Sarah Palin's Rhetorical Skills

Regardless of your political beliefs, it is hard to deny that Sarah Palin is a highly followed political figure in today’s media. The way she uses rhetoric in her speeches and media responses is very unique and worthy of analysis. Voice infliction is a way that a listener can identify what a speaker’s emotions are regarding a particular topic they are speaking about. Palin uses different pitches in her voice, pertaining to what message she is lobbying for, and how she wants her point to come across. She does an excellent job of slowing down her speech, and raising her voice slightly when she really wants a point to be heard. For example, from her response to President Obama’s State of the Union Address, Palin was trying to poke fun at the acronym, “W.T.F.,” which is used in popular culture to indicate a feeling of disbelieve in a negative connotation. By poking fun at Obama’s acronym, Palin is using her language to strike a feeling of comedy in her response, and also she is connecting to a younger audience of listeners, who have grown up in a political world filled with popular satirists, such as John Stewart and Stephen Colbert. She is also trying to convince her listening audience of how ludicrous some of the current government’s policies are in her opinion. In my opinion, people look for comedy in every aspect of life, especially when watching the television. Politics is a very serious business, but comedy seems to take away some of the strain from the very hostile environment that political talk shows encompass.

              Palin also mixes up the rhetorical devices as she continues to speak. Mixing up the style of speaking keeps the message fresh and vibrant. It is very hard to keep someone’s attention for a prolonged period of time, but Palin seems to be affective in keeping her words and pattern of speech fresh and unpredictable. Palin catches a lot of flack in the media for stirring up drama and for playing the “ loving mother figure,” card too frequently, but she does an excellent job of staying in the spotlight. If she didn’t use rhetoric effectively, Palin would not be called back to speak on political news programs week after week. 

Works Cited:

Author Unknown. Copyright 2007-2008. Last Updated January 28, 2011. Accessed January 28, 2011.

<http://www.wisepolitics.com/sarah-palin-slams-barack-obama-state-of-the-union-speech-2011-3219.html/comment-page-1>

The Colbert Report

The Colbert Report is an extremely fascinating piece of comedy and satire. Aside from host Stephen Colbert’s very comedic message, lies an intricate and very well executed amount of rhetoric. Rhetoric can be defined as a way of using language persuasively, which is exactly what Colbert does. He has the ability to act and say one message that is understood to be in favor of an opposing side to politics. For example, in the most recent episode of the show from January 19^th, Colbert analyzes the choice made to throw a black tie affair at the White House, in which the President of China was invited. Colbert was trying to make the point that we shouldn’t be throwing fancy dinners for foreign delegates, especially when we owe foreign nations over a trillion “China bucks.” Although his point came across very humorously, it seems as though his strategy of giving criticism in conjunction with humor seems to work in this case. He further adds to his point by saying that the dinner should have been a, “sweatpants potluck.” He enhances the rhetoric of this phrase by dropping in tone and slowing down his speech. Colbert seems to have speaking down to a science, because he knows when to emphasize words, which carry a great importance. He could have simply said, “The White House shouldn’t be throwing ridiculously expensive parties,” but by adding humor to his point, he adds entertainment to what could be considered a boring lecture.

An interesting part of Colbert’s rhetoric is the way he stresses certain words to give effect. Like we talked about in class, the way that a person talks can affect the way a message is portrayed. The way Colbert uses a very serious tone naturally and drops the tone of his vice dramatically to make a point is very interesting. From what I can tell, it seems that Colbert raises his tone of voice when a point seems rather absurd, and he wants the audience to understand how ridiculous it seems.

Works Cited:
1995-2011 Comedy Partners. The Colbert Report. Accessed January 20, 2011.
<http://www.colbertnation.com/full-episodes/thu-january-20-2011-chris-matthews>