Assignment 11: Rhetorical Analysis and Explaining Choices

1.To what is the composer drawing the audience attention? What might the composer be able to overlook by focusing the audience attention in this way?

I think that Stein is drawing the audience attention towards technology and how it is slowly becoming more human like. This makes it hard to determine whether or not consumers are thinking and acting independently. The composer might be overlooking the impression of consumers as creating the catalysts for making the revolution of technology a reality. Stein makes an allusion to George Orwell's "1984" in order for her audience to see how the production of new technology and the introduction of the MacIntosh is a method  which strongly persuades consumers of the ideals which drives advertising. "The incantations of the voice emanating from the screen recall the Newspeak of the novel, a form of ideological brainwashing that ruthlessly curtailed the words permitted expression in the totalitarian society of 1984" (Stein 292).I think that Stein is illustrating to her readers that Apple will save consumers of IBM and revolutionize the extension os personal computing to the home. I feel that Stein makes the comparison of Apple to that of an authoritarian state in her analysis because it shows readers that the media functions to constrain individuality in which I feel afflicted.

2. What role does the author take toward the audience? Is the composer acting as a lecturer, a parent, a peer, a friend? Is this role appropriate for the purpose?

I think that Stein is acting in the role of a teacher in order to share how advertisements in the media are constructed in such way that changes or gives the audiences a certain perspective or is strongly influenced to have a specific belief about what ever is being shown to the public. I think that this role is appropriate because it allows readers to understand how the media functions to influence everyday decisions that we make. Playing the role of the teacher gives insite to the audience and allows them more opportunity to think as an individual not apart of the controlled masses. In this case, Stein's purpose in writing about the MacIntosh ad is explaining how Apple promises freedom and revolution through new technology in personal computing and how the production of new technology prolongs this cycle of indoctrination. Stein references Benjamin's theory om reenchantment in order for her readers to see how Apple calls on the ideals of freedom and revolution in order to maintain consumer interests in new technology."In 1984, the emergence of a new form of computer that was to revolutionize the consumer market called on new ways of representing reenchantment" (Stein 296). I never really took much thought into the intentions that the media presents to me as a consumer of society. I am bothered that it's almost as if I am being abused and taken advantage of because all of these companies purposefully makes defective products because they know that eventually I will have to buy something in replace of it. Stein uses Benjamin's theory of re-enchantment in an ever evolving technological society which convinced me that we are naive and easily influenced by the way in which things are presented to us.
o 3.What claims, reasons, and warrants are explicit or implied in the text? 
 In the 1984 MacIntosh Ad, the claim that Stein makes is that technology is not what controls he people, but it is the discourses and false impressions for which technology is advertised that calls  on consumer ideals and places them in a state of allure. A writerly choice that Stein makes is the distinction between the ideal of revolution and freedom that is presented to consumers and their ability to think as independents that are spellbound by these ideals. A question that Stein poses says, "Is advertising a reflection of society?" (291). To answer that,"The tensions and ambivalence so often present in dreams of technological salvation and enchantment are strongly evident here: the dehumanized and brainwashed legions of workers, their bodies as broken as their minds are shackled, alienated from their surroundings and each other, mesmerized by the lure and cadence of new technology" (Stein 292). I feel almost as if I am restrained and feel like I am a prisoner to my ideals. I feel like that is what guides making everyday decisions in life. An example would be that if I go to college I will have a better living and make more money. I think that this is an ideal that many are socialized into. In all honesty, this is only part of the reason but more so I am in college so that I can have a career that I actually enjoy doing and have fun with. I feel that Stein identifies humans as agents becoming more mechanized by the formation of new technology because we have to socialize to the ever changing ways of the world or we would not survive.

I think that all of these paragraphs will work together in showing how the emergence of new technology and the ideals that it presents are based on consumer expectations which propels their minds and ability to act individually but at the same time while being prisoners in their own minds. The argument that Stein makes is that Apple is not controlling consumer choices, it is the consumer ideals and expectations that controls the decisions they make, and in this case, it's about technology. Consumers are always developing new expectations for better and more efficient technology in replacement of the old and what they consider to be non-beneficial to one's own life anymore. Society is always developing newer technology and as this development continues, so also does the idea that the answer to problems is new technology. I feel that Stein     defines how the MacIntosh is a mirror image of consumer expectations in which we become prisoners to our own minds.

Group Work Reflection

We were working together pretty well. I felt like we did well working with each others ideas and perhaps seeing how they flow together and make sense of the section that we were focusing on. However, I still felt as though looking back at the essay may have been a little bit overwhelming. The group I was in was a little bit quiet and I did feel as though I had to make the effort into getting others to participate when everyone got silent. I think that working with others' ideas can offer a different view ad help us understand or look at the text in a different way that helps us understand the text and help us write better essays.

One Pager Analyses

1. (Analysis of Ad) 

What interested or grabbed my attention was the fact that they said that workers are becoming more roboticized and that people are materializing their fears. I feel that machines are slowly taking over jobs and other processes that humans do the work for because they rely on that work in order survive and make a living. I see how the media proposes such ideals as a method used to bring in consumers and maintain them with new products once old ones become defective. The fear that machines are becoming more human is real because as technology changes, so does the way we access jobs, people, and etc. It's like people are forced to having to adapt to the new standards and use of technology in order to survive or make a living. I think that Stein uses so many references instead of being blunt in her essay to show different audiences how it relates to them because not everyone necessarily thinks in similar ways about her essay. This groups ideas works with my own groups ideas because Apple is providing a false image that they are going to give freedom and control through personal computing when in actuality consumers are still being brainwashed that the production of new technology in place of the old will solve all problems.

2. (The Rhetorical Context of the 1984 Ad)

What intrigued me is the part of this one pager that said that this new breed of ads is effective in grabbing and keeping the consumer's attention and requiring them to decipher obscure symbols and narratives. I think that Apple has constructed the ad from a consumer perspective that portrays the idea of a major shift in new technology allowing the user to have full control of what they do. A question that I thought of was, are the consumers really making their own decisions in using this new technology or are they still being strongly persuaded/brainwashed into believing the ideals that the MacIntosh Ad is trying to present? The question that this group raised is advertising a reflection of society or is society a reflection of advertising?. I think that Stein includes this quote in order to think about the intentions for which advertisements have towards presenting them to consumers for self-gain. I think that society is a result of advertising because in some way or another they were influenced by an ad or some form of media the ideals that they are presented with will some how change their lives in one way or another. I see this groups ideas working with our groups ideas because the way in which the MacIntosh ad is presented shows that consumers are just an object to which technology is an extension of the underlying forced conditions of technology.

Ideas or Concerns
I am still unsure of Stein's stance on the MacIntosh ad. She talks about the ad and uses so many references that it's hard to see or define exactly how she feels and her purpose in the ad.

How does the reference to Blade Runner relate to the 1984 MacIntosh ad?

An idea that I thought of in analyzing the one pagers is perhaps Apple is wanting to overthrow IBM and become the new "big" company and become the new "IBM"  in which consumers are being brainwashed through false pretenses into using Apple technology.

Tentative Controlling Purpose
I think that advertisements work in order to construct people's thoughts which subjects them to the restraints of the technology.