Evaluation of Rhetorical Situations

Now that I have figured out what my interests are within my major, it is time to think about the articles that I will be analyzing. For this post, I will look at three different articles and look at their rhetorical components.

Duboc, Jean-Rémy. "brain and gears" 08/30/14 via Flickr. Attribution 2.0 Generic

The first article that I found was on Artificial Intelligence and how it could potentially harm us.

Google’s Demis Hassabis – misuse of artificial intelligence 'could do harm'

Author/Speaker: 

Demis Hassabis works for the company Google, who is very well known for their innovations of technology and their most recent projects for AI. Therefore, we can assume that this man knows what AI has the potential to do, both good and bad.

The author himself, Kamal Ahmed, shows his Twitter handle on his page, and is also verified on Twitter. This shows that he is a well-known reporter and is credible. Not only this, but the fact that he is associated with BBC, one of the largest news sources in the world, shows that he must do his research and be credible as well. 

Audience:

In this interview, Demis Hassabis wants to reach out to those working on AI- warning them that they need to be careful with how they use it and to be sure not to miss any details. Since this is being red by the general public as well, this interview places the idea of harmful AI in the back of the audience's mind, so as when anything too intelligent or having the potential to ham shows up in the market, society can work against it. 

Context:

This is a very modern topic, and in turn, very modern contextual details. First, both the author and the speaker work in the UK, a powerful first-world country. Next, the article is given to us on a website, which in itself is modern. This article was also written this month (September 2015), so we can assume that the details referenced within the interview are as new as they can get. 

Next, an article from Telegraph describes both sides of this debate: whether AI could be good or harmful.

Future technology: a force for good or a source of fear?

Author/Speaker:

The author, Grant Feller, is a reporter who works for not just the Telegraph, but for Huffington Post,  Media Week and even Forbes. Based on his Twitter, he is based in London and runs his own group of journalists under the name GF Media. 

Audience:

This article is mainly for the general public, as he explains certain terms and writes in a fashion that is understandable to most people. I feel that this is for a general audience because he is not necessarily calling upon people to act but is instead simply informing the audience of what AI could become. 

Context: 

This article was published on September 25th, 2015, so his information must be very recent. The nature of the article is also of the future in itself, cyber-security, AI and robotics are recent topics that have been discussed. In his article, Feller references the "Festival of the Imagination", which is a big convention to host speakers that talk about scholarly topics to purposely raise questions and debate. 

Finally, an article on Medical Daily discussed the medical improvements that can come from using AI. 

Artificial Intelligence May Be Able To Predict Remission Or Resistance To Certain Drugs Used To Treat Breast Cancer

Author/Speaker:

 Steve Smith, from both his Twitter and his section on Medical Daily, we can see that he is from Pennsylvania, lives in New York City and works out of New Jersey. He has contributed to various websites other than Medical Daily. Since the majority of his publications are on medicine, we can assume that he has a well-rounded idea of what's what in the medical community. 

Audience: 

In his article, Smith references the reader as a typical individual, someone going in for surgery or someone going into a drug store. Also from the general information in the article, it is seen that this article is to be read by the general public, mostly for those who are either interested in cancer research or have dealt with cancer in their own lives.

Context: 

The date of publication is also fairly recent. Not only this, but his view of breast cancer and its potential cures have been formed by society's need for a cure. Any opportunity at a cure will automatically be seen as successful, which is shown within this article, however, he does mention that this technology still needs some time to improve.


Reflection:
By looking at my classmates' posts, more specifically Rose and Mark's, I learned what an argumentative article consists of. At first, I thought that unbiased texts were always the best option. However, for this assignment, the more opinionated the better. For my post, I feel that I analyzed them well, even though the articles themselves may be less argumentative than I would like. The analysis I completed definitely helped me to understand my articles and helped me to realize which one to use over the others.