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Alejandro Solis
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.
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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RHETORICAL ANALYSIS OF CHILD ABUSE MEDIA
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
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
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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RHETORICAL ANALYSIS OF CHILD ABUSE MEDIA
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
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
Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption (2012). The long term effects of abused children aging
Soronen, R. (2014, April 17). Opinion: We abandon thousands of foster care children a year.
soronen-foster-children/index.html