http://history1900s.about.com/library/photos/blyviet29.htm

-NY times article about how the media is portraying the war. is this really a war for freeing the iraqi people? and if so, freeing them from what?

Kurtz, Howard. “Did Embeds Provide Clear Snapshot of Combat in Iraq?; Did Television Sanitize War?; Are Media Losing Interest in Iraq?” CNN: Reliable Sources. April 27 2003.             http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0304/27/rs.00.html

-sanitizing tv reports to make American people feel better about the war, the people want a more pro-american view of the war

I intro with vietnam references to propaganda and the media

II vietnam war propaganda (image 1)

III how propaganda effected people in the U.S.

IV why do we fight and spread propaganda

V propaganda surrounding the war in Iraq

                  a. twisting of 9/11 attacks in media

                  b. omission/inclusion of certain information in broadcasts

                  c. how media phrases invasion in U.S. and other countries

                  d. image selection in media (CNN)

VI impact on the people

VII how m.e. are portrayed and viewed in minds of Americans

                  a. survey info

VIII strong media influenc ein our lives, motives of media 

ages: 18-55

results:
do you personally believe all middle eastern people played a role in the 9/11 attacks, including civilians?
75% yes
25% yes

for those who answered yes to the above question: do you believe the media creates an accurate portrayal of middle eastern people and the media would not spread propaganda?
60% yes
40% no

have you ever felt persuaded by the media to beleive a certain ideal?
9/50 yes
41/50 no

word association section:
please write words in which you associate with the following phrases:
Iraqi civilians–
                   disgusting (36/50)
                   terrorists (28/50)

a.       What do I want to discover?

Through performing a survey in a passed out questionnaire form I want to find out what peoples general opinions are about the media. I want to know whether they feel the media has mislead them, whether they believe that the country as a whole listens to the media and takes it seriously and whether they believe everything the media tells them. By getting a general consensus I can better understand the audience I am writing to and how to use appeals in the best way to persuade them.

b.      How do I plan on discovering it? (This is called your research methods or methodology)

I will use a survey to ask people the questions and get an informed idea of how people feel towards the media.

c.       Who am I going to talk to/observe/survey? (These people are called your subjects or participants)

I will survey both college students and people from my home to get a better consensus. If I only survey college students, although they are my audience, I will only have one set of information. I would like to know more about what people think and see whether the distrust or trust extends outside of a college campus.

d.      How am I going to be able gain access to these groups or individuals

For the college students I will simply hand out the surveys to my peers here at Syracuse. For my other half of my surveying I will survey friends and people in my community at home which is a more conservative area.

e.       What are my biases about this topic?

My own biases are that I do distrust the media and I will be working to persuade my audience to believe and understand how the media has acted which has created a general distrust.

f.       How can I make sure my biases are not reflected in my research methods?

I will use neutral questions instead of loaded and opinionated questions. Instead of asking things like “Why do you distrust the media?” I will ask “how do you feel about the media’s representation of the war?”

g.      What do I expect to discover?

I expect to see a general consensus which shows that there is distrust for the media and their reports about the war. I also expect to see that people’s opinions and views were strongly shaped and influenced by the way the media speaks about Middle Eastern people.

    Secondly you must carefully break down statements made in a document and decipher whether they are facts or opinions. When writers are creating a document which aims to persuade their audience to believe their point of view and argument they will carefully omit and use certain points of information to create sway with the reader on their side. In combination with this point it is important to establish your credibility as a writer to the reader is more likely to believe and know your sources are also credible and authentic.

    Additionally to making your reader and audience see you as a credible writer you must investigate and understand who will be reading your paper. For my paper I will be writing to people who are my classmates and already have wary beliefs about the media and their role in perpetuating false beliefs about people in the Middle East. If writing to a set of college students their other moral values must also be taken into consideration, if they are a more liberal set of people who are against the war you will have an easier time persuading them to understand your beliefs. But if writing to the middle-upper class college graduates who are middle aged, they may be more conservative and be less likely to understand you as a credible source and having legitimate points.

    Another important made in Kantz’s article is to create an original argument which you feel strongly about, enough to argue and making a persuasive idea. The article also talks about closing and filling the rhetorical gap by making original contributions and research which surrounds your own personal views of the topic.

    For my own personal purposes in writing my paper I will attempt to meet Kantz’s standards and points for improving writing by better analyzing my sources and looking at where they were written, the context and who wrote them. Additionally, I will look at the situation in which the article was written in as a whole and then try to decipher which facts the writer left out and included in order to persuade me. I will also try to incorporate my audience’s ideals into my paper so that I can better persuade them in understanding and agreeing with my argument. To create a proper and successful ethos I will work to use different opinions about the war, maybe even use blogs from some Iraqi people to show that maybe their media has not portrayed the same negative ideals about Americans as we have about Middle Easterners. I will also document how in past wars which the United States has been involved in the government used blatant propaganda to persuade the American people to feel hatred towards the country which we are at war with. If the government has done this in the past with our country, what is stopping them from doing it in this war?

For my Unit 2 paper I plan to research the effects of the media on the American people and their responsibilities in shaping the ideas which we have about Middle Eastern people. I believe that the media perpetuated false beliefs about people who we were going to war with to justify the war itself. How did the media shape these beliefs, what claims did they make? What rhetorical strategies did they use? Were they truly successful or are many people weary of the media’s claims? Did the media in the Middle East do the same about American people? Would the war and current situation of the United States have been different if we had not been fed these ideals?

I want to research this topic because after writing my Unit 1 essay I began to wonder how the media in combination with the government, perpetuated so many beliefs and ideas about the war and why the American people believe them. It is quite evident that we as Americans blame the Middle Eastern people-not just a specific group like the Al Qaeda, but everyone as a homogenous population for the 9/11 attacks. I want to know what the media’s role in this was because I personally do not believe that Americans came to these conclusions alone. It is a widespread belief that spreads across the nation and I believe the media played a strong role. Additionally, can we even reverse these ideals or have they become a part of American patriotism and living?

      I intend to research this topic by reading blogs and getting a strong consensus of how Americans feel about the media’s role but also how they feel about Middle Eastern people. I will also ask people on campus and my friends and family how they feel about the media’s role in creating a racial war in our country about those in the Middle East. I will also look directly at articles in various newspapers and magazines and look at how they portray foreigners. I think it is also important to watch some news feeds from both when we started to go to war and also from years after it to see what tone and ideas are used in discussing Middle Easterners. Additionally if I feel that I need to further prove my point I might refer back to past wars which the United States has been involved in and the propaganda pushed upon the American people by the government to create support for a war in which we have no reason to be fighting in.

      The purpose of my project is to hopefully open my audience to the idea that the American media, in any form, is possibly not as trustworthy as we think it is. That maybe much of the hatred which exists in the United States about the people in the Middle East is actually false and simply just racism and prejudice. Also that not all the people in the Middle East were responsible for the 9/11 attacks or the suicide bombings and explosions which have killed American soldiers and civilians.