Larsen's Myths with Special Guest Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman is a writer and author whose works vary widely in premise and content; from Coraline, Stardust, American Gods, Good Omen, the graphic novel The Sandman, and many more.  He is considered to be a great writer and has won multiple awards. Here he gives a commencement address at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia in 2012.  It is a long address, there are some moments of lull and disengagement, but also within the speech are many examples of Larsen's Cultural Images and Myths.

As with most speeches I've heard for this assignment, he begins with the Wisdom of the Rustic, the premise that we start from humble beginnings and that we will learn from our difficulties and trials through life.  He himself did not have a university education when he began his writing career, but went straight off and began writing and submitting his articles and stories for publishing.  He was rejected many times.  As he wrote more and more his writing got better and better.

This leads us into another of Larsen's Myth's, that of the Value of a Challenge.   This myth of Larsen's says that we will grow and gain knowledge from challenges. If we are not challenged then there is no impetus to grow and better ourselves.  Gaiman had significant challenges in the beginning of his writing career but viewed these challenges as a way to become a better writer.  Now many years later, he is a celebrated author and he credits the early difficulties and those throughout his career, with motivating him to become better at his craft.  He challenges his audience to do the same when they enter times of trouble or are presented with a challenge.

As with the majority of the speeches that have been presented on the class's blogs, the Possibility of Success is a primary focus and motivation.  It is the happy ending that helps connect him with the audience.  The audience for these types of address are typically looking for motivating factors and their happy ending.  He does not disappoint and speaks to his successes and his enjoyment of them or lack thereof.

Gaiman uses some process premises to connect with his audience.  While his speech is not overtly persuasive, he does feel the need to have them believe his words and his message.  He primarily uses attitudes as a process premise.  By appealing to the audience on a level and attitude that they will connect with, that of being creative people who will create art in many/various forms.  By having this attitude with them, it helps his connection with the audience.  Also, he utilizes emotions to varying degrees, both happy and unhappy.  Fear is also an emotion he utilizes to connect with the audience.  He expresses the fears and disappointments that he has experienced in his career. No doubt he understands that these new graduates are facing fear as they attempt to enter the world as professionals.  His ultimate joy and the conviction of his path and theirs will help assuage their own fears.  Finally, a sense of belonging is ever present within the speech, as if they are part of some special brotherhood of artists and writers who can be relied upon for support.

Neil Gaiman effectively utilized Larsen's Cultural Images and Myths to engage his audience and make them feel comfortable and receptive of the message.  While not as dynamic as it could have been, it certainly was able to accomplish the goals of the speech and connect with his intended audience.

HARD WORK AND DIRTY JOBS

DIRTY JOBS

 

In this speech by Mike Rowe for TED Talk, Mike would like to create a focus on jobs that are considered to be skilled labor that is necessary to retain the infrastructure of our country.  He also makes points that we often have assumptions about what it entails to have a job like this and the type of person who does these skilled labor type jobs (manual labor).  He also asserts that there is nothing wrong with a hard days work.  In the Fogg Behavioral Model, there are three main elements, Motivation, Ability, and Triggers.  To varying degrees, Mike Rowe hit's on all of these elements to drive his points home to his audience.

Motivation: 
During his speech Mike utilizes a number of stories and other methods to motivate his audience to take action and accept his message.  I noticed that ANTICIPATION was the primary motivator, he gave the audience HOPE that their were different measures of success and that people could pursue their dreams and still be considered successful.  He also utilized FEAR as a motivator, to show the audience that without the skilled labor positions in our society, our infrastructure was doomed as we cannot hope to repair or build new without sufficient skilled labor positions.  Another aspect of motivation was his use of BELONGING as a core motivator.  He mentions the biases that have arisen from segments in society that are negative toward skilled labor and trades; Hollywood, Madison Ave, Washington D.C., and how they portray skilled labor as less than successful, while many skilled laborers are actually very successful both financially and emotionally because they are doing something they like.  This plays into the biases of social rejection vs. social acceptance within the BELONGING element.

Ability:
The element of Ability was not a large factor within the speech.  He does touch on the fact that people can do these things if they want to, their grandfather's did them and did them well.  He makes it a point to show that it can be done, you just have to have the desire.

Triggers:
This is a point were the speaker fails to properly employ Fogg's elements to their full effect and potential.  While I believe that he demonstrates his ability to be a great facilitator and is able to motivate his audience, he fails to capitalize on the audiences wave of motivation by not having a call to action or having some sort of spark to make them willing to initiate action.  Even a simple request at the end to consider emphasizing traditional jobs and skilled labor would have beneficial for his cause.  He simply ends with a few words that might still be motivators but he does not call them to do anything about it.

Analysis and Process Premise:
Mike Rowe's approach to motivate the audience or persuade them to believe as he believes, is well done.  He incorporates many of the process premises in his speech.  He connects to audience with a personal story and this story also helps to shift or align their attitudes with what his message will be.  He want's them to not make assumptions on what is right and what is wrong (or in his words, what is dirty and what is clean). He uses the emotional influence of the lambs and his predicament to converge the beliefs of the audience to agree with his way of thinking.  He does all this in a non -threating and humorous way so as to satisfy the audience's needs of safety (not from physical harm but as in they are emotionally safe and the journey he will psychologically take them on will be safe as well).  He is deft at using emotion to convey his message in a manner that is likely to be accepted by his audience.  He uses multiple emotions, happiness, fear, guilt, throughout his stories and messages.  They audience probably does not even feel as if they are potentially having their perspective and framing changed.  As far as consistency is concerned and cognitive dissonance, he again uses humor and human stories too connect with his audience and to make them want to be what he wants them to be or more likely think the way he wants them to think.  He conjures images and emotions by using the phrase "grandfather stuff"; most people have pleasant memories or images of a grandfather and Mike makes the audience think of their grandfather working hard at something and having self reliance, able to work hard and honest.  This image creates with the audience the desire to be like their or the proverbial grandfather and also want to do hard work and not think of it in a negative light.