you made - the ones that were successfully saved - as well as a look at the techniques you used.

Then we'll get into groups:

1. Jacob, Brenden, Zoe, Stella
2. Josh, Caroline, Eve, Nikki
3. Lucas, Maggie, Jordan, Theodora
4. Zach, Matt, Izzy, Jackie

Here is the task for today - to use Popcorn Maker to create a look at Pathos, Ethos, and Logos in three commercials.

1. Have someone sign in to Popcorn Maker.
2. Start a new project - save it as soon as possible, making sure you give it a name.  (We found out the hard way yesterday that you need to sign in first and save early - several people lost work!)
3. Find three commercials you want to work with today.  They should be for different things - one of them must be for a service, and the others for products.  Feel free to use whatever you'd like here - recent stuff, classical, foreign, whatever.
4. Watch them together with your group and note where the ads are using pathos, ethos, and logos.
5. Put these three ads into your project and then find a fun way to add in ways of identifying the pathos, ethos, and logos (of course they might not all be present in each commercial).  It can simply be with pop-up dialogue boxes, and there is still a lot of creative room to use there.  Or you can add in whatever else you think would help your audience to see these factors.
6. Try to finish this with about 10 minutes left in the period so we can watch them!

Ethos – Pathos – Logos

Ethos

·         Before you can convince an audience to accept anything you say, they have to accept you as credible.

·         There are many aspects to building your credibility:

o   Does the audience respect you?

o   Does the audience believe you are of good character?

o   Does the audience believe you are generally trustworthy?

o   Does the audience believe you are an authority on this speech topic?

·         Keep in mind that it isn’t enough for you to know that you are a credible source. (This isn’t about your confidence, experience, or expertise.) Your audience must know this. Ethos is your level of credibility as perceived by your audience.

·         How to build ethos

o   Show expertise

o   Show shared experiences with audience

o   Use language familiar to your audience

o   Quote known sources

o   Reference people in the audience

Pathos

·         Pathos is the quality of a persuasive presentation which appeals to the emotions of the audience.

o   Do your words evoke feelings of … love? … sympathy? … fear?

o   Do your visuals evoke feelings of compassion? … envy?

o   Does your characterization of the competition evoke feelings of hate? contempt?

·         Emotional connection can be created in many ways by a speaker, perhaps most notably by stories. The goal of a story, anecdote, analogy, simile, and metaphor is often to link an aspect of our primary message with a triggered emotional response from the audience.

·         How to build a sense of pathos

o   Choose an theme / emphasis

o   Choose words to build onto this theme

o   Tell stories

o   Use humor

o   Work on having delivery match the emotions you are projecting

Logos

·         Logos is synonymous with a logical argument.

o   Does your message make sense?

o   Is your message based on facts, statistics, and evidence?

o   Will your call-to-action lead to the desired outcome that you promise?

·         How to be sure your audience follows the logic:

o   Use plain language

o   Be explicit

o   Use comparisons, analogies, or metaphors

o   Ask questions – get the audience thinking

o   Note the other side and refute it

o   Emphasize the points most valuable to the audience

Making Videos with Popcorn Maker

Today we will play around with a fun web tool - Popcorn Maker.
You can find it here: https://popcorn.webmaker.org/en-US

I'm going to give you a quick look at it, then let you go play for the period.
We will use this tool to create videos connecting to our work on Pathos, Ethos, and Logos, but for today we'll just explore the tool to see what it can do.

Here's one I've just started working on:
https://mrrigler.makes.org/popcorn/1k1j

Racial Diversity on Television - Part 2

Last time we discussed the recent Saturday Night Live controversy about the lack of black women in the cast.  Our work today will continue that conversation by bringing other voices into the mix.

You will research an article about issues of race, diversity, and television.  Once you find it, you will read it, and then write a blog post including these elements:

• An analysis of the person's argument in terms of ethos, logos, and pathos.  What claims are they making?  How are they presenting their argument?
• Your response.  Do you agree or disagree with this person's claims?  Do you react differently to various parts of their argument?  Why?

We'll take about 30 minutes for this.  When you are done we will turn to a discussion once again to share these new perspectives and our evolving thoughts.

Diversity in Television

Here are some resources for our look at the recent Saturday Night Live controversy about the absence of Black women in the cast.

Interview with Kenan Thompson from TV Guide

NY Times article on SNL cast diversity

NYTimes: "Broadcasting a World of Whiteness"

Video: NY Times article

SNL Videos