the faces of homelessness campaign

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THE FACES OF HOMELESSNESS CAMPAIGN: A REFLECTIVE ANALYSIS 1 The Faces of Homelessness Campaign: A Reflective Analysis The rise of homelessness in Florida is astounding. The 2012 Annual Homeless Assessment Report, issued by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, states that Florida witnessed a 14.8% increase. However, in that same duration, homelessness declined 5.7% nationally. Florida accounts for 8.7% of all homeless individuals in the United States; this represents the third biggest population of homeless persons in the nation. Between 2012 and 2013, the figure of homeless people in Orange County rose from 2,281 to 2,937; this positions Orange County fourth for the highest amount of homeless people in Florida. Additionally, Orange County accounts for the largest number of homeless students with 4,844. Despite the fact that there are many positive programs and organizations that aid and assist the homeless, the recurrent rise of homelessness in Central Florida is bleak. This paper desires to accurately evaluate the rhetorical strategies and methods employed throughout the Faces of Homelessness Campaign. Our campaign specifically aims to raise awareness and combat the rise of homelessness in Orange County, Florida. We strive to do this by changing the misconceptions and

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Page 1: The Faces of Homelessness Campaign

THE FACES OF HOMELESSNESS CAMPAIGN: A REFLECTIVE ANALYSIS 1

The Faces of Homelessness Campaign: A Reflective Analysis

The rise of homelessness in Florida is astounding. The 2012 Annual Homeless

Assessment Report, issued by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, states

that Florida witnessed a 14.8% increase. However, in that same duration, homelessness declined

5.7% nationally. Florida accounts for 8.7% of all homeless individuals in the United States; this

represents the third biggest population of homeless persons in the nation. Between 2012 and

2013, the figure of homeless people in Orange County rose from 2,281 to 2,937; this positions

Orange County fourth for the highest amount of homeless people in Florida. Additionally,

Orange County accounts for the largest number of homeless students with 4,844. Despite the fact

that there are many positive programs and organizations that aid and assist the homeless, the

recurrent rise of homelessness in Central Florida is bleak. This paper desires to accurately

evaluate the rhetorical strategies and methods employed throughout the Faces of Homelessness

Campaign. Our campaign specifically aims to raise awareness and combat the rise of

homelessness in Orange County, Florida. We strive to do this by changing the misconceptions

and stereotypes that are associated with the homeless. Principally, our desired target audience is

the University of Central Florida student body. The information, photos, and stories contained in

our blog will be examined. Furthermore, the social media platforms utilized to most effectively

reach our audience will be analyzed. These evaluations are provided to see how effectively the

rhetorical ideologies and methods learned throughout this semester were developed through this

campaign.

Several key rhetorical strategies can be detected in our Faces of Homelessness Campaign.

Several pathos and emotional appeals were productively utilized through the depiction and use of

sympathetic characters. Likewise, our campaign is supported and strengthened through the

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THE FACES OF HOMELESSNESS CAMPAIGN: A REFLECTIVE ANALYSIS 2

rhetorical appeals made to the visual culture. Lastly, character is established by our use of

practical wisdom, goodwill and virtue. Wholly, The Faces of Homelessness campaign combines

an emotionally and visually compelling blog with a strong presence on social media to create and

unify a successful campaign.

Pathos and emotional appeals consistently remained the focus of our campaign. Thus it

became imperative to firstly consider the emotional state of our audience to successfully make

pathos appeals. However, it became noticeable that our audience was chiefly apathetic in regards

to the homeless. Efforts to make emotional entreaties to a largely unconcerned group of

individuals provided numerous constraints. As a result, the development of sympathetic

characters became the rhetorical strategy used in our campaign in order to invoke emotion and

create identification. A sympathetic character is an individual that readers, or audiences, are able

to sympathize or relate to (Canning & Reinsborough, 2013). Our objective was to create

identification between our audience and the homeless through the use of relatable, sympathetic

characters on our blog. The homeless individuals are consequently portrayed through personal

photographs with short quotes or stories. These photos principally focus on the facial expressions

of the homeless individuals in order to create identification through shared physical

characteristics. Though our audience may not be able to relate on a psychological level, one

cannot deny or dehumanize the unifying physical and biological characteristics that we all share.

Additionally, our quotes and short stories helped aid in establishing identification. The

captivating photograph and story of “Katie the Aspiring Medical Student,” allows our audience

to identify with her demographically on a basis of shared student status (Arnold, 2014). These

stories de-emphasized our sympathetic characters’ homelessness and focused on the

individualistic and humanizing aspects of who they are. These pathos appeals were employed in

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THE FACES OF HOMELESSNESS CAMPAIGN: A REFLECTIVE ANALYSIS 3

order to alter the perceptions much of our audience holds towards the homeless. Ultimately, The

Faces of Homelessness campaign decreased constraints that arose from indifference among UCF

students, regarding the homeless, through the use of these rhetorical methods.

Through the use of sympathetic characters and identification we lessened some of the

constraints surrounding this particular exigence. However, it was necessary for our emotional

appeals to be in a medium that effectively catered and fully involved our audience. In a

generation dominated by visual imagery and social media presences, we determined that the

most successful rhetorical medium would be a blog featuring photographs that induced symbolic

action. This blog was promoted through our various social media platforms in order to reach our

target audience successfully. Thus, our campaign is strengthened by the creation of a virtual

experience through a predominantly photographic blog appealing to the visual culture. Visuals

are powerful because they create presence and immediacy. According to Rhetoric and Civic Life,

“Visuals are a powerful example of presentational symbolism because they create virtual

experiences in a particularly intense way, by making audience members feel as though they were

present to witness an event” (Palczewski, Ice & Fritch, 2012, p.62). Additionally, in Explore

Beautiful Trouble, a primary principle of a successful campaign is to show your message through

visuals rather than badgering or telling your audience what to think (Canning, Reinsborough &

Buckland, 2013). Our rhetorical ideas were most efficiently and persuasively displayed through

the creation of our virtual experience. Our display of rhetorical ideas provided for us the most

effective means of altering the perceptions of our audience. In general, our strong social media

presence combined with the immediacy of a primarily visual display, through our blog, was the

best rhetorical procedure in reaching and persuading our audience.

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THE FACES OF HOMELESSNESS CAMPAIGN: A REFLECTIVE ANALYSIS 4

As young, female students with diminutive social power, our need to establish character

and credibility became obvious to eliminate constraints that this produced. We establish

character through the use of practical wisdom, goodwill and virtue. Practical wisdom exhibits

itself through our decision to provide current informative statistics on specific pages of our blog.

The page “Our Campaign” features content issued by the 2013 Council on Homelessness Report.

The information is condensed so that it is succinctly summarized and easily accessed. In

addition, links are provided under the “Articles/Links” page to verify and confirm the authority

of the information. These factual reports all showcase the sound reasoning and common sense

used through our attempt to establish credibility. Furthermore it marginally establishes expert

power, or the power stemming from knowledge. Virtue is defined in Rhetoric and Civic Life as:

“the value the audience considers worthy of merit” (Palczewski, Ice, & Fritch, 2012, p.153).

Virtue is established in our campaign through generosity, kindness, and moral excellence. Our

audience is able to assess and observe the virtue and goodwill exercised, in our relations with the

homeless, through our blog. The interviews, the stories, and our dealings with the homeless all

contribute to establishing virtue. Thus, through the use of current homeless statistics, the placed

interest of the homeless above our own interests, and the virtuous characteristics exhibited on our

blog we construct ethos and a positive social image.

In conclusion, the constraints our group faced in regards to efficiently reaching and

persuading our audience were numerous. However, rhetorical strategies utilizing sympathetic

characters and identification diminished constraints that arose from audience indifference. In

addition, we made appeals to the virtual world through emotional imagery and consistent

powerful presences on social media. These rhetorical methods decreased many limitations that

arose from our need to most effectively and persuasively display our rhetorical ideas to reach an

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THE FACES OF HOMELESSNESS CAMPAIGN: A REFLECTIVE ANALYSIS 5

unresponsive audience. Lastly, restrictions arose from the necessity to establish credibility to our

audience. These constraints were tackled by constructing character through practical wisdom,

goodwill, and virtue as seen on our blog. In conclusion, The Faces of Homelessness campaign

excellently developed many rhetorical methods learned throughout this semester to, ultimately,

persuade and alter the perceptions of our audience.

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THE FACES OF HOMELESSNESS CAMPAIGN: A REFLECTIVE ANALYSIS 6

References

Arnold, E,. The Faces of Homelessness. Retrieved April 22, 2014, from

http://thefacesofhomelessness.wordpress.com/

Canning, D., Reinsborough, P. (2013). Lead with sympathetic characters. Explore Beautiful

Trouble. Retrieved from http://beautifultrouble.org/principle/lead-with-sympathetic-

characters/

Canning, D., Reinsborough, P., Buckland, K. (2013). Show, don’t tell. Explore Beautiful

Trouble. Retrieved from http://beautifultrouble.org/principle/show-dont-tell/

Palczewski, C. H., Ice, R., & Fritch, J. (2012). Rhetoric in civic life. State College, PA: Strata

Pub.