Week 9 Discussion

Week 9 Discussion Board was regarding answering questions about the video:  "Peter Gabriel Fights Injustice with Video"

1. Who is Peter Gabriel and why is he famous (besides the TED video)?

He is a musician and an activist. In addition he founded WITNESS in 1992.

2. What is Peter Gabriel primary purpose and argument?

Peter Gabriel argument was that if the people around the world, all have a camera, they could use to record and show the rest of the world the conditions they live in. By showing these pictures or videos they would create awareness to the rest of the world and maybe could help to change the way they live in, some of them in extreme poverty.

3. What is WITNESS and how does it go about accomplishing its goals?

WITNESS is an organization that Peter Gabriel created. They give out cameras to activist in different countries so they can engage in journalism. By using this cameras and taking videos to show the rest of the world could create awareness and maybe change the way they live in.

4. What are some techniques that Peter Gabriel uses to engage his audience?

Peter Gabriel uses Pathos which is emotional appeals to engage the audience, by showing video of extreme poverty it causes emotion and keep the audience engaged in the video. Also his tone of voice while describing what could be done by using the cameras and create awareness.

5. How does Peter Gabriel incorporate visuals into his argument? Do you feel it is effective?

Peter Gabriel showed images of extreme poverty as I mentioned earlier and impacts the audience and it creates awareness which is his goal. I think that by showing pictures/video is very effective. As we have talked in class, “a picture is worth a thousand words”. We can be reading an article and have a sense of what the article is about and create a mental image, but if we see an image is more powerful. In this case seen a video I think that is way far more effective in creating awareness.

6. There are two documentary film clips that Peter Gabriel shows in this video? What are they and how

does each clip use ethos, logos, and pathos?

     The first video shows the situation in Uganda and the second one is about his program WITNESS and how the organization is committed to citizen journalism since it grows with people  contributions. 

They use ethos which could be establishing common ground with the reader and if it is trustworthy. So he is trustworthy because he shows in his video interview to people in the village and they translate but he is people from the village where the problem is, he is not just talking about, he is showing proof.

  Pathos is used because the audience as I mentioned earlier gets emotional by hearing the story and seen the video.

  Logos is achieved in these videos because the author uses enough evidence to support his thesis. The videos, the voice, the cameras, the interviews all are proof that the organization is being successful in achieving their goal in creating awareness around the world.

7. Another important aspect of the documentary film assignment is advocacy in addition to

argumentation. What is the difference between advocacy and argumentation? How does Peter Gabriel

advocate in this video?

Advocacy according to Wikipedia  “is a political process by an individual or group which aims to influence public-policy and resource allocation decisions within political, economic, and social systems and institutions. Advocacy can include many activities that a person or organization undertakes including media campaigns, public speaking”.

In Addition, Wikipedia describes argumentation as “the interdisciplinary study of how conclusions can be reached through logical reasoning….Argumentation includes debate and negotiation which are concerned with reaching mutually acceptable conclusions. …Argumentation is used in law, for example in trials”.

After reading the two definitions, I think that Peter Gabriel uses advocacy because by showing he videos he is trying to persuade other people around the world.

8. How does this video relate to our semester topic of citizen journalism? In what ways is what Peter

Gabriel advocating for action based research? Does this give you any ideas for how you want to

approach your topic research and filmmaking?

Well, we talk about citizen journalism and it was said that to be a citizen journalist one has to actively participate in what is going on by using media and let others know about a certain problem. In this case Peter Gabriel is being a citizen journalist by  giving cameras to a  different groups  so they can video tape and or take pictures to raise awareness of things that happen like poverty.  It relates to the topic in our ENGL 1312 class because now we are going to make a video of a topic that concern us, whatever the topic we choose within our group members  like for example Immigration or teen obesity. Both are topics that concern the society we live in and we are going to actively participate by doing a video an reporting about the topic.