Step 1: I decided to look into Washington State's 2012 governor election. The two candidates are Jay Inslee (Democrat), and Rob McKenna (Republican). For this project I will be using the following websites and advertisements to rhetorically analyze each candidate's tactics.
1. Jay Inslee:
a) http://www.jayinslee.com/home
b) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQhdM1GoROQ
c) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAomJutm7L0&list=UUsDVG0KviIAgwx2Z49DopUQ&index=2&feature=plcp
2. Rob McKenna
a) http://www.robmckenna.org/
b) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DF2Jatumaag&feature=plcp
c) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wo0dG_6uIDE&feature=plcp
Jay Inslee's website seems very fresh and different than most of the political campaign websites I've seen. The colors are not the traditional and the photo is very interesting. By playing the video instantly they are able to engage the viewer right off the bat. I'd say the main focus for this one is audience and color. While the YouTube videos focus mainly on the audience.
ReplyDeleteRob McKenna's site is much more traditional and kind of boring because it is just so similar to what we always see in political campaigns. This site sticks to the red white and blue scheme and very typical layout. The main points for this I think are color and alignment. And the videos, again, are focused on engaging the audience.
Sweet that you chose a topic thats so relatable! The multimodal texts you used for Jay Inslee were great. His website right off the bat gave me a sense of trust. All the information is right there and you don't have to do almost any scrolling to find what you're looking for. All the text was very clean. I personally hate when they use a lot of framing and boxiness. The contrast of the site was very appealing and promoted website use. One of your YouTube links didn't work, but the other videos were sweet. Really grasping the emphasis of trust and relation from his audience to him and his campaign.
ReplyDeleteFor Rob McKenna's site, it is exactly what I personally hate and isn't super aesthetically pleasing. The boxes and framing make it seem stiff and uninviting. Like it's a job rather than life. It's also super interesting that in the 'b' video the first issue he talks about is education, because that is really where he struggled with voters previously. His other video was really focus on the family and relation geared, which is great.
I think just finding a common theme running through each candidates videos, websites and even tweets would be a good place to focus.
Good luck !
The most important issues will be audience and context for these two. They are both clearly targeting people who have been struggling without jobs or those most concerned with creating jobs in this state.
ReplyDeleteBoth sites use alignment and sequence to illustrate the most important parts of the site. They start with links and again, place them very close to the slideshows.
Both candidates target their main audience, (washington residents) but do it in different ways. Jay uses a background picture of the waterfront and classic seattle colors like green and blue. Rob sticks to the classic patriotic color scheme but targets the other side of the state with a picture of spokane. I think this contrast is important in revealing who their target audience is.