Rhetorical Analysis Of How Fake News Does Real Harm '

Ted Talks’ speaker and journalist Stephanie Busria is able to capture the audience’s attention in “How Fake News Does Real Harm” by delivering a true cautionary tale on the effects of fake news has society. The speaker’s strategic rhetoric allows the audience to be taken up enough to listen to her story. This then leads to believing the story and acting on it. Busria’s rhetoric follows the same script. She uses certain phrases in her statement to established credibility with the audience, which is ethos. Busria goes on throughout the story with pathos-based platform, which results in a deeper emotional connection to her audience. Finally, this reporter is able to use logic to demonstrate solutions and problem to the audience, therefore descripting …show more content…
As her story involves women being taken from their families, Busria is able to connect to everyday people. She says “For those of you who are parent, like myself, in the audience, you can only imagine the anguish that mother felt.” Every person has a mother or father and every person was a son or daughter. When a personal detailed story like Busria is told, the audience are able to put themselves in the position of the storyteller. This leaves audience with an everlasting feeling to the cause created by the pathos-based rhetoric of the speaker. The Ted Talk speaker strengths that feeling by also connecting to women in her issue. Busria’s story entails death and disappearance of women in Africa, while describing the circumstances that surround these women in that region. By using this pathos method, it allows the audience to sincerely care about what happens to these women. After establishing an emotional connection and a genuine concern for the women of the story, Busria directs that passionate energy to the root issue. The spread of false news becomes that target. The speaker is able to connect the audience to the issue by using logos, which will be discussed later. However, it is the pathos rhetoric that takes a listener from just listening to the problem to acting on the …show more content…
This is the logically side of the rhetoric. For example, Busria tells the audience the Nigerian government had spread fake news that the kidnapping of the Chibok girls was false. Which was realized when a photo appeared with the Chibok girls at the center of it. The Ted Talk speaker makes the statement that the false news caused a delay in the return. This is a logical conclusion, which helps audience agree with the speaker. During the last minute or so of Busria’s speech, logos-based rhetoric is increased in presence. As a solution to the spread of false news, Busria logically conveys to the audience the importance of personal responsibility to help the cause. She states, “ We are the ones who share the stories online. In this day and age, we’re all publishers, and we have responsibility.” This phrase helps the audience realize that the stopping of false news start with everyday people. Also, this logos rhetoric shows the logic behind the responsibility everyday people have. By the end of the Ted Talk, the audience will more likely be careful on what stories they share due to the logical consequences behind