Rhetorical Criticism - Dr. Ron - Blog 3

This blog is all about choosing a method. There are several methods that we have discussed in class. A few of them are as following: Neo-Aristotelian criticism, Cluster criticism, Fantasy-Theme criticism, Ideological criticism, and Pentadic criticism. It was tough to pick one that will be applied to my term paper. An idea I have is to use the Pentadic criticism method, my second would be cluster criticism.

 I chose the Pentadic method because it seems to fit memes in general best. Within this method there are a few terms Burke uses that will help with the term paper. The first term is dramatism. Dramatism is “the label Burke gives to the analysis of human motivation through terms derived from the study of drama” (Foss p. 355). Drama is everywhere with memes; memes are drama! Dramatism will allow/help take the meme apart and analyze it. This method will help interpret all parts of the “Everywhere” meme.

                A second term, or part, of the Pentadic method that will be most useful to dissect the meaning of memes, especially the meme I will be using, is the five basic elements of a drama that Burke uses. The five basic elements are as following; act, which is the what; agent, which is the who; agency, which is the how; scene, which is the where and when; and purpose, which is the why (Foss p. 356). First, the act, which is understood as, “what was done is the message”; next is the agent, which is understood as, “who performed it”; after that would be the agency, which is understood as, “the means by which the act is completed”; followed by the scene, which is understood as, “the background or situation that it is taken place at”; completed with the purpose, which is understood as, “the rational of the message” (Foss p. 356 - 357). There is an element that Burk would like to add to the Pentad. This element is attitude. “Attitude designates the manner in which particular means are employed” (Foss p. 357). Attitude is not on the Pentad because there is not enough to make it its own, however, it fits in close with agent.

                Lastly, Foss talks about ratios. Ratios can help examine the meme used. Under ratio, Foss talks about the dominant terms and how to discover them. Foss explains dominant terms in the following sentence as, “the most important term among the five [act, agent, agency, scene, purpose] and the term through which everything else happens” (p.360). She then continues later explaining, “as you apply ratios to discover the relationships among the terms, you will find that you are balancing between your general knowledge of the kinds of relationships that exist among the terms and the relationship that is being set up within the artifact [meme]” (p.361). The dominant term with the meme used will be “everywhere”. The meme is based around this word. It explains what the meme means. There is XX Everywhere.

                Overall I believe the Pentad method will be the best method for me to use to analyze my meme.

Blog 5 - Dr. Massie - Mass Communication

In “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” (air date: Monday Jan. 5. 2015), Stewart had a discussion which involved who is running for the presidential position. Jim Webb, Melvin Dickpictweet, Bernie Sanders, Chris Christy, Huckabee, Hillary Clinton, and Jeb Bush are six candidates who Stewart made fun of that are running for this position. He made a few jokes about each candidate but nothing serious came out of this viewing. After the commercial Stewart then discussed the issues involving the new movie at the time; The Interview staring Seth Rogen and James Franco. Stewart goes on explaining how The Interview was canceled because Korean hackers threatened to launch 911 style attacks on theaters who showed the movie. Stewart was not happy about this and made a joke about interfering with our holiday releases.  

He slammed Korea and made jokes about how the United States has upped their security so North Korea does not smuggle arms in. Stewart started making fun of the different sanctions that the United States is taking caution with North Korea. He then continues how the leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-un, made “the list” and can no longer attend our universities. After this discussion, Stewart brings in Steven Brill author of “America’s Bitter Pill: Money, Politics, Backroom Deals, and the Fight to Fix Our Broken Healthcare System”. Stewart and Brill spoke seriously and in joke about his book. They talked about Obama and Obama care and how Brill needed open heart surgery. He had an aneurysm in his heart. Stewart asks, “Why do you think President Obama wants to kill you”. The audience laughed and they continued the conversation how the NSA planted the aneurysm as a joke. Overall Stewart is a funny guy and has a good show but I could never take it seriously.

I believe “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” degrades news and makes serious topic appear less serious. I understand it is supposed to be a funny show but It makes everything lighter than it should be. America should not be making fun of who is running for president. They should take that seriously. By making it a joke, Americans could elect someone who was mentioned in this show because it was funny, not because of the work they had accomplished if any at all. A second issue I have with this show because of how it degrades news would be the fact that they are joking about The Interview. It is a serious matter already that Korea is upset with America for releasing it, let alone Jon Stewart making fun of the movie even more.

Overall this is a fun show to watch but it is something that could be a problem with our news. If people decide to watch The Daily Show with John Stewart and take what he says seriously; this could be a problem. There are more disadvantages than there are advantages to this show. It would be nice to see him make fun of lighter issues going on rather than the serious one within our country. 

Rhetorical Criticism - Dr. Ron - Blog 2

It is a little crazy that there are scholarly articles involving memes. It brings up a small question. What does this say about our society today? What made us strive to create scholarly articles and journals about memes? I am sure there are better things to be discussing in our world today. Enough about this little rant, now I would like to discuss the Everywhere meme a little further. But before I get into this specific meme, I would like to discuss the background of memes in general. Why were memes created? Why did they become so popular? These are questions that come up and need some answers.

The word “meme” was originated from Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene ( Where/How Did Memes Actually Start? ). The word “meme” was always around rather the idea behind a meme was created more recently.

Memes are a lot of things. They can be symbols, catch-phrases, languages, and styles. Some are more world known some are between a few friends. Some embarrass people, some are just plain funny. Why did they start? When researching where memes originated from, I could not find a solid answer. They are something that just started. One day someone decided to put a caption on a picture and a meme was born.

The Jung Journal discusses the Great Mother and the Wise Old Man. These are two archetypes that memes are thought to have begun. These two archetypes are found consistent across several different cultures and religious backgrounds ( Hossain, 2015 ). It seems that religion and older figures are easy targets for memes to be created.

The Jung Journal mentions, “the notion behind the internet jargon of an idea ‘going viral’ in reference to the new class of concepts known as Internet memes”. Hossain then mentions Dawkins and how he introduced the concept of the meme as something that “conveys the idea of a unit of cultural transmission” ( Hossian, 2015 ). Dawkins linked a meme to a gene. “A replicator that follows the laws of evolution as the basic unit of cultural transmission” ( Hossian, 2015 ).

Basically memes are spread because of the funny picture along with the hilarious caption. The “Everywhere” meme is an example of a popular meme because it caught on. A meme has to catch on to become popular. People need to like a meme for it to go worldwide. The “Everywhere” meme started in a not so liked meme. It was of a pornographic phrase of “Dicks, Dicks everywhere”. People were not fans of this to they did not share it. Then others liked the idea and the picture behind the meme so they change the wording to either “drama, drama everywhere” or “XXX, XXX everywhere” ( fill in any fitting word with the X ). After this happened, the meme started to become popular and began to, as Hossain says, “go viral”.

The “Everywhere” meme became even more popular when they put the Toy Story version in. It just comes to show that anything can become popular once it goes viral. Especially memes.

"Where/How Did Memes Actually Start? | Meme Research Discussion." Know Your Meme News. N.p., 2012. Web. 03 Mar. 2015.

Hossain, Shaikat. "The Internet as a Tool for Studying the Collective Unconscious." Jung Journal 6.2 (2012): 103-09. Web. 01 Mar. 2015.