Jessica Cooper Blog #1

1. There are many different types of rhetoric on this page. The content after someone clicks on the link is very powerful. A lot of the messages are very persuasive. One link that a person can click on is the heroes link. This link shows people that there are real life heroes in the army and that they played the game. The heroes link shows a person's picture, name, rank in the army, and then a link for their whole biography. A big link that shows persuasion is the U.S. Army link, because the website is supposed to be for a game, but there is a link for people that would make someone who doesn't know about the Army want to join it. Most of the website shows gaming content and the website makes sure that all of the downloads are available, so that the ones playing can get the full experience of playing the game. Two other very persuasive parts of the website are the little box that shows the seven core values of the army and the little box with the number of users, the number of new users in the past month, new users in general, and the number of people who have completed a certain level.

2. I think that the intended audience is a little bit of everyone form every age group. Kids are kind of the intended audience because the website is for a video game and most all kids love to play video games. The rhetoric does appeal to the kids because it is a video game and it is trying to instill the values of the army in them, so that when they are older they would possibly want to join the army. Teenagers and young adults are a big target audience because they are the ones that can join the army if they like what they see in the video game and want to be a part of it. It also talks about scholarships and medical training so if someone wants to be in the medical field, they can be trained by the army and still go to college. This idea is very appealing to college students.

3. I do agree to an extent with Navy veteran Boyle that it indoctrinates the ideology of war. I agree because it makes it seem fun and some people might want to be in a real war after they play this game. The way war is portrayed in the media is different from how it is shown in the game. The game like I said makes war seem fun and interesting when really it is very dangerous. The media shows the dangerous and scary parts of being in a real war. The media lets people know that it is real by showing the number of deaths and injuries from being hated by other countries because they are fighting in the war. My cousin has been to Iraq three different times to fight in the war. He doesn't really like to talk about it because it is so scary and he has bad experiences over there. He has seen people in the humvee right in front of him blown up by a roadside bomb.

4. The video game and the website promote violence but that doesn't mean that it will necessarily influence teens to become more violent. Violence in video games are very present but it can be a good thing or a bad thing. Violence most of the time doesn't influence teens to be more violent or commit the same acts of violence they do in videos in real life. If teens have enough control to know that it isn't real and have been taught by their parents that the violence in a video game isn't real and some of the things that take place in video games is wrong, then they should be okay.