In August of 2008 the late Christopher Hitchens wrote an essay published in Vanity Fair that was titled “Believe Me, It’s Torture”. This essay was unique because of its strange pairing of content and audience. Christopher Hitchens had decided to put a fairly controversial political essay in a magazine that targets women, covers fashion and pop culture, and typically steers away from politics entirely. This shows that his intended audience was the average adult woman in america. Christopher Hitchens intentionally aims his article at a group of the population that rarely thinks about the topic of waterboarding, the perfect group to persuade. His choice of magazine is also effective at reaching out to the entire intended audience. Vanity
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Hitchens could have chose to make it sound more like a report where he simply stated his fears, what happened and how that made him feel. It would have been just as shocking and his overall message would still be present. However, by recanting the accounts of what happened in the style of one close friend telling a story to another friend Hitchens is able to connect to the audience at the individual level and is able to have them sympathize with his experiences. This style is successful because every woman in the U.S., who is his audience, has a friend, neighbor, or grandparent who has told them stories of adventures that have happened to them. We all have a friend who we run into at the bank or grocery store who tells us how their summer vacation went. They tell us of the beautiful beach with such detail that we can picture it. We all have a neighbor who we see at the game who tells us how little Billy nearly got ran over at the intersection. They always proceed to tell us how a stop sign really needs to be put at that very intersection. We all have a grandfather who tells stories from his past and always adds why they were young and stupid back then. He always tells us that we should learn from his mistakes and to not repeat those mistakes. Christopher Hitchens picks this style because it is something we can all relate to and so we can all relate to why he wants us to stop the practice of waterboarding our
Hitchens could have chose to make it sound more like a report where he simply stated his fears, what happened and how that made him feel. It would have been just as shocking and his overall message would still be present. However, by recanting the accounts of what happened in the style of one close friend telling a story to another friend Hitchens is able to connect to the audience at the individual level and is able to have them sympathize with his experiences. This style is successful because every woman in the U.S., who is his audience, has a friend, neighbor, or grandparent who has told them stories of adventures that have happened to them. We all have a friend who we run into at the bank or grocery store who tells us how their summer vacation went. They tell us of the beautiful beach with such detail that we can picture it. We all have a neighbor who we see at the game who tells us how little Billy nearly got ran over at the intersection. They always proceed to tell us how a stop sign really needs to be put at that very intersection. We all have a grandfather who tells stories from his past and always adds why they were young and stupid back then. He always tells us that we should learn from his mistakes and to not repeat those mistakes. Christopher Hitchens picks this style because it is something we can all relate to and so we can all relate to why he wants us to stop the practice of waterboarding our