Inspiration for the Educated, Education for the Motivated

          Is YouTube Making Us Smarter? The narrator of this PBS Idea Channel episode is curious to find out. Surfing into this question, Mike Rugnetta discusses some key reasons why YouTube is becoming a number one educational tool for students. As discussed by Regnetta, YouTube's wealth of information can be utilized from any place in the world, as long as there is an internet connection. Due to such an availability of information, Rugnetta suggests that students are now able to consult YouTube for help on homework in many different fields (i.e. chemistry and physics) and they even have the ability to chose who they will learn the information from. Those who are posting on YouTube to teach also tend to be genuinely enthusiastic about the material they present in their videos. 
             Rugnetta is reasonable with his approach to answering this question, he understands that learning is something that people must first want to do, it is not something that can be forced upon someone. He mentions that YouTube will not change the fact that learning is hard work, but he suggests that it gives people options and opportunities to learn in ways that were never available before.

Because information is made publicly accessible and affordable (free is a good price) for anyone who wants to learn, Rugnetta claims that the barriers (i.e. extent of schooling, geographic location, government control of information) to information exchange are made fewer via YouTube. However, these barriers are not removed, people must still be motivated enough to learn and get on YouTube to search for information they want. With such a motivation the things that can be learned from YouTube become essentially limitless.

Rugnetta reinforces the ideas and moods he wants to portray by using embedded video clips related to the idea being discussed. Some of these clips were likely from YouTube while others are from beloved movies such as Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Billy Madison. When discussing each idea, a clip that relates to the idea in some way is presented. Some of the clips are semi-serious and academic, while others are relate in another way. These clips build a visual bridge to the reader connecting Rugnetta’s ideas to visual triggers which help the viewer to process what is being said.  Rugnetta also provides clips for comic relief which allow the audience a slight break between concepts so that the reader has time to finish processing an idea before the next one is presented.              With his presentation, Rugnetta appeals to a general audience, but he seems to single out students of all ages. Students are the primary focus because teachers and professors are increasingly posting materials online for their students, and one of the mediums commonly used for lecture recordings is YouTube. According to Rugnetta, the effectiveness of these learning styles are often questionable and can also be somewhat subjective since everyone has different learning styles. Rugnetta’s discussion aims to support these views while leaving room for the audience to formulate their own opinion.

              According to The Huffington Post, Mike Rugnetta completed a double major in cognitive and political science achieving status as a 2L (this means he was ranked in the top 15 students of his graduating class) at the  Boston University of Law. He is active in a variety of programs and societies and he has completed work studies and research assistant-ships within his field of research. YouTube videos and blogs are some of his most frequent works (The Huffington Post). Rugnetta uploads new videos to his PBS Idea Channel on a weekly basis and his episodes tend to cover a wide variety of topics. Based upon his background, Mike Rugnetta appears to be a reputable and honest source. 

Works Cited

"The Huffington Post." Michael Rugnetta. TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc, 29 Oct 2013. Web. 29 Oct 2013. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-rugnetta/>.

One of the greatest educational motivators, many of Sir David Attenborough's best films can be accessed via YouTube. 

POM Wonderful, the New Way to "Cheat Death"

In the above photo, a beverage known as POM Wonderful is being marketed. The advertisement uses bold coloration, strong appeals to pathos, logos and ethos, as well as a variety of logical fallacies in making its claim.

The flier uses a solid white background to increase contrast; making the beverage and the text stand out boldly. At a glance the viewers eye is captured first by the large black words, “cheat death” and then by the image of a deep red and black POM Wonderful bottle with a noose around the bottle neck.  The bottle itself bares human-like features. There is a cap, a spherical “head” with two triangle shaped “eyes,” and an upper and lower spherical “torso”.  In fact, the POM Wonderful logo itself almost appears as if the bottle is wearing it as a t-shirt.

With such human-like features, the combination of the noose (which has been cut from hanging) and the bottle appeals to pathos. As viewers we sympathize with the bottle and its misfortune of being hung, but we also feel relief at its release from such a fate. In modern day America, we see the noose as unethical and it is a clear appeal to ethos. These appeals keep the viewer engaged and draws them in even further.

Next, we focus in on the bottle’s logo. POM is written in white and in place of the “O” is a red heart with a white outline.  Typically when used in food advertisements, the presence of a heart goes to show that the product is heart healthy. However, it could double as a symbol for love; indicating that if you try their  product you will fall in love with it.  The heart persuades the viewer to think about their own heart health while convincing them that this product is good for them.

“Wonderful” is written directly below POM in red and this title is followed by the statement “100% Pomegranate Juice”. This statement is a clear appeal to logos and ethos as it presents the facts, telling that this product is natural; ethically it is a good choice.

Red and white are colors typically affiliated with life (red the color of the heart and oxygenated blood; white the color of goodness or pureness), we often see them associated with hospitals, ambulances, and first aid kits. The use of these colors in the logo seems to be a play off of this idea.  Black, a color often associated with death, is not used anywhere in the label, but is shown outside of the label to emphasizes the purity of POM Wonderful.  These colors and their placement subconsciously influence our opinions of the product as a whole.

An additional appeal to logos and ethos, the phrase “The antioxidant power of pomegranate juice”, serves to verify the claim that POM Wonderful will help a person “cheat death”. It is important to note, however, that this advertisement never directly states that using this product will make a person healthier, that it will heal you, or that it will help you “cheat death”. It instead uses pictures to show this and  makes implications. The consumer adds words to the advertisement and formulates his or her own  ideas of what this product will do for them. The creation of this logical fallacy increases sales for the company marketing POM Wonderful while misleading the customer who falls victim to promises that were never actually made by the company itself. As discussed by William Lutz, these unfinished words can be really misleading.  

This ad targets the sick and unhealthy by trying to convince them that this product will help them recover. It also targets heart healthy consumers or those people who wish to become heart healthy.  There is some evidence out there that antioxidants are beneficial to the body, but this is only true to an extent. In other words consuming antioxidants alone is not going to save a persons life. Leaving out this information could be considered an appeals to ignorance fallacy. Also, the benefits associated with antioxidants could be considered common knowledge, which means that an appeals to popular opinion fallacy is being use to draw in customers. The connection between life and the use of this product is a non-sequitur fallacy because the conclusion does not necessarily follow after the use of POM Wonderful. Finally, by convincing the consumer that there are only two possible outcomes that could result from the use/absence of use of this product (life or death) when in-fact using this product  has no substantial impact on these outcomes, introduces a bifurcation fallacy.

Due to its misleading nature, this advertisement actually became banned in the United Kingdom by the Advertising Standards Authority due to 23 separate complaints that the product lead consumers to believe that this beverage had special health implications (Nymark).

This link brings you to the original page where the above ad was posted:

http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/896984/drink-poster-slammed-asa-ruling

Verve is another drink that claims to have many health benefits for people, however this one is an energy drink.

http://www.vemma.com/verveenergy/

Bibliography

Nymark, Hadassah. "Drink Poster Slammed by ASA Ruling." Campaign. campaignlive.co.uk, 08 04 2009. Web. 19 Oct. 2013. <http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/896984/drink-poster-slammed-asa-ruling>.