Langauge Analysis Practice SAC

[drcrowthorne]

Hi Guys, just posting up a practice SAC for language analysis. My lang analysis sac is this wednesday. Cheers, Dr. Crowthorne.

Facebook, and social media in general has become a prominent factor in the lives of many Australians in recent years; yet, lately begun public disenchantment with the social media platform has had commentators discussing whether Facebook has any merit whatsoever. An article published on on the 11th of February 2013 in The Age's “Comment & Debate” segment, entitled, “Facebook Update: it's become boring, so we need a break”, written by Joanna Weiss, contends in a humorous and informative tone that this societal disenchantment is a natural process of maturations which is ultimately good for society. Weiss appeals to an audience of middle-aged Facebook users and wider users of social media to draw attention to the 'faltering' status of Facebook, and encourage them to connect with each other in a more personal, and valuable way, by leaving Facebook behind. Published in The Age's “Forum” segment on the 16th of June 2012, another article, entitled “Unfriending Persuasion: a heretic wises up to Facebook”, presents the opinion that Facebook violates personal privacy, and is a detestable medium which we should use no longer; furthermore, Bill Keller, the author, appeals to an audience of devout Facebook users, to highlight and criticise Facebook and its operations in a darkly cynical, and dry humoured tone. Lastly, a cartoon by Mike Luckaich published on the website “www.socialmedia.biz”, uses a cynical, witty and skeptical tone to criticise Facebook, and its practice of selling user information to advertisers.

A matter which all these texts address is the nature of privacy concerns on Facebook. Weiss's article describes these initially, using connotations and loaded language. Yet, she dismisses these relatively quickly, for her crucial argument, that Facebook is a platform that enables peoples' lives to be shared, but ultimately these live are of no entertainment value, and generally speaking, “... people are boring ...”. By juxtaposing this with privacy concerns, and minimising the importance of privacy and Facebook, Weiss aims to emphasise her argument, and draw weight to it; her dismissal of privacy concerns persuades the reader that they are not as important as the ultimate failure of transparency associated with Facebook – that is, that it has no entertainment value to the average person, and therefore, this persuades the reader that Weiss's argument and contention are valid. Keller on the other hand discusses the notion of invasion of privacy and its association with Facebook, and its paralleling relationship with the Fairfax media phone-hacking scandal. He begins the article with the repetition of the phrase “... billionaire media mogul ...”, in reference to both Mark Zuckerberg (Creator of Facebook) and Rupert Murdoch respectively. This first draws the reader to the parallel connections, that is, that both Murdoch and Zuckerberg are guilty of the same crime. Furthermore, Keller refers to the two by first name, to diminish their stature. Thirdly, Keller uses highly connotative language, such as “... deplore ...”, “... far greater ...”, and “... surrender ...”, to highlight and emphasise the level of privacy Facebook has cost us' he puts quotation marks around the word 'community' to further the image of Facebook as a farce. This culminates in the reader believing that Facebook, an organisation headed by a detestable leader, is stealing our privacy, and our freedom, on the basis of a farce, that is, that it helps us to connect with each other. This draws the reader to the contention of the author: that Facebook violates personal privacy, and that we ought to give it up. This violation of personal privacy is highlighted in the cartoon as well, which shows a haughty Mark Zuckerberg releasing private information of an apparently benign individual to a wily-looking advertiser, which suggests to the viewer that Zuckerberg has no serious concern with selling highly sensitive and vulnerable information of individuals, thereby setting the reader against him and by extension, Facebook, for this immoral practice.

Maturation and growth away from Facebook's social medium is one matter both articles deal with in a similar fashion. Weiss's focus is on this idea throughout her piece, highlighting the failures, and growing disillusion with Facebook.  Weiss uses a direct address to draw the audience into a personal, rather than a general, discussion; subsequently employing statistics and a subtle allusion to growth and maturity, Weiss aims to describe to the reader that the disenchantment with Facebook, on a person-to-persona level is growing, and is tangible, and that furthermore, it is “... a milestone in our growing relationship with social media...”, and that therefore, it is natural, expected and even to a degree, unstoppable. This suggests to the reader that leaving Facebook behind, Weiss's contention, is a natural step forward. Similar statistics are used by Keller, who suggests tis tangible disenchantment is measured by a “... Reuters/Ipsos poll...”, which suggests we are growing into a “... more mature phase...” of our relationship with social media. Keller however maintains that “... the [Facebook] empire is growing ...”, exponentially, but that it is slowing down, and that it has l;ost its former allure. In a similar manner to Weiss, Keller persuades readers that this process is one of growth and maturation, and he consolidates this with an appeal to authority (as does Weiss).

Lastly, both articles entertain the possibility that Facebook has a purpose; yet, both articles further the contention that this purpose cannot be adequately achieved by Facebook. Weiss uses anecdotal evidence to propose how users can get 'hooked onto' Facebook; yet, she subsequently proposes that some purposes of Facebook, such as “... photos of children and holidays ...” can more valuably be conducted via “... holiday cards ...”, which she believes are more valuable as they are physical, and they require effort to send. By appealing to anecdotal evidence an connotative language, she draws readers to the contention that Facebook is inadequate at this purpose. Similarly, Keller rebuts the purpose of Facebook as a medium for “... protecting dissidents ...”, thereby coaxing readers to his contention that Facebook is useless.

Social media and its impact on society has been heavily debated, and many contentions regarding it, and regarding its invasion of privacy have been put forward. Weiss, Keller and Luckaich all describe Facebook as a useless, dishonest medium, and use appeals to authority, denigration, allusions, connotations and loaded language, and many other persuasive devices to achieve the purpose of convincing their readership of this fact.