VIDEO ANALYSIS OF FACTORY FARMING
In the
web video, “What came before: Steve-O tells the truth about factory farming,”
debuting on YouTube in May of 2013, host Steve Glover describes the reality of
factory farms. He informs upon four types of factory farming; hog, poultry,
beef and fish. For each farm, Glover
gives the associated species human characteristics and educates the viewers
with pleasing facts about that specie. With three of the four types of factory farms,
he singles out and identifies a specific animal. Each animal is presented with
a name and story of how they were saved from these farms. Glover then
articulates the lives these animals entailed and forecasts their futures, had
they not been saved.
When depicting the factory farm conditions Glover is brutally honest. He emphasizes the cruelty, terror, and pain these animals face daily. This is the main focus of the video. Glover uses the harsh reality not only to express the cruelness of factory farms but to promote going meatless. He supports this message with a clever slogan saying “A cruel diet is bad for your body, and a kind diet is good for your body”. I selected this artifact to rhetorically analyze because I found myself as the targeted audience and I feel it effectively demonstrates an informative and accurate depiction of factory farming.
The rhetorical situation for Glover’s video is relatable in many ways. Through the video Glover proposes an animal free diet by exemplifying the treatment of our meat source. In doing so the kairos is not only relevant for the target audience, but is applicable to anyone who comes across the video. The context’s significance stretches to everyone because everybody has or is consuming products of factory farms at a constant and daily rate. The exhibition style of informing upon the given subject, through You Tube, expresses an audience of young adults. This demographic is also presumable based on the rhetor. Glover is an actor known for films desirable for this age group. This audience is sought out for the reason that they are likely to be a part of changes and movements to better the world. In wanting to better animal welfare, Glover reached out to this audience to help spread awareness of factory farms based on his meatless diet. This exigence is stressed by stating his lifestyle choice as healthy and kind several times. He even acknowledges additional celebrities who have chosen this lifestyle to help promote it. As a result of this video, Steve Glover thoroughly enlightens and persuades his viewers of the immorality of factory farms and to stop using the animal products based on ethos, kairos, logos, and pathos.
At the beginning of the video, Glover has formerly established ethos based off his celebrity status. The targeted audience will recognize him and because of this they will listen and be easily swayed to his views. The audience will further develop trust with his beliefs when he explains factory farms are the cause of his animal free diet. He states it is an easy choice because there are meat free alternatives to everything. Preceding this statement are pictures of colorful, and appealing meat free dishes. Glover also notes its many advantages by saying “it has benefited every area of my life”. In addition to the advantages, he remarks of knowing his lack of factory farm consumption has improved his physical, mental, and spiritual manner. He further upholds his credibility by announcing 15 million other Americans are following suit with this lifestyle choice. The graphics shown with this information are of six incredibly successful and well known celebrities the audience is to presume maintains this lifestyle. Finally, he backs up all of this information by including the American Dietetic Association’s assessment of partaking in a meat free diet. For which the association confirms the benefits of this lifestyle choice. By providing his familiarity and knowledge about factory farms, Glover provides evidence of his dietary lifestyle. This evokes trust with his audience beyond his credibility dependency as a celebrity.
Glover also demonstrates kairos and logos to help persuade his audience. The kairos and logos are reflected when he references all the factory farms he is presenting, with a statement to each claiming these are how most farms are operated. Small, large, local and organic farms included. This suggestion indicates everyone is partaking in factory farms, therefore committing animal cruelty on a daily bases. Through this, Glover is implying the only way to escape this form of animal cruelty is through an animal free diet. If an individual were to succumb to this type of diet, he states 31 animals would be saved from the brutal conditions of factory farms.
Glover not only uses the context of his video to sway the viewers but the logical organization of the video is beneficial for his intended purpose as well. He introduces each factory farm by initializing pleasing animal facts for the given specie of that farm. Glover then describes the daily conditions and hardships the factory farmed animals face regularly. Lastly, he provides information on ending this form of animal cruelty by initiating an animal free diet. Given that factory farms are a timely matter and that this presentation of the farms was done in a logical manner provides additional convincing material for Glover’s argument.
With Glover’s proven credibility and his consistent persuasion through timeliness and logic, Glover has his audience basically sided with him, but with the addition of pathos he ultimately wins the audience over. His harsh reality check and word choice adds a lot of emotion to the video. Consistently describing an animal’s slaughter with the phrase “still alive” and commenting on daily cruelty with words such as grinding, slit, rupture, pop, slammed, gassed, sliced, crippled, crushed, and mutilations tend to sicken the audience. He also describes the animal’s enclosures with the repeated words and phrases: barely move, never outdoors, crammed, packed, and filthy. He further engulfs the audience in an emotional nose dive with the footage used in the video. The images are extremely graphic and the video has recently added a disclaimer a viewer must sign in to, to prove they are of age to watch the short film. With this footage Glover confirms his seemingly impossible facts. He shows the viewers the filth, overcrowded enclosures, and multiple mutilations. Not only are the viewers faced with seeing the horror, they are hit with sound. They can hear the screams and torture the animals endure from un-medicated castration, branding, tail chopping, and de-beaking. The audience still cannot catch a break as the video displays the brutal animal slaughters and death because an animal is too small or was born the wrong gender. This footage exploits disgusting human ethics. It displays acceptance of throwing male baby chicks into a machine to be then grinded up alive, cutting and ripping apart fish as they too are still alive, slitting chicken’s throats in front of the “next in line” chickens, and the list goes on. Death based on discrimination of size and gender is also witnessed by the audience, providing some of the most heart wrenching aspects of the video. A couple references to these scenes include a mutilated baby chick in a bucket of gore, drowning but straining to stay afloat and alive. Another extremely difficult scene is watching a piglet repeatedly getting smashed against the concrete floor, then being thrown against the wall where it lays on the floor moving its legs as if trying to run away. With the facts, sounds, and images the audience is engulfed in emotion. To further establish pathos in the audience music is added to the video. During the portions of the video where Glover introduces the individual animals, describes that specie, and promotes going animal free the accompanied music is calm and suggests that of a church choir. This selected music appeals the audience into becoming motivated about this topic and prompts them to partake in helping the animals. When the video turns into a graphic massacre involving the facts and images of factory farms the music sounds of a percussion ensemble with a heavy beat. This music is chosen to boost pathos in the audience by not only overwhelming them with information and appalling video scenes but with the music as well. Pathos is the key factor for this topic and the video did an exceptional stimulation of it for their audience.
With the coverage of factory farming, the video easily swayed the audience as intended. It provided informative facts, reasoning, and evidence to get the audience on board with the notion that factory farms are unethical. Although the main purpose of the video is to promote an animal free diet, which is indeed done in an effective manner, but in my opinion the average audience member will believe this principle is too strict and too “over the top” to commit to. But with the backbone of the topic strong, the video completely advocates the cruelness of factory farms, which in turn spreads awareness of the topic and prompting viewers to become involved and to take part in small changes to help better the lives of factory famed animals.
When depicting the factory farm conditions Glover is brutally honest. He emphasizes the cruelty, terror, and pain these animals face daily. This is the main focus of the video. Glover uses the harsh reality not only to express the cruelness of factory farms but to promote going meatless. He supports this message with a clever slogan saying “A cruel diet is bad for your body, and a kind diet is good for your body”. I selected this artifact to rhetorically analyze because I found myself as the targeted audience and I feel it effectively demonstrates an informative and accurate depiction of factory farming.
The rhetorical situation for Glover’s video is relatable in many ways. Through the video Glover proposes an animal free diet by exemplifying the treatment of our meat source. In doing so the kairos is not only relevant for the target audience, but is applicable to anyone who comes across the video. The context’s significance stretches to everyone because everybody has or is consuming products of factory farms at a constant and daily rate. The exhibition style of informing upon the given subject, through You Tube, expresses an audience of young adults. This demographic is also presumable based on the rhetor. Glover is an actor known for films desirable for this age group. This audience is sought out for the reason that they are likely to be a part of changes and movements to better the world. In wanting to better animal welfare, Glover reached out to this audience to help spread awareness of factory farms based on his meatless diet. This exigence is stressed by stating his lifestyle choice as healthy and kind several times. He even acknowledges additional celebrities who have chosen this lifestyle to help promote it. As a result of this video, Steve Glover thoroughly enlightens and persuades his viewers of the immorality of factory farms and to stop using the animal products based on ethos, kairos, logos, and pathos.
At the beginning of the video, Glover has formerly established ethos based off his celebrity status. The targeted audience will recognize him and because of this they will listen and be easily swayed to his views. The audience will further develop trust with his beliefs when he explains factory farms are the cause of his animal free diet. He states it is an easy choice because there are meat free alternatives to everything. Preceding this statement are pictures of colorful, and appealing meat free dishes. Glover also notes its many advantages by saying “it has benefited every area of my life”. In addition to the advantages, he remarks of knowing his lack of factory farm consumption has improved his physical, mental, and spiritual manner. He further upholds his credibility by announcing 15 million other Americans are following suit with this lifestyle choice. The graphics shown with this information are of six incredibly successful and well known celebrities the audience is to presume maintains this lifestyle. Finally, he backs up all of this information by including the American Dietetic Association’s assessment of partaking in a meat free diet. For which the association confirms the benefits of this lifestyle choice. By providing his familiarity and knowledge about factory farms, Glover provides evidence of his dietary lifestyle. This evokes trust with his audience beyond his credibility dependency as a celebrity.
Glover also demonstrates kairos and logos to help persuade his audience. The kairos and logos are reflected when he references all the factory farms he is presenting, with a statement to each claiming these are how most farms are operated. Small, large, local and organic farms included. This suggestion indicates everyone is partaking in factory farms, therefore committing animal cruelty on a daily bases. Through this, Glover is implying the only way to escape this form of animal cruelty is through an animal free diet. If an individual were to succumb to this type of diet, he states 31 animals would be saved from the brutal conditions of factory farms.
Glover not only uses the context of his video to sway the viewers but the logical organization of the video is beneficial for his intended purpose as well. He introduces each factory farm by initializing pleasing animal facts for the given specie of that farm. Glover then describes the daily conditions and hardships the factory farmed animals face regularly. Lastly, he provides information on ending this form of animal cruelty by initiating an animal free diet. Given that factory farms are a timely matter and that this presentation of the farms was done in a logical manner provides additional convincing material for Glover’s argument.
With Glover’s proven credibility and his consistent persuasion through timeliness and logic, Glover has his audience basically sided with him, but with the addition of pathos he ultimately wins the audience over. His harsh reality check and word choice adds a lot of emotion to the video. Consistently describing an animal’s slaughter with the phrase “still alive” and commenting on daily cruelty with words such as grinding, slit, rupture, pop, slammed, gassed, sliced, crippled, crushed, and mutilations tend to sicken the audience. He also describes the animal’s enclosures with the repeated words and phrases: barely move, never outdoors, crammed, packed, and filthy. He further engulfs the audience in an emotional nose dive with the footage used in the video. The images are extremely graphic and the video has recently added a disclaimer a viewer must sign in to, to prove they are of age to watch the short film. With this footage Glover confirms his seemingly impossible facts. He shows the viewers the filth, overcrowded enclosures, and multiple mutilations. Not only are the viewers faced with seeing the horror, they are hit with sound. They can hear the screams and torture the animals endure from un-medicated castration, branding, tail chopping, and de-beaking. The audience still cannot catch a break as the video displays the brutal animal slaughters and death because an animal is too small or was born the wrong gender. This footage exploits disgusting human ethics. It displays acceptance of throwing male baby chicks into a machine to be then grinded up alive, cutting and ripping apart fish as they too are still alive, slitting chicken’s throats in front of the “next in line” chickens, and the list goes on. Death based on discrimination of size and gender is also witnessed by the audience, providing some of the most heart wrenching aspects of the video. A couple references to these scenes include a mutilated baby chick in a bucket of gore, drowning but straining to stay afloat and alive. Another extremely difficult scene is watching a piglet repeatedly getting smashed against the concrete floor, then being thrown against the wall where it lays on the floor moving its legs as if trying to run away. With the facts, sounds, and images the audience is engulfed in emotion. To further establish pathos in the audience music is added to the video. During the portions of the video where Glover introduces the individual animals, describes that specie, and promotes going animal free the accompanied music is calm and suggests that of a church choir. This selected music appeals the audience into becoming motivated about this topic and prompts them to partake in helping the animals. When the video turns into a graphic massacre involving the facts and images of factory farms the music sounds of a percussion ensemble with a heavy beat. This music is chosen to boost pathos in the audience by not only overwhelming them with information and appalling video scenes but with the music as well. Pathos is the key factor for this topic and the video did an exceptional stimulation of it for their audience.
With the coverage of factory farming, the video easily swayed the audience as intended. It provided informative facts, reasoning, and evidence to get the audience on board with the notion that factory farms are unethical. Although the main purpose of the video is to promote an animal free diet, which is indeed done in an effective manner, but in my opinion the average audience member will believe this principle is too strict and too “over the top” to commit to. But with the backbone of the topic strong, the video completely advocates the cruelness of factory farms, which in turn spreads awareness of the topic and prompting viewers to become involved and to take part in small changes to help better the lives of factory famed animals.