Dr. Ron Blog 3 - Persuasion

 Ebola has been mentioned all over the news and social media. It has become a problem not only for health reasons but also for mental reasons, the mental reasons that language causes. Our country is terrified of this disease, Why? Because of the many ways that the media portrays it. The media comes out with many different ways to grab someones attention to read or listen to their articles about the situation that occurs. In this case, the situation is Ebola. There have been several different ways Ebola has been mentioned throughout social media.

The language some of these articles use scare their readers. SCGNews starts their article with, “The information I'm about to present here is frightening. There's really no way around that. However, I request that you do your very best to maintain a calm state of mind”. This is the perfect language to use to grab the attention of a reader. If you scare them they will want to learn more to understand what they are scared of. This is uncertainty. If a person is uncertain about something they are not happy. They want the issue to be fixed in any way possible.

A second article, written by Carol Brown, starts off saying, “With daily headlines featuring the world 'Ebola,' fear is in the air; along with confusion. Many Americans are worried about Ebola spreading and becoming a serious threat”. Brown is talking about the same issue that SCGNews, but she uses language differently than SCGNews does. Brown is more calm and not as threataning as SCGNews is. She takes into consideration what her readers are interested in. They want the facts, but they do not want to be terrified of what they are reading. This may not occur with all readers, but this is how I see the difference.

Lastly, a third article from topinfopost.com, starts their article with, “All the disinformation being spread about Ebola by the U.S. Government and the complicit mass media will unfortunately make the Ebola pandemic far worse”. This article is my favorite. I like how they are very mellow about the Ebola situation. They do not scare the public with rumors and fabricated tales about Ebola. They are calm and are giving their facts. They think Ebola is being blown out of porportion and honestly I agree with them.

After reading these three articles, the language used throughout them all is different yet the same. Each article is concerned about Ebola but it is in different ways. The first article is a huge 'Warning! Warning!' sign, the second article is a 'be scared but its okay' sign, and the final article is an 'Ebola is not that big of a deal in the U.S.' sign. They all speak the same language but depict it in different ways.

Citation:

Brown, C. (2014, October 14). Articles: Ebola: Truth, Lies, Human Error, and Common Sense. Retrieved October 14, 2014.

DNA. The five biggest lies about Ebola being pushed by government and mass media. (2014, October 12). Retrieved October 15, 2014.

SCGNews. Ebola - What You're Not Being Told [UPDATED October 13th]. (2014, July 31). Retrieved October 14, 2014.