1। Think of a well-recognized speech that you are familiar with or would like to read/listen to such as Martin Luther king JR’s I Have a Dream or Cesar Chavez’s Commonwealth Club Address (May be interesting to analyze a speech given in recent history). Each of these speeches had a tremendous impact on a large portion of the population and helped move the respective cause each speaker is fighting for a number of steps further towards its success. In the third chapter of the text “Persuasion and Social Movements,” the authors quote William Gamson who classifies social movements as “struggles over the definition and construction of social reality.” How does the speech you are analyzing construct the social reality at the time it was given? What is the exact problem the speaker addresses and how is language used to create the way the intended audience views the given problem? For example, MLK who is fighting for equal rights in the USA and equal treatment of African-Americans mentions the past by referencing the hardships black people have endured, the present by talking about how very little has changed in a hundred years and how all people are still not treated equally, and finally he mentions the future, which is a portrayal of the results of his present suggestions as to how to move forward in the success of the movement. This is an essential with which MLK changes the perception of social reality and helps drive people to fight for change.
2। In chapter seven of PaSM, slogans are defined as “definitive statements of the social movement’s truths and rely on audience dispositions to achieve expected responses.” Choose a cause you would choose to fight for today. Based on your chosen cause, what would be your target population? What slogan would you use? Would you use humor, would you use shocking language, etc.? Which type of slogan do you presume would be most effective to reach and affect people – sanctioned or advertising; or would you rather create a spontaneous slogan?
3. Look at the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy (check out this Washington Post article http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/17/AR2006021702499.html). Would you consider this an attempt at a social movement or a media-created controversy? What characteristics could indicate a beginning of a social movement? Could one of the reasons of its inability to create an alternate discourse around the representation of Islam in western media be that the Muslim population is not prepared for this turn in history? Does the journalist’s work indicate that the attention it received was intentional? Share your thoughts on this controversy and whether or not the media is a proper means through which to begin a fight for a social movement.
