Cross-Cultural Blog

Figure 1. Nelson Mandela released in 1990.

The image presented of Nelson Mandela on the opening page portrayed him as a leader, a member of the ANC who is accessible and open to all children and adults & whites and blacks. His left hand in raised in victory as well as a symbol of his left wing sympathies. Mandela's opening remarks reveal his audience as a troupe of supporters, but also perhaps an audience that is on a grander scale: the international interphase. However, his primary audience--because he addresses his ANC relations--is still the large crowd before him. Secondarily, Mandela is addressing all the people around the world, his adversaries as well as his allies.

In the context of his speech, Mandela is just released from prison and is using the opportunity of the speech to acknowledge and express his gratitude for the efforts his supporters--and perhaps his enemies--have made on his behalf thus far. The speech also points out the "irreversible moment" in time that they are suspended in forever--in lieu of film. He is encouraging his supporters to defeat once and for all: totalitarianism.

Mandela's effectiveness lies in his downplaying of his own importance and in presenting himself as a humble and sympathetic man to the needs of The People. Mandela is an accessible character and approachable. He is merely a "servant" of the people who has given a public face to the movement for democracy. Also, Mandela's appeal is very different from those used by e.g. the Iranian authorities addressing their public audiences.

Mandela's speech is very rhetorically loaded, powerful in diction, but encompassing of a wide audience. The humanitarian tone to his voice and speech is universably accessible to all people who believe in freedom and human dignity. The speech also reflects his culture's value for family and bettering the world for future generations.
However, if Mandela were to attempt at appealing at a larger audience: He already has!

But, if he were only targeted at an American audience, he would have perhaps refrained from attributing the movement's success to the aid of specific political parities. For other countries, Mandela's speech would need to adapt not only based on cultural levesl, but also based on the nature of the political regimes in power in that country (i.e. democracy vs. authoritarian, etc.)

Posted by Stanford Globalization Class at 09:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (9) | TrackBacks (0)

A group of us from Sweden, Egypt, and Stanford watched a video excerpt of Benazir Bhutto's speech after the first assasination attempt on her life. Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnMzSmQKj2Q :)

We analyzed the rhetoric of the setting, her dress, and her words. A brief summary of thoughts/observations...

Visual Appearance (Picture of Speaker)
~ A woman, flanked by important looking men - bodyguards, gov. officials - who are protecting her indicate her high status
~ Flashes from news cameras, media coverage emphasizes the event's importance.
Intended audience
~ Audience must international, since she speaks in English.
~ Wears headscarf so as not to be "excessively" controversial; this would appeal to Muslim base
~ Wears white for an angelic innocent look, "halo" effect on television cameras
~ Type of speech - genus judiciale, genus deliberativum(political speech)
~ Exudes confidence in front of Pakistani audience, seemed powerful through her gestures and punctuation (She's very direct and straight to the point, no flowery language.)
~ Her comment about the Muslims not attacking women implies that the government isn't Muslim. (Had the audience been different, or Pakistani, speech might've been more of an appeal.)
Exigency
~ A demand from rest of the world to know what happened. Important to international politics.
~ Oppurtunity to share her own thoughts, opinions.
Ethos of Speaker
~ Ethos from her speech derived perhaps from her idealism and ambitious goals (i.e. "No Muslim would attack a woman.") shows her trust in the Muslim people (trying to help international perception of Muslim)
~ Cultural factors
~ From the invocation of a religion - Islam, Allah
~ Choice of the conservative headscarf as token symbol of her religion, wants to come across as serious
What might she change for a different audience?
~ If it were national Pakistani audience, she might've address the families of the victims first (instead of the events surrounding the assasination incident), discussed the dynamics of Pakistani politics

Posted by Stanford Globalization Class at 02:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (9) | TrackBacks (0)

We had a landmark event in the Cross-Cultural Rhetoric Project today: four universities connected in to offer students from Europe, the Middle East, and America a chance to exchange perspectives on controversial political speeches. We were all so grateful to have students and faculty from Uppsala University, Sweden, Orebro University, Sweden, the American University of Cairo, Egypt, and Stanford University.

It was a chance to learn cross-cultural communication in a hands-on, practical way. How did this happen? As shown in this image from Group A's work in the globally-distributed team, students examined the media-constructed persona and speech of a particular political figure (each group could only do one and at first there was a scramble for who got which speech!).

Then, the students worked through a rigorous rhetorical analysis based on the lesson in rhetoric they had just received from Professor Anders Eriksson, who actually gave his remarks through Marratech while connecting in from Stockholm at the Designs for Learning Conference. (See the Instructor's Blog for more discussion of this conference and our preparation for today)

Finally, students had to practice what they learned and produce a speech about their analysis -- including the key question of the day: "How would the speaker have to change his or her persona or speech or delivery in order to communciate effectively to an audience from another culture?" After each group delivered its presentation, all the other groups gave substantial feedback in the chat box of Marratech -- so it was a true feedback loop and speaking to a real audience.

Look for the group posts with their analysis and their reflections on this experience to appear on the blog very soon -- we welcome your comments and we hope that students, you will offer a continuation of the dialogue with each other on this blog.

Posted by Alyssa O'Brien at 05:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Our group discovered that there's a big difference between looking at an ad, and looking at an ad understanding the doxa behind it. We chose for presentation an ad Frida brought in promoting a Swedish bank/insurance company. It featured a farmer- Swedish equivalent to the American "average Joe" - resting against a haystack in the middle of a field, taking a well deserved coffee break after a morning of work. To Americans, this would've seemed a very unlikely subject for an ad. But apparently, farmers are regarded differently in Sweden. Frida explained that in Southern Sweden especially, farms are still popular, and farmers illustrate the important concept of jante, the traditional belief that one should work hard, should not promote himself above others, should downplay achievements, financial prosperity and otherwise be modest. The ad works in Sweden because viewers there understand jante, the importance of the humble farmer and what he stands for. Thus any business which can provide relief and security to such a man appears to be trustworthy and reliable. Featuring the farmer increased the company's ethos, while appealing to the Swedish viewers' pathos (feelings of positive-ness for farmer who so thoroughly personifies their jante).

~Kyonne, Gemma, Frida, Malin, & Ben-Zhen (Group D)

Posted by Stanford Globalization Class at 09:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0)

Our advertisement is a web based article advertising the "Bratz Movie" premier. The article/ad juxtaposes an image of the Bratz brand dolls with an image of their "real" embodiments as portrayed by the young actresses. The dolls themselves however, represent an exaggerated conception of beauty (i.e. HUGE heads, LONG hair, BIG eyes, TINY waists, ENORMOUSLY pouted lips, MINIATURE noses) that we, as "rational" human beings can obviously see are unattainable. Nevertheless, the ad's target audience--girls approximately 1-10 years old--are not aware of this. Instead, the ad works to perpetuate among this young audience idealisms of beauty that are wholly ridiculous.

As an example of ethos: the ad reifies the grown up culture that all young girls wish to partake of and thus, for the girls stand as ready role models.

As an example of pathos: the attitudes and behaviors of the Bratz characters, so warm and inviting, heroic and fleckless, appeal to a sympathetic audience or at least an audience that believes in the optimism of every day life, that the suppressed & vile and can become unoppressed and likeable characters.

-As penned by Lilian Thaoxaochay, Stanford University, Group B

For the MS Document with selected text: Download file

Bratz Movie Ad

Actual Bratz Dolls

& a Random Internet Creation by an Anonymous Person--Obviously in opposition to the Bratz implicit sexuality in lieu of their young audiences.

Posted by Stanford Globalization Class at 05:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (19) | TrackBacks (0)

We spent so much time discussing the first three advertisements that we never got around to discussing the last two. We have, therefore, included the remaining two for your perusal.

A Nike advertisement charged with cultural and gender-related issues

A provocative image with a new sense of beauty.

"This is Our Country": An All-American advertisement for an All-American truck"

Appeals to pathos through patriotic fervor

Posted by Stanford Globalization Class at 04:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (10) | TrackBacks (0)

Are you kidding me?
I'm drinking back all of the calories I just worked off?

This Propel advertisement appeals to the calorie-counting, diet-conscious individuals of the United States. Based on the gender of the subject that the company has chosen, it is clear that they believe their target audience is your average young American female. It is a direct appeal to pathos. The idea is that if you are tired of working out and fear gaining weight, then you should drink Propel.

It is interesting to note that while we are inclined to think of the subject as fairly healthy given her appearance and her concern with exercise and calories, it is interesting to note that the emphasis on caloric intake is largely cultural. Karin pointed out in our group discussion that a Swedish advertisement would utilize different means to give promote the ethos of a being a company that promotes health and well-being. The Swedish conception of health focuses on quality, not quantity. Organic and fresh foods are preferred over low-calorie synthetic foods. Thus, much of the appeal of this advertisement relies on doxa.

Aside from making the product appear healthy, Propel appeals to ethos by comparing their product to a direct competitor, Vitamin Water. Propel appears to be much healthier, particularly when combined with the citation of exact numbers in an appeal to logos. Propel knows that it takes 2640 steps to work off all the calories accumulated from drinking Vitamin water, so you should trust them when they tell you they have the better product.

Comment if you have more thoughts on this advertisement!

-East and West
(Liese, Vonn, Rahul, Karin, Karen)

Posted by Stanford Globalization Class at 04:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBacks (0)

This Mastercard commercial attempts to appeal to most of the American public by assuming that most Americans understand the stereotypical American values regarding baseball and father-son bonding. Mastercard, a corporation that fully participates in capitalism, demonstrates its ethos in this commercial by acknowledging that in life there are priceless moments that cannot be bought. Since Mastercard understands "priceless moments," using Mastercard for "everything else" now seems justifiable.

Though cultural elements in this commercial are based on general American values and cultural assumptions, it really only maintains an appeal to Americans within specific socioeconomic classes -- that is, typically anglo-American adults who are financially able to use credit cards for leisurely activities such as watching baseball games with their children and buying considerably overpriced American food.

This commercial relies strongly on pathos to sell its product/services to its targeted audience. The lofty music, dream-like blurriness, and father-son bonding all work to evoke feelings of nostalgia and/or memory-building that many American families tend to value. The commercial also reassures its audience that Mastercard and this "father-son bonding at a baseball game" situation unify Americans by stating that Mastercard is "accepted at ballparks coast to coast."

...Thanks for reading! -- Deonne, Sae, Jamie, and Joanna

Posted by Stanford Globalization Class at 11:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)