“…without being malicious”

Perez Hilton. For those of you have heard of him, the name might spark a smile or a grimace. To others who don’t, you may be thinking to yourself, “Does Paris Hilton even have a brother?” Well thankfully, he’s not a spawn of the Hilton clan but it’s safe to say his infamy is just as real. He is one of Hollywood’s most famous (or infamous) gossip blogger. He is known for posting photos and articles about the “secret” lives of celebrities, often adding witty yet crude captions or doodles for effect. He began to develop some positive and negative attention for his satiric and sometimes vulgar remarks. He has faced various civil litigations and controversies throughout the years. The man has said and done it all, from leaking Britney Spears illegal recordings to nude pictures of Jennifer Aniston. He even once went as far as reporting the death of Fidel Castro (a little prematurely). But what made his website ranked 143 most trafficked site in 2009? It wasn’t just the celebrity news he was reporting, because the American public can’t even go grocery shopping without the media gossip being shoved down their throats. It was, however, the WAY he said it. Our society thrives on controversies and conflicts. We love our political debate shows as much as we love the juicy upscale lives of the “rich and famous”. Popular culture trickles down to one word: Rhetoric. People loved his crass nature and opinionated responses. After all he was named #1 Web Celeb 3 years in a row. He was snarky and sassy and at some times even down right mean.

With this being said, it made his next move that much more powerful. After the tragic story of Tyler Clementi’s suicide and the up rise on cyberbullying, Perez Hilton wanted to take a stand. He knew he could not sit behind his computer and stress the importance of anti-bullying if he was society’s biggest celebrity bully. It was then, when he decided he was going to stop what he was known for best: his attitude.

“I’m not going to sanitize what I do, I still want to be me, and be fun, and be sassy, without being vanilla — and also without being malicious and hurtful and nasty.”

A decision that could either make or break his career. Some praised his choice and some were more cynical, pointing out that he was only trying to gain more attention. While others lost interest in his gossip completely once all the insults were done.

Was it his remarks and wit that drew such an impressing audience to his website? And if so what does that say about American culture? Is it possible for us to enjoy information, whether it is political or social, without the addition of negative rhetoric? Does this give Rhetoric and Civic Life a bad name? These questions, unfortunately, I do not have the answers to. But they do spark some further questioning about our culture. Regardless of the reasons people believe Perez Hilton has chosen to stop bullying his celebrities, I applaud his actions to go against our society’s obsession with abuse, in hopes that other bullies mirror his idea. Better late then never right?

Until next time...

"Keep Calm and Carry On"

Joanna

"...these change of emotions"

In class we discussed the four different forms of public speaking, manuscript, memorized, impromptu and extemporaneous. Each form has a positive and negative aspect. Until then, I never really thought about the difficultly of a manuscript speech.  In my eyes, I viewed it as one of the easiest. The material is right there in front of you and you know what you have to say. You didn’t have the fear and the anxiety to articulate your thoughts spontaneously, you simply just read off of a slide or teleprompter. However, during the discussion of pros and cons and the importance of tone and inflection, I began to have a different approach. When reading from a paper or a screen, the speaker tends to lose sight of what they’re actually saying and has the possibility of developing a monotone, which I know we’ve all had one of those professors and the experience is dreadful. With that fear of being boring, the speaker must adjust his or her pitch and tone in order to convey the right type of message. This may seem easy when you know the material ahead of time, but I immediately thought of newscasters who might not know what is coming up on their teleprompter. On live TV, with a split second to spare the newscaster has to apply the perfect tone to make the newsreel flow smoothly. As we read that paragraph on the board, it took us a couple of minutes to decipher which parts of the sentence to emphasize. Tone enables the passage to harp of the audience’s emotions. Saying a word a certain way can make the audience enraged, happy or even sad. Now imagine having that control over national TV, as if public speaking wasn’t nerve-racking to begin with. This dilemma reminded me of a bit from Ellen DeGeneres’ stand up, Here and Now, and how she discusses the difficulty of being a newscaster:

  

FAST FORWARD TO 1:35.

“I feel sorry for the newscasters you know? We can turn it off. But that’s their job and they have to read these stories and they’re just coming up on the teleprompter they don’t know what’s coming up. and they have to go through these change of emotions. That.. “There were no survivors…And next Which candybar helps ya lose weight! Still to come! Is an asteroid headed towards earth…But first where to find the cheesiest pizza in town! Also, a disturbing study finds that studies are disturbing…”

We don’t realize how much information on Rhetoric and Civic Life (the title again!) there is in our lives. Public speaking is a civic engagement that everybody as an American takes part in. Whether we are the speaker or the audience. In Ellen’s stand up, she pokes fun at the newscasters in a way to show the audience how difficult their job really is. She indirectly exemplifies how public speaking is so common yet still tricky. The newscaster has to make sure his tone is sympathetic when talking about a tragedy and upbeat when talking about food. By misusing this tone, they might come off as arrogant, unsympathetic and even downright rude. Our class discussion and exercises we discuss everyday reflect how society in many ways, even pop culture. If we learn to “read between the lines” we can discover all the secrets of Rhetoric and Civic Life there is in our lives and embrace it.

P.S. If you ever have the chance or time, Ellen's full stand up is very funny. 

Until next time...

"Keep Calm and Carry On"

Joanna

And so it begins...

This blog is a reflection and discussion of the material we cover in my LA 101h class and how I view the information to fit into our society's world (or fantasy). Here I might reflect on a specific topic in comparison to recent or even past news which I discovered contains aspects of Rhetoric and Civic Life (hey, that's the title, go figure). It might be funny(or so I think), serious or even thought provoking at times. Feel free to comment and engage others as well or silently mull it over, whatever is your "Cup of Jo". Speaking of, check out my other blog about my collection of mugs, which is linked under my profile. Enjoy your stay and fell free to look around!

"Keep Calm and Carry On"

Joanna