Extra Credit Blog

                  In both videos, each speaker uses ethos, logos, and pathos in their own way.  Some ways are more effective than others.  In Kanye’s case, he uses pathos very strongly in the video about Katrina.  He says that if an African American family is getting food the media portrays it as “looting” but if it was a white family, they were simply looking for food.  Kanye hits this point very hard, pointing out something that the audience probably has not noticed before.  This could cause anger in people, or sympathy, which is what I think Kanye is going for.  I believe that Kanye’s ethos is compromised in this clip not because he has illogical points, but because he appears very nervous and is stuttering and not clearly speaking.  The audience could interpret this as Kanye not knowing what he is talking about or not being credible.  Kanye uses pathos again when he relates to the audience saying how much he will try to give because he can’t imagine if it was his family and people there.  This shows the audience that he is giving the Katrina victims sympathy.  At the very end of the video, Kanye says “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.”  This is any extremely bold claim that the audience, me included, may have been surprised by.  I think that this can be considered logos and pathos.  In the aspect of pathos, Kanye is making a bold claim to evoke shock and possibly anger among the audience.  I believe it can be considered logos as well because after all the points he made about how African Americans are being treated and portrayed differently in the media, the claim seems logical.

                  Bush uses ethos, logos, and pathos in a very different way then Kanye does.  In many of the bloopers, Bush is seen joking around and making mistakes.  I think that this can be a positive and a negative.  I believe that he jokes mostly to take attention away from the large issues at hand that are causing panic across America such as 9/11 and the war.  He could be using this pathos as a way to lighten the mood of the crowd and put them at ease before he talks about more serious topics.  His casualness can also be discrediting his ethos.  By messing up and stuttering, the audience may think that he is not credible and does not have the requirements to be a president.  For example, in a speech, Bush mixes up Iran and Iraq.  This is a huge and unacceptable mistake in the eyes of most people.  I think this specific clip takes away a lot of Bush’s ethos.  Also, in one clip he asks a question and then says “I don’t know why I asked that”.  To me, this shows that he is disorganized and does not have his thoughts together.  In most of the clips in this video, he does not use logos, but I think this could be considered logos because it shows that Bush had no logic behind asking that question. 

                  Before seeing these clips, I would have said that Bush would be more likely to persuade me, because he was our president.  After seeing the clips, I have a whole different view of president Bush.  I had no idea he could be seen as so casual and unprofessional.  I believe that after seeing the clips Kanye would be more likely to persuade me.  I think this because even though he was stuttering, he made strong claims that turned out to be relatively true and relatable.

                  Kanye and Bush have both been extremely powerful and idolized people in our society.  In Kanye’s speech, he seems nervous and scatterbrained.  Once I interpreted what he was saying, he made some valid points.  In contrast, the rest of the audience may not have taken the time that I did, they could have just not understood.  This takes away a lot of Kanye’s credibility because he does not seem legitimate.  Although he may not have seemed credible at the beginning, at the end he made a bold claim saying “Bush does not care about black people.”  This could have caught the audience’s attention and given him back his credibility.  When I saw the clips of Bush, I was very surprised.  Growing up, I saw Bush as a big sophisticated great leader of our country.  I did not see him as a disorganized, nonchalant president.  When he stuttered, mixed things up, and seemed confused during speeches, he seemed much less credible.  I thought since he was the leader of our country, he should have his thoughts straight before he went out to address people.  On the other hand, I do think some of Bush’s tactics worked.  I felt that he used jokes and relating to the audience helped calm them down and distract them from the difficult situations going on in our country.