This video is a clip from "The Onion". It is fake news saying that the government reduces the population of obese people by raising definition of obesity.
Personally, I think one purpose of this argument is to tell people how ridiculous the way that the government chooses to handle a problem. It can be seen as a way to express their indignation towards government's reaction to some issues, and people are not blind and they need effective solutions.
For its audience, they can be anyone who watches news.
And, there are two stances of this video. One is to show the fact that there are a huge number of obese people in the US, which is a serious problem today. But the government "solves" this problem by changing the definition of obesity, which is nonsense. So, the other, or the main stance is to indicate that nowadays, the government pretends to solve some tough problems by covering them instead of dealing with them.
And, they created a TV program called "The Onion News" to convey the information, which can attract people's attention. Usually, people would think it is true at first, but later find out that it is just joking. By this way, the audience can be impressed.
Shuyi Li
Ethos: pattern of this video is news report which looks serious. In general, news TV programs report current issues in our society and people regard them as a way to gain valid information. As presented in this way, this video seems more credible. In addition, it quotes a list of statistics, for example, "according to statistics, 18.7% of US citizens are obese", and it also provides a picture shows effect of the government's policy--population of obesity decreases from 200 million to 185 million. All of these makes this video look more professional and worthy of trust.
ReplyDeletePathos: At the end of this video, there is an obese kid talking about not wanting to be obese. When he says "I don't want to be obese", he seems angry and hopeless, which can be regarded as a pathos appeal because some audience may take pity on him, while others may think this kid is ridiculous.
Logos: As definition of obesity is raised, less people are categorized in to obese group, which sounds logical. However, this method cannot solve obese problem at all, which makes this way of reducing obese population look empty-headed.