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Running head: RHETORICAL ANALYSIS OF CHILD ABUSE MEDIA

Rhetorical Analysis of Child Abuse Media

Alejandro Solis

The University of Texas at El Paso

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Introduction

Child abuse has always been an issue throughout the world and because of this, there will

always be media that will advocate for its awareness. The Dave Thomas Foundation for

Adoption uses an infographic and the Child Crisis Center of El Paso uses a billboard however,

both advocate against child abuse and each uses a different type of communication to effectively

spread child abuse awareness. This paper will be an analysis of the two medias, in how the

rhetors use the three rhetorical appeals, depict who the audience is, why there is an urgency to

spread child abuse awareness, and finally, analyze the constraints of the communications.

Figure 1. (Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, 2012)

Figure 2. (Child Crisis Center of El Paso, 2013)

Logos

The infographic represented by the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption contains

aspects of logic that present strong arguments (statistics) and effects that come from child abuse.

The infographic shows that in 2012, there were 3.3 million reports of violence against children

and hundreds of thousands of these children got placed in the foster care system. These studies

state that out of the 251,764 children that were placed in the foster care system, 23,439 were

aged out and were legally emancipated. Because of this, 25% experienced PTSD, 71% of women
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became pregnant by the time they turned 21, less than 3% earned a college degree, only half

were employed by the age of 24, and one in five of these adults became homeless after they left

the foster care system (Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, 2012). These long-term effects

were all causes of early child abuse. CNN also commented on this issue stating, Considering the

trauma these children have endured at a young age, the moves from foster family to foster family

and the abandonment they feel, it's no wonder they are at a higher risk for a grim future

(Soronen, 2014).

The logos of the April Child Abuse Prevention Month billboard were present however,

they were subtle. The logic of the billboard was simply the structure of the message, Every

child deserves a loving childhood (Child Crisis Center of El Paso, 2013). This message was an

appeal to reason that tried to convince its audience to prevent and advocate against child abuse as

well as convinced people to give every child a loving childhood.

Ethos

The infographic also had strong ties to the appeal of ethos. It was a credible source not

only because it was based on statistics, but also because CNN and the Dave Thomas Foundation

for Adoption advocated for the infographic. CNN is a worldwide news organization, with 39

bureaus, reaching to over 1 billion people and 200 countries. It has also been a more trusted

network than FOX News and MSNBC. The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption which began

in 1990 persuaded everyone from the outside world to employees, to adopt for the benefit of

children. It gained national attention and even established a Dave Thomas Foundation in Canada.

The infographic was not only credible within itself, but also from the supporting media it had.

The April Child Abuse Prevention Month Billboard also established credibility. The

Child Center of El Paso presented a billboard similar to this one every year during the month of
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April. The Child Crisis Center of El Paso is a non-profit organization that began in 1980 which

protects children aging from newborns to the age of thirteen. The Child Center of El Paso also

had plenty of supporters such as the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, the

Criminal Justice Division of the Texas Governors office, and many more.

Pathos

The infographic also had many, but subtle appearances of pathos. This infographic

highlighted words such as: safety, family, and home. The pictures were also used to strike

emotion in the audience. For example, the statistic that stated that one in five would become

homeless used a picture with four houses and one box, which caused the emotion sadness to

occur in the audiences eyes. The employment statistic also represented that only half of the

young adults exiting the foster care system would receive a check and the other half would seek

help from the government (EBT card). Also the graduation cap was shown as barely filled

representing the small amount of people that would receive an education and the pregnancy

statistic which was represented by a pie chart, showed the percentage of the women that would

become pregnant by the age of 21. Finally, PTSD was represented by one out of four brains that

was different from the rest showing the trauma in the brain of the affected child (Child Crisis

Center of El Paso, 2013).

The billboard finally appealed to emotion which contained aspects of pathos. The biggest

appeal to emotion was the picture of a mother kissing and holding her baby in her arms. This

would not only cause a joyful and pleasant feeling for the audience, but also guilt for those

people that were perpetrators of child abuse. The other appeal to emotion was the statement of

the billboard. The message also caused the audience to think about how they treat their own

children, advocate to give other children a better childhood, and to spread awareness.
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Rhetors/Audience

The rhetors of both the billboard and the infographic presented their message using

different medias in order to attract their target audiences. The rhetors of the billboard for

example, created their billboard using appeals to attract their driving audience. They were quick

and precise to present their message of child abuse using pictures that appealed to emotion while

using a minimal amount of words that the audience would be able to read in time before they

passed the billboard. The infographic, on the other hand, was more informative. The rhetors of

this infographic knew that they would be able to present their statistics because their audience

was made up of people that were in the know of child abuse and had the time to study the

infographic.

Exigency

When the rhetors created the infographic and billboards about child abuse awareness,

they were prompted, for some reason, to represent the issue in the way they did. The creators had

a sense of urgency to spread the word using different types of media because child abuse was an

important issue in the United States and in the world. Child abuse, now more than ever, needs to

be given attention to. There are physical, mental, and emotional effects of child abuse. The

infographic stated the fact that because of child abuse, hundreds of thousands of children are

separated from their families, are entered in foster care, and experience grim futures. The

infographic was an advocate against child abuse, for protecting those in the foster care system as

well as for those who had been legally aged out, all for the best interest in the child. The

billboard also demonstrates the urgency, during the month of April, of giving every child a

happy childhood. However, both types of media had restraints that stopped them from attempting

to spread their message.

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Constraints

These types of medias both contained restraints that kept them from spreading their

messages. For example, the Child Crisis Center of El Pasos billboard was only displayed using a

minimal amount of words, only displayed during the month of April, and did not spread child

abuse awareness for the rest of that year. Another constraint of the billboard was the time of day.

The time of day also affected the effectiveness of this billboard because during certain hours of

the day it was not visible unless it was well lit at night. Finally, the infographic had constraints of

its own. The infographic presented data that had been taken from the year of 2012 and could not

address how child abuse had increased over these past five years. It was also not in effect

because of how long ago it was created. No one has quick access to looking at this infographic

and it is not presented under peoples noses anymore. However, because child abuse has always

been an issue and continues to be one, there will always be different methods child abuse

awareness is spread.

Conclusion

My infographic and billboard presented by the Dave Thomas foundation for Adoption

and the Child Crisis Center of El Paso, of which I chose to analyze, were both able to efficiently

present their message. The rhetors effectively caught their audiences attention using the

rhetorical appeals because they found the urgency to create their media however, there were still

restraints in their attempts. The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption and the Child Crisis

Center of El Paso had credibility and support from a variety of different sources, they used

emotion to attract the audiences attention, and finally used logic to fully grasp their attention

and possibly even gained their support. These organizations knew how to grab the attention of

their audiences and used this as an advantage to gain support for the issue of child abuse.
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References

Child Crisis Center of El Paso (2013). April is Child Abuse Prevention Month. [image] Available

at: http://www.recastingthesmelter.com/wp

content/themes/recastingasarco/images/billboard-child-crisis-center-may-2013.jpg

[Accessed 15 Oct. 2017].

Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption (2012). The long term effects of abused children aging

out foster care. [image] Available at: https://dciw4f53l7k9i.cloudfront.net/wp-

content/uploads/2014/04/CNN-INFOGRAPHIC.jpeg [Accessed 15 Oct. 2017].

Soronen, R. (2014, April 17). Opinion: We abandon thousands of foster care children a year.

Retrieved October 8, 2017, from http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/16/opinion/soronen-

soronen-foster-children/index.html