Wednesday, June 25, 2014

God Created A Farmer

Identify what you feel are the ethics of the presentation. What does the narrator lend to its ethics? 

   This commercial in my opinion is going after the market that can afford the truck first, the second part of the commercial is going after the young adults that want to feel like they are part of America that they have not seen or been a part of.  
    As society sets down to watch television, we all understand that we will be watching some kind of advertisement.  We get those advertisements even if we flip through the channels waiting for our show to come back on.  We all have something that will spark our interest within one or more of these advertisements.    At some point in our lives we need something to survive, live, have fun or what ever the current need may be.  With that being said my opinion is the producers are saying that you can not be as happy as a farmer, or satisfied as a farmer, as successful as a farmer if you do not own a Dodge Ram. (satisfaction, successful and happy are needs that we all seem to strive for) Telling someone that there is only one way to be happy or successful or satisfied is to purchase a product that possibly is out side of you spendable income is unethical.  That when the item in question to be purchased could be as much as a small home in a small town.  That having this item is more important than anything else you could own is unethical.   
    Paul Harvey is a voice I grew up with. At times his commentaries were topic of conversation at the table. My recollection is that my family trusted him.  That they agreed with what he had to say.  Seems to me that what Harvey says is true. He may even own a Dodge Ram and believes that they are the best truck out there.  We as a society put value into someone we trust to tell us what is a good purchase for us to make.   Look at how we use Google today to research what is the best product to purchase for the price.  Growing up it was more about word of mouth and how the product worked.  Harvey is a "friend" to be trusted so how can a person who owns a Dodge Ram be bad? In what we understand of Harvey is that the person owning a Dodge Ram can be trusted.

Identify central and peripheral route attempts of the film. 

    Growing up as a part-time farmer (part-time farmer meaning we raised our own meat and vegetables, to support some of the needs of the family) this commercial hits home where the heart is with the pictures of cows, what looks like snow, churches, flags, barns, and pictures of a farm.  I believe the child in all of us want to be a part of raising some kind of animal. Owning a farm gives that opportunity to a person. We can identify, or a least I can, with women being a farmer, the baby chick in the hands of a farmer, a child standing there enjoying her picture taken on a beautiful day. The children that are growing up in the inner city may not understand these picture, possibly never having the opportunity to hold that baby chick, or have a picture taken to show how happy they may be, but they want those feelings that are being showed to them.
    The peripheral route uses the tone, pauses, emphasis on words like "God Made A Farmer" through the voice of a person that is well known to a generation of people that understand hard work and the word farmer. Even if a person doesn't know the voice of the narrator it still hits home with his tone. This commercial will get peoples attention if all there were just the words and the back ground sounds.  It would make a great radio commercial.
    
Define the proofs - pathos, logos, and ethos - that function in the narrative.

     Pathos-when we look at the picture of the hands holding a baby chick, shows that these hands know how to be gentle and caring.  When we can show those characteristics of a person then we trust what they are saying. In this case we can trust the American Farmer. 
     Logos-I think we are safe to say that we as a society understand that America was built on the backs of farmers.  With this understanding and pictures of hard working farmers, my opinion is that we can draw a conclusion that we trust farmers. 
     Ethos-We have Paul Harvey narrating the story.  Do we really need to say more here?  Harvey is a person who has been able back what he is saying with truths and facts.  His voice alone says you can believe me I know what I am talking about. 

Discuss the epistemic perspective of the proofs you've identified and how these function to reach the communicative effects of the film. 
     
     When looking at the hands holding the baby chick this may refer to also holding other things that will need to be nurtured.  I say things because there is more than to life than making sure the "baby chick" (a human baby, a baby seal, a baby tree, a new love, a new career or etc.) that will need holding and nurtured. 
      When we look at the American farmer, the farmer stand for so much more than just providing food for the family dinner.  The American farmer provides us with hope.  Hope that we can nurture that "baby chick".
       When we listen to Harvey in this commercial,  we seem to know with out much knowledge on Harvey that he wouldn't lie to us. That the way he speaks in the commercial, that we get a gut reaction to his words.  The gut reaction is one that we all seem to trust the most.

Discuss the narrative perspective of the proofs you've identified and how these function to reach the communicative effects of the film. 

    I feel like I am repeating myself here.  If the producers had used let us say Jim Carey to narrate this story he would not have been taken serious in anyway, shape or form. As I sat in class and realized that many of students had no clue who Paul Harvey was, how could they understand why his name was even posted on the commercial? But when you just listen to his voice, the pauses, the tones, the power of his voice, and the power of the words, this all put together with out his name is very powerful.  It may be like listening to a song on the radio.  

Identify one of Reich's cultural parables in the social and cultural context of the commercial. 

Triumphant Individual--with this commercial being played during the Super Bowl starts with the social context. If I was into sports events (which I am not) and my favorite team did not make it to the Super Bowl, I would be rooting for the underdog.  This commercial shows that the small farmer may be the underdog here. That in order for the farmer to no longer be the underdog they need a better truck. 
     As for the cultural context of the triumphant individual it stats on the other hand that once you get this truck you will become the top dog! That you can show you no longer are the underdog and you can do anything. As Long As You Own The DODGE RAM.

Discuss how any of Marwell & Schmitt's Taxonomy of 16 Influences relate to the commercial's objectives. What are the objectives?

    The add uses four of the 16 influences. First it uses reward in a way that if you own this truck you will have the characteristics of a farmer. Second, positive expertise, there are two proofs of that in this commercial, Paul Harvey and the farmer. Third, liking & ingratiation, we all seem to like the farmer.  The commercial places us right beside the farmer, saying we can be like the farmer. Fourth, debt, when there phrase "God made a farmer" is used after statements like "God needed a caretaker so he mad a farmer." Makes us look at well if a farmer does all this work then we owe that farmer and we need to purchase this truck.

Apply how the motivational process premises (remember, there are four) create the appeals presented in the commercial.

     The commercial has found a way to touch all four of the motivational process premises.  We all have a need to complete a task.  Well this truck can help you complete whatever task you have. When we see a person on his knees praying, whether you believe in a God or not, we are led to believe that this truck will bring us peace. I believe that there has been at least one day in everyone's lives that we have worked so hard for one day that we understand the attitude of a farmer. We all need to eat. Farmers provide that food for our table.  Farmers show that they are consistent in everything they do.  Proof is on the table every day.

From a "Needs" premise, which of Packer's compelling needs best relates?

Reassurance of Worth
     We all seem to want to be worth something to someone. As society looks at farmer with the up most respect and admiration, we are showing to the farmer the worth they have.  As an individual who is not a farmer, we seem to work harder to find that worth.  It is just not given to individuals. As a society we seem to put worth onto objects.  So when we purchase this truck we feel that we will automatically receive that reassurance of worth.  It seems to me that society thinks that objects can give us the reassurance of worth.  That it means more that what comes from another human being. 
  
From an "Attitudes" premise, what values are extorted visually to resonate within the attitudes, beliefs or opinions of the audience?  

     When we look at the attitudes premise from the beliefs point, then God, is at the forefront of this commercial. We are being told that God wants us to be like the farmer. To rise early and put in a hard days work, then attend to our civic duties and children, and do it again the next day and the next day and so on. When we believe this this, and it is shown in the commercial that we do believe this, then we don't have to think for ourselves.  The producers have done it for us.  Because the farmer is the "picture" of America, we believe what this commercial has to say. 



Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Ethics in Medicine through Narrative

www.promise-saltlake.com

Watch video about the Promise Experience.
    0-139 and 638 till end
What they are constantly promoting?




The Promise experience is selling us what?
Now look at the Pfizer ad what is it selling us?
The last two videos are telling what is wrong with drug companies and what they are selling the consumer. I have added the Promise experience here because part of the problem of the health care system is hospitals and doctors.

My story is about how I believe my children lost their father. I had to help research the partial  information that was given to them and tell them what I thought based on the information that was given to them how their dad was doing.  AS the ex-wife information was only given to me through is my ex-mother-in-law and she only gave me what she felt the children needed to know.  

      The ex-husband enters the hospital on July 26, 2013 to never come home. On December 30, 2013 he was removed from life support, that his children had to fight with their grandmother (his mother) to make this life changing event happen.

      Because drug companies put out there what they think you as a patient should have and make you believe that you have this complication, issue, disease or what ever they are selling that is popular at the time; the consumer believes them that they are the only hope they have to have a better life.

Now with those two statements made my ex-husband was one of those consumers that felt he needed a drug to fix everything.  He had a doctor that gave him everything he wanted.  I know this because I was the person that had to get him his "legal drug" fix on weekly and sometimes daily basis.  This happened until I finally had enough and was able to leave. Two years after I left he became extremely ill.  His kidneys shut down and they called the kids to the hospital because they really didn't know what was happening. This is when the nightmare began.  Fast forward two years almost to the day he moves on to another life away from this world. 

A drug sent him into kidney failure because of his need for a fix for something and the doctor gave him that fix and the doctor had NO clue how to administer that drug correctly.  

When he entered the hospital it was with a bowel blockage.  The doctors did surgery to fix the blockage. The doctors say there may be two reasons for the blockage: the gastric bypass or the kidney dialysis.  The doctors performed over 20 surgery's, he was on off a ventilator about 10 times before they put in a trac. He never had any real food from the day he entered the hospital.  I was at the hospital with my son, on the second call for all family to come in, he came off the ventilator and was given ice chips.  I watched a person guard his empty cup like a guard dog! This man was starving!! He was being tortured in my opinion.  No human being deserves to be tortured. 

I tell you this story because I want to know where the ethics are in this case.  Santa Clara University list on their website (http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/decision/making.pdf) a list of questions on what should be asked when making decisions.  Along with these question are some of the ethics that go with the questions.  
When I called the Promise center and asked if they had an ethics board I was told they had a Quality Control Board.  When I was transferred no one answered, nor did I leave a message. I am only left guessing that the Quality Control Board is there to make sure that everything is done to the patient that they can do to make money.  Just like the pharmaceutical company's it is all about the MIGHTY DOLLAR.

When companies say there is more than the medicine why are they not getting back to basics and using what Mother Nature has to offer us? Why do we create drugs that create side effects and more drugs to fix those side effects and more drugs to fix the more side effects?  This just PISSES ME OFF!!! OH SHIT WAIT THEY HAVE A DRUG TO FIX MY PISSES ME OFF MOOD!!!!!!!