FILM AS A PERSUASION TOOL (Essay Sample)

FILM AS A PERSUASION TOOL Name Institution Date "Wal-Mart: The high cost of low price” Introduction Films have been used as persuasion tools for a long time. The visual and audio aspect helps film enhance its ability to convince the audience. A movie review on Wal-Mart addressing effect of low cost has been used in this case to experience the convincing power of films. The film "Wal-Mart: The high cost of low price" is a documentary film that was directed by Robert Greenwald to address negative effects of the wide spread introduction of Wal-mart in the especially in the United States economy. The film was made in 2005 and the main topic is how Wal-Mart exploits his workers through low wages and long working hours and at the same time low prices has white washed small business out of existence due to impossible competition as a result of low prices they attain through low wages and subsidies received. Types of emotional appeal Sadness: The film "Wal-Mart: The high cost of low price" uses video evidence of the effect of Wal-Mart and the actual interview of people who had firsthand experience while working at Wal-Mart to catch emotional response from viewers. Between the 10th minute and 15th minute in the documentary, the film exposes videos of former business that were closed down in various state of the United States few years after Wal-Mart introduction. At 21:24 employee Cathy Nemchik an employee of Wal-Mart addresses issue of low wages with employees unable to meet Medicare cost and experience welfare issues. The director indicates values that Wal-Mart cost the public $86million dollars a year in California and another $25million from the county taxpayer's money. Such scenes create feeling of sadness. Disrespect: In the 42 minute, the film maker uses the interview of the actual people who suffered discrimination due to gender and race. The discrimination based on race and gender is really disrespectful and uncalled for. Fear: The film "Wal-Mart: The high cost of low price" show several campaigns that were meant to fight Wal-Mart developments and such video clips instil fear since the rebelling is a sign of the destructive effect of Wal-Mart once it encroach into a town. Therefore the film "Wal-Mart: The high cost of low price" use several short sub-stories that portrays victims of Wal-Mart progress to give emotional connection to the audience as they develop empathy to the victims. Success of Emotional Appeal Though the film is a documentary, it seems more focused on the logical aspect than the emotional attributes. However, the emotional contribution is above average due to the reality it exposes us to that many common people might have never realized. There are places in the video that draw emotion. A good example is the visual pictures of typically dead streets where businesses have closed down and the houses are in complete mess and several schools closed down. The effect of Wal-Mart and the effect it has on business that are forced to keep the cost low and that forces workers to live low life and still work long hours is shameful and emotional. The film to me is convincing because the condition of low wage employment frequently talked about is confirmed by Lee Scott, Wal-Mart CEO who doesn't mince his words when he says that the low cost of goods has relatively low wages since the investors have to get profit. Therefore the documentary is convincing and any one with good level of understanding has to experience level of emotional empathy. Types of Logic appeal used in the Film The director of the film uses several appeals to support the message that Wal-Mart is having disastrous effect to the United States economy through abuse of rights, low wages, bad working condition, monopoly creation and violation of safety and environmental rights. Statistics is used in the documentary especially in the value of subsidies where the documentary shows various subsidies given per state and the nationwide subsidies which stood at $1.008Billions. However, the documentary mostly use testimony as the logical appeal and several Wal-Mart workers like Edith Arana and Weldon Nicholson give testimony of the working condition in Wal-Mart. Reasoned argument is used to explain the relationship of Wal-Mart and the bad working condition of companies in Bangladesh which are forced to compete with it hence adopt its model. The data like Lee Scott earnings in 2005 which stood at $27, 207,799 are used to clarify the information imposed. Finally, evidence approach is used especially in the cases of environmental failures of Wal-Mart where pictures of stacks of chemical wrongly stored are used and the blog created by the lady who challenged Wal-Mart to address environmental issues are shown. Success of using logic appeals The use of the logic to give evidence and create sense of credibility in this documentary to me looks credible and I would rate it at 85% convincing. The film might be very successful in challenging ...