Analyzing Rhetorical Strategies in " North Korea's growing economy-and America's misconceptions about it.

via Flickr by walknboston  "question the answers"  https://www.flickr.com/photos/walkn/3526522573

In this blog post I answer a bunch of questions , again. related to the North Korea's growing economy article.

Credibility or Character?

• The author heavily uses references to credible sources through the use of interviews from people involved with the businesses on the border. For example the author cites the words from a North Korean Factory owner " They are here to make money for the country" when he was referring to the workers he oversees.  The author also relies heavily on tone to evoke sympathy and dreariness from the observations in the text,  "  The women work on the third floor , wearing their coats inside to guard against the cold" 
• The author would use these strategies to express their opinions and to  paint a clearer picture of what's going on with North Korean economy after the U.S placed the sanctions on the country so the readers can emphasize and be informed of what is actually happening. 
• These strategies give the Author credibility becasue not only are they expressing an opinion but they are going the extra mile to paint a picture of their opinion by interviewing people involved and drawing from their won observations so the reader knows that they actually do know what they are writing about it. 
• These strategies help the effectiveness of the text by being able to see and hear from the words of people who are there, who are living it, and witnessing it on a daily basis. 
• The author doesn't seem to have any bases becasue they do not out rightly criticize anyone or even offer suggestions to fix the problem. The author seems to know that there isn't much that can be done that hasn't already been done. 

Appeals to Emotion?

• The Author definitely uses emotionally compelling narratives if nothing else to appeal to emotion. For example in describing how sometimes people go missing or commit suicide a businessman states " Sometimes the North Korean takes the money but then you can't find the person. As the middleman I have to take responsibility for that.  There are some people over here who have committed suicide because they've lost everything."  Another strategy the author used is the statistic of people involved in China and North Korea.  " one quarter of the city's population of 800,000 is involved in doing business with North Korea in some way."  as well as  "North Korea is thought to have at least 50,000 workers outside the country earning money for the regime, and 13,000 of them work in Dandong." 
• The emotional responses the  author  is attempting to create from the audience are disapproval , shock, and sympathy. 
• The actual result is sucessful since the author does evoke sympathy for the workers involved , disapproval that the governments are using the citizens and shock that the sanctions have only fueled this capitalistic behavior
• I think the emotion is effective in getting the reader interested in wanting to be informed of this particular situation. The readers seem to be of a general audience so this would be effective in getting them to feel a certain kind of way about the businesses be operated in Dandong. 
• Th emotional appeals effect the credibility of the author by making the author seem more involved with the story than by just reporting it. it helps their credibility becasue it seems that they actually care about what they are writing about it. 

Appeals to Logic

• The author uses personal interviews/ interviews from experts  heavily in the text as well statistics  to appeal to logic.  When talking about moving money from across the border into North Korea  a businessman states " So they come in or I go into North Korea to settle the bills. They like to be paid in U.S dollars , euros, Japanese yen." So there's no doubt in the readers mind that it's impossible to commit these acts of business when a businessman states how easy it is.  From a sanctions expert the author quotes them saying  " There is a lot of jumping to conclusions in Washington and discussion about China showing a strong hand to North Korea. I don't see the evidence for that."  The statics used were the ones stated above regarding the number of workers and businessman that are operating in Dandong. 
• The response the Author is trying to elicit from the audience seems to be one of shock and disapproval with the use of logic becasue. Even though the U.S says the sanctions are working and China is being cold to North Korea quite the opposite is happening. 
• The actual result seems to be sucessful because the  majority of the audience  can read and agree that the sanctions aren't working . IT isn't like the author is over exaggerating a claim or trying to scare anyone , it seems to be calm informative conversation of " just so you know..."  between the author and audience. 
• I think these strategies are effective for the audience and rhetorical situation because it explains the content in a digestible way that makes the reader think and make their own assumptions without them being pushed into a corner by the author's opinions.

Reflection: 

From reading Hunter and Olivia's blogs  I realized that the most lacking  strategy in their texts  used was pathos. not because it was under developed just that the topics weren't necessarily emotional topics that a general audience would connect to. Even though my own text wasn't pushing for a strong opinion or anything I do think it appealed to emotion because of the topic involved. North Korea  invokes images of communism and as democratic Americans that will naturally invoke an emotional response especially once you involve underpaid workers and it makes the reader feel bad for them. I feel that my text was analyzed well enough because of the subject , I feel like it appealed to each criteria .