Pro-life campaign

As we learned from Chapter 1 of The Digital Writer, the choice of medium is an important part of the author’s message, as it reflects on the author’s character, contributing to his/her ethos. The ethos is apparent in the way that the message was chosen to be displayed, on a public billboard overheard in a high-traffic area, making it clear that the authors were trying to reach the broadest audience possible. This represents their belief in their cause, as they assume the message will resonate with all who pass by it, and therefore their credibility is established by their egocentric approach. It is clear that the pathos in this example is an appeal to pity, as the message “preborn babies feel pain,” is an attempt to invoke an emotional response from the audience. I think this is an example of propaganda because it demonstrates a form of purposeful persuasion aimed at influencing the emotions, attitudes, opinions, and actions of a particular target audience (i.e. the city of Lethbridge) for a political purpose through the controlled transmission of a one-sided message via a mass media channel. I think this is more of a harmful piece of digital rhetoric as opposed to being beneficial, as the message being displayed can potentially trigger an unwanted emotional response from individuals that have experienced past trauma from abortions or failed pregnancies.