What emotions, frames, and persuasive techniques are being used? Strategy concerns how a message is designed to gain attention, create credibility, shape judgment, and move an audience toward a response.
Credibility, emotion, and reasoning
Classical rhetoric distinguishes among ethos, pathos, and logos: the character of the speaker, emotional appeals, and the apparent logic of the argument. Contemporary persuasion still relies on these resources. Celebrities lend ethos to brands, film music intensifies pathos, and statistics provide the appearance of logos—even when the evidence is selective or poorly explained.
Different routes to persuasion
The elaboration likelihood model proposes that people sometimes evaluate arguments carefully and at other times rely on cues such as attractiveness, popularity, confidence, or repetition (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986). Popular culture often combines both routes. A documentary may offer evidence while also using narration, editing, and music to guide emotion; an influencer may mix product information with trust built through familiarity.
Frames guide moral judgment
Framing is strategic because it establishes what kind of problem audiences believe they are seeing. Lakoff (2004) argues that political language activates broader moral frameworks, while Entman (1993) explains how frames define problems and assign responsibility. Entertainment does this too: camera perspective, genre conventions, and character alignment can make one action seem heroic and another threatening.
Where this appears in everyday media
- Reality television: Editing, confessionals, and music create heroes, villains, alliances, and apparent motives.
- Influencer marketing: Personal storytelling and perceived authenticity blur the line between friendship and advertising.
- Political advertising: Fear, hope, nostalgia, and moral identity are often more memorable than policy detail.
- Movie posters: Typography, color, facial expression, and composition position a film before audiences see a single scene.
Use these prompts when analyzing a message
- What does the communicator want the audience to feel?
- How is credibility being established?
- Is the message encouraging careful thought or a quick reaction?
- What frame defines the problem and who is blamed?
- Which persuasive cues would disappear if the message were presented as plain text?
A short decoding exercise
Choose a commercial or campaign video. Identify one appeal to credibility, one emotional appeal, and one reasoning claim. Then ask which of the three appears to do the most persuasive work.
Academic sources
- Entman, R. M. (1993). Framing: Toward clarification of a fractured paradigm. Journal of Communication, 43(4), 51–58.
- Lakoff, G. (2004). Don't think of an elephant! Chelsea Green.
- Petty, R. E., & Cacioppo, J. T. (1986). Communication and persuasion: Central and peripheral routes to attitude change. Springer.
- Aristotle. (2007). On rhetoric: A theory of civic discourse (G. A. Kennedy, Trans.; 2nd ed.). Oxford University Press.