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Social Media and Political Discourse: A Rhetorical Comparison of Journal and Newspaper
Publications
Annie M. Scholz
With the ever-present influence of social media, news is available instantly at the click of
our fingertips, and while we live for this instantaneous information, its easy for stories to be
misconstrued by the public and media outlets. Recently, the media has been under fire for
pushing certain agendas, and the statements of the President are leading to discourse the scrutiny
of journalists credibility and what should be regarded as fake news. It is vital that the debate
be analyzed across a wide spectrum of publications; I will be analyzing two divergent genres of
publication a newspaper article and a scholarly journal article. Fake News or shooting the
messenger? Addressing media credibility (Blythe, 2017), a newspaper article, and a peer-
reviewed journal article: Journalism, the Pressures of Verification and Notions of Post-Truth in
Civil Society (Martin, 2017) it becomes evident that while they focus on similar subjects, the
articles are geared towards differing audiences, public readers and specialized scholars. With
their intent to reach these specific audiences, Anne Blythe and Nora Martin employ the use of
various rhetorical methods: their personal motivations, ethos, pathos, and logos, and certain
constraints that fault their arguments. In this paper, I will analyze how these rhetorical methods
Blythe (2017), State Politics reporter for the Raleigh, NC-based The News and Observer, tackles
the controversial topic of fake news through coverage of Raleigh, NC Community Voices
forum Fake News the search for credibility. Credibility within journalism and mass media
has become a prevalent issue in American society, and Blythe uses her article to communicate
this information to the general public, who may not be as aware of the issues that surround
journalists. Blythe covers this event to exhibit the opinions of prominent local journalists, whose
careers are at the center of the doubt aimed at all media outlets. Panelists included Steve Daniels,
SOCIAL MEDIA AND POLITICAL DISCOURSE 3
co-anchor and investigative reporter for ABC11, and former Dateline NBC national
correspondent and Rob Christensen, North Carolina politics reporter/columnist for The News and
Observer for 44 years, and author of The Paradox of Tar Heel Politics; she includes detailed
descriptions of each panelists career to help establish her own credibility, as well as theirs
(Blythe, 2017).
Nora Martin (2017), a member of the faculty of Arts and Sciences at the University of
Technology in Sydney, Australia, is a peer reviewed article published in The Cosmopolitan Civil
of gathering information, and how that information affects society alongside social medias
instant gratification for information. As a journalism scholar, Martin directs her argument at the
community of academic scholars. The exigence of the current societal debate over the
trustworthiness of journalists fuels Martins essay as she highlights the long, meticulous process
that journalists must go through to produce factual stories. She emphasizes that journalists
discretion is more vital than ever, in order to keep society informed with the truth: The findings
of this study reveal that we are seemingly living in a post-truth society largely due to the
impact of the changes in journalism and the media marketplace in the digital age it is becoming
increasingly difficult for citizens to separate fact from fiction; journalists thus have a role as
Each of these authors has specific intentions that cater their writing to certain
communities. Blythe, as a political newspaper reporter, wants to get her story out for people to
read. She writes her article in laymans terms, President Donald Trumps repeated
denouncements of some media outlets as purveyors of fake news in a social media age where
SOCIAL MEDIA AND POLITICAL DISCOURSE 4
misinformation is just a mouse-click away (Blythe, 2017). This simplified language makes
her article accessible to any member of the general public. As a journalist, Blythe is naturally
working to disprove the existence of fake news as Donald Trump has portrayed it. While
Blythe acts as an informant and member of the media, Martin writes as scholar and analyst of the
media. Her journal article is written in technical language which is evident from the terms
triangulation and data sources (Martin, 2017), indicating that the article is written for
professionals of the scholarly community, as well as exhibiting her extensive knowledge and
published in an academic journal. With the interdisciplinary nature of the journal, her article will
be read by scholars of other subjects in addition to journalism and media scholars like herself. As
she examines the information practices of journalists, she exposes skills that are useful in
research and assessing the truth, which are skills that can greatly benefit scholars of all
disciplines.
Blythe and Martin both utilize the literary methods of persuasion, ethos, pathos, and
logos, to appeal to their readers. As a reporter for The News and Observer, a well-read
publication in Raleigh, Blythe gains credibility from her employer. Blythes attendance of the
event, and her status as a State Politics reporter, solidify her credibility to her readers. She
includes details of each of the panelists and their careers, and quotes from the panel, establishing
their credibility as presenters. Martins (2017) article is filled with quotations and in-text
citations from the scholars and studies she uses to enforce her argument, with a references page
following her piece. She also concludes the paper with an Acknowledgments subheading, in
which she mentions the peer reviewers that provided insight and advice to solidify her argument.
SOCIAL MEDIA AND POLITICAL DISCOURSE 5
Martins career as an academic and faculty member at a university is evidence of her expertise in
Blythes (2017) article includes the subsection: Politicians battling the media is not
new, in which she uses pathos to appeal to her audience. She details the experience of panelist
Rob Christensen, who was targeted by Republican senator Jesse Helms, a known anti-media
proponent. Christensen was forcibly removed from the 1984 Republican convention by Helms
security: People were standing on chairs yelling throw the bastard out, Christensen said.
And as I was being led out by the sergeant-at-arms, the presiding officer says, The cancer
has been surgically removed (Blythe, 2017). This behavior is vastly like that of President
Donald Trump and his war on media and journalism, which has spurred this worldwide debate
on freedom of the press and credibility within the media. Martin uses a combination of ethos and
logos as she begins her argument with emphasis on the concept of post-truth. This term was
Oxford Dictionaries International Word of the Year last year. The prolonged use of the concept,
and recent accreditation by the well-known academic resource helps her construct a believable
argument. Her use of technical knowledge, and review from peers also provides emphasis that
The contrasting articles by Blythe and Martin both contain constraints. Blythes article
recalls the perspectives of four professional journalists. However, this presents a bias because
these are the people being targeted by the fake news controversy, and they possess the only
opinions that are presented in the article. Essentially this is journalism targeting the credibility of
journalism, which leads readers to expect counterarguments to the existence of fake news. One
subheading of the article reads: Fake news means different things to different people (Blythe,
2017), which challenges the point that she is trying to make that fakes news is more akin to the
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clich of shooting the messenger since the concept is subjective to each person. With the
limited length required for newspaper publications, Blythe cannot possibly illustrate in-depth
detail of the forum, and significant content may be left out. Martins (2017) article is wrapped in
the constraint of academia. Although it serves its purpose as a peer-reviewed publication, it may
only be fully understood by scholars within her field. She often uses professional language, such
consumption in the contemporary media ecosystem. She also refers to studies that individuals
outside of the field are likely to find as complex, and even boring. Martin cites many sources that
are over ten years out of date, which may cause some inaccuracies due to the recent drastic
changes that have been made in technology, and the instantaneous capabilities of social media.
The arguments regarding journalism and media that both Anne Blythe and Nora Martin
pose are extremely relevant to todays political discourse, particularly in the United States where
President Donald Trump has waged a war against the media, and journalists credibility needs to
be upheld. Each authors argument involves motivation, the use of ethos, pathos, and logos, and
constraints that hinder their position. They use these literary properties to target specific
References
Blythe, A. (2017, August 31). 'Fake News' or 'shooting the messenger?' Addressing media
government/state-politics/article170497942.html
Martin, N. (2017). Journalism, the Pressures of Verification and Notions of Post-Truth in Civil
doi:10.5130/ccs.v9i2.5476