In the essay Stooping to Conquer: Why Candidates Need to Make Fun of Themselves by Elizabeth Kolbert the argument about whether a candidate making fun of themselves has a positive ornegative effect on their campaign is discussed. Many examples of presidential candidates using comedy to poke fun at mistakes they have made throughout their candidacy or in a previous office.
The purpose of this argument is to try to explain to the population in America that actually cares about politics why it seems as if America is taking politics so lightly by putting candidates on comedy shows to make fun of themselves. This essay also presents the idea that the purpose of candidates doing this is to show that they are real people. If a candidate is elected they are going to get a lot more ridicule and criticism one they are in office and America needs to know that they have sense of humor and the criticism they receive will not affect their efficiency in the job.
The target audience for this paper is the voters in America that do not understand why candidates do this or for what reason they think it is necessary to do these shows. Mainly this audience would consist of older people because a majority of young people watch these shows and find them to be funny. What the author is trying to make her audience understand is that news shows are not the only programs that can inform voters about the election and these comedy series are a large source of information to the younger voters.
At the beginning of the essay the author gives many examples of candidates, both past and present, that have used humor to promote their campaign. She also gives of examples well known speech writers that make the candidates crack jokes during the speech to win over their audience. One of his most famous works was a song he wrote for Mrs. Reagan that changed America’s view of her. Nearing the end of this essay there are a lot of quotes and statistics about how America’s 92 million television viewers learn about the presidential election, which is almost as high as the amount of viewers that get their information from news shows.
I think the questions you have picked to focus on go well with the topic you choose. I think the point you made about the audience was right on because it seems that when candidates use humor it confusing older voters while younger voters love it.
ReplyDeleteFor your final essay I definitely think you should elaborate on the purpose and audience the most. Since your last question is all about facts it will flow in with your first two questions (purpose and audience).
I, too, like the idea of writing about the intended audience for this piece, but remember that if you focus on this idea, you'll need to elaborate on why the audience is who it is and how the writer writes for this audience.
ReplyDeleteYou also mention examples that the author uses; what about them? how are they used? You can probably do a lot with this line.