Ethos can be defined as establishing authority in order to prove an author’s credibility and therefore, convincing the reader of what the author is arguing. Dawson employs ethos, stating celebrities greatly influence the YouTube community. For example, she names a few well known celebrities (establishes credibility) who have made videos go viral (proves her point). These celebrities include: Jimmy Kimmel and Taylor Swift. “Double Rainbow” by Paul Vasquez, published in January 2010, had less than 100 views before Kimmel tweeted it in July of the same year. Because of the tweet, its’ popularity, exponentially increased from 100 views to 40 million views. The same thing can be seen with Taylor Swift and Louisa Wendorff’s cover of Swift’s “Blank
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Dawson also points out that celebrities have an impact on a larger scale, including: commercial purchases/advertisement and religion. David Beckham, a popular soccer player, advertises for a wide variety of items, such as: cologne, watches, clothing, etc. Because he is a very popular celebrity and has authority/credibility, more common people will be inclined to buy a product he is marketing. Tom Cruise, on the other hand, made Scientology well known when he claimed to be practicing it. Even though it may not have been a popular idea, it brought Scientology into the national spotlight and showed that celebrities have the power to make anything, even religion, popular (or not so popular). Through both of these examples, Dawson, indirectly, reaffirms her claim celebrities have the power/credibility to influence the popularity of anything, even YouTube videos. From here, Dawson makes her argument logically …show more content…
Dawson does a fantastic job of this throughout her oeuvre. For one, she includes a few statistics pertaining to the number of viewers each viral video, “Double Rainbow” and Louisa Wendorff’s cover “Blank Space // Style.” “Double Rainbow” had a 40 million viewer jump from the time Jimmy Kimmel tweeted it while Louisa Wendorff’s cover “Blank Space // Style” had a 22 million view jump, thus proving, statistically speaking, celebrity authority determined the popularity of the videos. Even though certain videos followed the same formula, some went viral while most did not. It does not always work out. Why is that? Logically, Dawson points out that certain celebrities helped most of those popular videos go viral (that is why some have success and most fail). Additionally, the McGuire model and the Hovland models provide reason behind her argument. The McGuire model “maintains that a message’s effectiveness depends on the physical attractiveness, familiarity, and similarity of the source to the audience” while the Hovland model “argues that a message’s effectiveness depends on the trustworthiness and respectability of the source as perceived by the audience.” For example, David Beckham is very effective in advertisement because he is attractive and very popular (trustworthy). This being said a celebrity who is attractive/ popular/trustworthy will have the ability to make a video go viral. While she may have appealed
Dawson also points out that celebrities have an impact on a larger scale, including: commercial purchases/advertisement and religion. David Beckham, a popular soccer player, advertises for a wide variety of items, such as: cologne, watches, clothing, etc. Because he is a very popular celebrity and has authority/credibility, more common people will be inclined to buy a product he is marketing. Tom Cruise, on the other hand, made Scientology well known when he claimed to be practicing it. Even though it may not have been a popular idea, it brought Scientology into the national spotlight and showed that celebrities have the power to make anything, even religion, popular (or not so popular). Through both of these examples, Dawson, indirectly, reaffirms her claim celebrities have the power/credibility to influence the popularity of anything, even YouTube videos. From here, Dawson makes her argument logically …show more content…
Dawson does a fantastic job of this throughout her oeuvre. For one, she includes a few statistics pertaining to the number of viewers each viral video, “Double Rainbow” and Louisa Wendorff’s cover “Blank Space // Style.” “Double Rainbow” had a 40 million viewer jump from the time Jimmy Kimmel tweeted it while Louisa Wendorff’s cover “Blank Space // Style” had a 22 million view jump, thus proving, statistically speaking, celebrity authority determined the popularity of the videos. Even though certain videos followed the same formula, some went viral while most did not. It does not always work out. Why is that? Logically, Dawson points out that certain celebrities helped most of those popular videos go viral (that is why some have success and most fail). Additionally, the McGuire model and the Hovland models provide reason behind her argument. The McGuire model “maintains that a message’s effectiveness depends on the physical attractiveness, familiarity, and similarity of the source to the audience” while the Hovland model “argues that a message’s effectiveness depends on the trustworthiness and respectability of the source as perceived by the audience.” For example, David Beckham is very effective in advertisement because he is attractive and very popular (trustworthy). This being said a celebrity who is attractive/ popular/trustworthy will have the ability to make a video go viral. While she may have appealed