Kogan Klein

COM 210-020

4/4/17

Blog #2

A Country Divided

            This election is one of the most controversial and upbringing ones in the history books. Many people are shocked and passionate about their opinions and beliefs when it comes to being either a republican or a democrat. The United States of America is now more divided as a country than ever, whether you’re all for Trump or not, there’s many different sides to a “story” and many different persuasive attempts to get others to side on a specific one. Therefore, dividing us all even more. President Trump’s new enforcement on the illegal immigration policy has caused a mixed and competing uproar with all people of this country.

            Washington Post author Kelly Riddell came out with an article titled, “Social warriors, sometimes.” This side is told by a strong conservative news source and will be addressing the issue of a 14-year-old girl getting gang raped while attending high school by two illegal immigrants. This article explains the gruesome details of this case and compares them to the Duke Lacrosse Team’s brutal gang rape scandal and also the University of Virginia’s “Jackie” scandal. Of the three that were reported only one was true, which was the 14-year-old high school girl who was raped (Riddell, 2017).  The media was quick to cover the scandals of Duke’s Lacrosse Team and the University of Virginia’s scandal that were both proven not guilty. Yet with the case of the gang rape for this girl was barely covered and was proven true.

            “Yet, the story has received scant attention in the mainstream media. Yes, conservative-leaning Fox News has covered it exhaustively, but The New York Times and CNN only gave it a mention after it came up at a White House press briefing this week. The major broadcast Networks of CBS, NBC, and ABC, haven’t given it any airtime in their nightly news coverage” (Riddell, 2017).  This article gives the readers all of the facts of the scandals in the past and the real case that happened in silence. “It might become clear, liberals are social-justice warriors for some, but not for all. That they pick sides. So where’s the justice in that?” (Riddell, 2017).

            US News author, Gabriel Levy wrote an article titled, “Trump’s Immigration Speech Backfires With Latinos.” This side is told be a strong liberal perspective regarding President Trump’s attempt to win over the Hispanic voter population and support. "When I met Donald Trump he was going to approach this issue with a realistic plan, a compassionate plan, with a plan that was not disruptive to the immigrants that were here that were not lawbreakers. What I heard today was not realistic and not compassionate,” said Jacob Monty, a member of Trump's Hispanic Advisory Council. This article only really gives one side of the story, making Trump appear to be the “bad, white supremacist” instead of allowing the audience to make their own opinions. This article did a great job o explaining all that Trump did not do and had very little to say about what he accomplished.

            Both of these articles are a great example of todays divided America. Even though the US News article was before the election in September of 2016, you can already see the divide in America take place.

           

Work Cited:

Levy, G. (2016, September 01). Trump's Immigration Speech Backfires With Latinos. Retrieved April 04, 2017, from https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-09-01/trumps-immigration-speech-backfires-with-latinos

Riddell, K. (2017, March 23). Social warriors, sometimes. Retrieved April 04, 2017, from http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/mar/23/rape-at-maryland-high-school-shows-need-for-greate/

Response 1

Kogan Klein
COM 210-020
3/24/17
Blog #1 Response 

Response 1

In response, I think I definitely need to look towards more extreme sources from the right side and left side such as your examples given. Because immigration is a central topic in President Trump's campaign, this immigration topic is important to me, and I know getting both sides to the immigration issues will help me get a better grasp of it. I will work on making my context not so broad and generalized, by addressing the correct and specific audiences. I now understand that every article has a particular viewpoint even if it "sounds both sided" I need to make sure of it rather than saying that an article is neutral. I need to better assess and thoroughly examine every article carefully. 

You mentioned using the extreme sources more such as the Huffington Post and VOX. I chose to do VOX and noticed it is extremely left sided and liberal. The persuasive techniques and approaches VOX news used were the appeal of emotions on the audience. They state real facts regarding under the Amendments from the 1st Amendment, the 14th Amendment, and the 5th Amendment. They state, “Under the First Amendment, there should be no laws “respecting an establishment of religion” or “prohibiting the free exercise” of religion. The 14th Amendment’s command that government shall not make or enforce laws which deny to any person “equal protection of the laws,” added to the Constitution after the Civil War, was made applicable to the federal government through the Fifth Amendment; those provisions are also likely to inform the Ninth Circuit’s decision”
(Robson, 2017). I noticed in many left sided articles, that the author tends to play on the audiences emotions, especially for the topic of immigration. Usually incorporating many sob stories of immigrant’s family members being deported and all the hardships that comes with it. 
Another source you mentioned in your comment was the Weekly Standard, which is mainly right sided and conservative. I noticed they stated mainly facts rather than opinions for the Weekly Standard, but were very biased on their views. “In 2013, the Obama administration admitted just 36 Syrian refugees. Thirty-six! And that was more than during the years before. To put this in context, the U.N. Refugee Agency says that since 2011, "Fifty Syrian families have been displaced every hour of every day” (Kane, 2017). I think Kane placed this quote and statement in this article to show that President Trump is doing what many presidents have already done before in the past. Maybe President Trump puts it in a more direct and morally wrong way, but President Obama did it in the past too in 2013. 

The immigration ban on President Trump is not just directing to the “illegals” but it is also enforcing many religious groups such as Muslims to feel not welcomed and feared in the “melting pot” we call The United States of America. 

Sources:

Robson, R. (2017, February 07). A constitutional expert explains the issues at stake in Trump's travel ban. Retrieved March 22, 2017, from http://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2017/2/7/14537716/trump-court-immigration-constitution-refugee-ban

Kane, T. (2017, March 17). The Immigration Crackdown, or Crack-up? Retrieved March 22, 2017, from http://www.weeklystandard.com/the-immigration-crackdown-or-crack-up/article/2007264#!

Kogan Klein
COM 210-020
2/24/17
Blog #1

Trump's New Vision

Most Americans are still shocked from this year's presidential election. Many are supportive of President Trump's new visions and ideas, while others...not. A recent movement President Trump's administration purposed was the idea of enforced deportation of illegal immigrants, regardless if they are criminals or hard workers (Shear, M. D., & Nixon, R., 2017). “President Trumps states that, the No. 1 priority is that people who pose a threat to our country are immediately dealt with” (Shear, M. D., & Nixon, R., 2017). Obama’s administration made a policy towards illegal immigrants stating that those undocumented immigrants convicted of a serious crime be deported. Now President Trump’s new enforcement is not only the criminal undocumented immigrants deported, but also all illegal aliens that are not a citizen of the United States of America. President Trump’s new enforcement on the illegal immigration policy has caused a mixed and competing uproar with all people of this country.

This isn’t just your basic liberal versus conservative battle we have going on here, this is a battle for people's lives, people's workers, and their children's futures. Americans for this new immigration policy are supportive of Trumps actions towards illegal immigration. They believe that these illegal aliens are taking “advantage of the system” by not paying the proper taxes, taking our jobs, and causing uncommitted crimes. Americans against Trumps new policy state that the illegal immigrates work the hard labor jobs which “real Americans” do not want.

The demographics being targeted here are the Latin Americans and Mexicans. In the article, “New Trump Deportation Rules Allow Far More Expulsions” by the New York Times, aims for the target audience, called the moderates. Your moderate audience is usually uninformed, apathetic, or yet to form an opinion on a current issue. The New York Times stayed generally neutral towards this topic, which is beneficial to any audience, especially the target one. “A fact sheet released by the Department of Homeland Security said, using the acronym for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “All of those present in violation of the immigration laws may be subject to immigration arrest, detention, and, if found removable by final order, removal from the United States” (Shear, M. D., & Nixon, R., 2017).  The above quote is an example of the authors’ having a non-bias view, stating only the factual information given to them. Persuasion over politics is difficult and it is often hard to be objective. Overall, this article stayed neutral, letting the audience make their own decisions for themselves about what is right and wrong. The techniques this article used were more of an informative speech rather than pure persuasion by informing the public on this new immigration policy stating actual facts and quotes from the Trump administration rather than talking about their own opinion.

NBC NEWS article titled, “Trump Enforcement Plan Has Immigrants Bracing for Raids, Deportation” by Suzanne Gamboa was the second article read. After reading this article, Gamboa inflicted her liberal views in many of this articles information. Many of her quotes were about how bad this policy is and how against people are towards it. “I think they are otherwise law abiding people and the new administration is broadening the scope so much, they are under threat and they are afraid of coming out (into public areas) even a little bit” (Gamboa, 2017). She did not get all sides of the story and instead got biased yet credible sources. NBC NEWS is targeting the sympathetic audience who already agree with the speaker’s views. NBC NEWS used a minor form of the Mere Exposure Theory as well. 

Both articles are informative about Trump’s new immigration vision. The New York Times stayed neutral therefore targeting the moderate audience while NBC News stuck with the liberal views of the sympathetic audience, who already agree with the speaker.

Work Cited:

Gamboa, S. (2017, February 21). Trump enforcement plan has immigrants bracing for raids, deportations. Retrieved February 22, 2017, from http://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/trump-enforcement-plan-has-immigrants-bracing-raids-deportations-n723771

        

Shear, M. D., & Nixon, R. (2017, February 21). New Trump Deportation Rules Allow Far More Expulsions. Retrieved February 22, 2017, from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/21/us/politics/dhs-immigration-trump.html?_r=0