CNN: I Wanted to Be the Last Thing They Heard, Not the Gunfire

While the United States mourns over the loss of 26 lives due to a school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, new and reassuring stories of the incident continue to emerge over the weekend, helping comfort Americans about the self-lessness that is human nature.
Janet Vollmer, a Kindergarten teacher at Sandy Hook Elementary School, comforted her kids during the lockdown by reading to them. She wanted them to know that they were all going to be fine, as long as they are together. After leading them to the bathroom and hiding everyone there for a while, the police escorted all of the kids, all of whom were covering their eyes, to the firehouse nearby.
Chelsea J. Carter, author of this article, is a writer for CNN. This article is written during the weekend focusing around the second worst school shooting in US history. Other than the small community of Newtown, the whole nation is slowly absorbing what happened, stunned and wondering how the government will handle the even more controversial gun safety issue. The purpose of this article was to shed some light over the heroes in yet another horrible gun tragedy in the US. There is no particular audience for the piece other than the American public, since this truly should affect everyone and reveal a need for some serious reforms. A rhetorical element used in this article is appealing to emotions, otherwise known as pathos. In this technique, the author taps into the readers emotions, making them attached to the article. Carter applies this tactic very usefully, since my parents recommended me this article based on how "catchy" it was.

Red Bull Flugtag Commercial

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mD8D1GrrWU8

This commercial was for the Red Bull Flugtag tour in 2010, visiting cities such as Miami and Philadelphia. Flugtag is a very unique event because it is not necessarily competitive or talented as much as it is showmanship and comical. Teams from all around the world perform by building an airplane, acting out a sketch beforehand, and finally riding the plane off of a giant platform into the water.
The context in which this commercial is centered around is the 2010 tour, which was by far the largest tour in history. Perhaps the reason this tour was so successful was because of the commercial itself, since its purpose was to attract people into coming to one of the events. The audience of this advertisement is anyone in the areas mentioned in the commercial that might be interested in seeing flugtag. This is where is gets tricky to the advertisers. Because flugtag is such a unique sport, one might notice that it was presented in the commercial in the same manner.
Some of the rhetorical elements and strategies in this commercial were very different and unorthodox, yet fitting for a "sport" like flugtag. As seen in the advertisement, a very cheesy song is played with footage of many of the bloopers is past events. To someone unfamiliar with flugtag, it may be very confusing, which can also arouse curiosity about the sport. I think that the advertisement was very effective in terms of getting the message across about the attitude towards flugtag as well as making people laugh, wanting to learn more about it, and come to events. 

NPR: No Deal on 'Fiscal Cliff' Without Tax Increase on Rich, Geithner Says

This article focuses on the United States' Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, and his perspective toward the debate about what to do with the expiration of some major tax cuts and budget plans known as the "Fiscal Cliff". There are two main arguments about the situation: letting the planned tax increases and budget cuts go through into 2013, which will slow U.S. growth but help the deficit; or canceling some of the tax increases, which will allow the debt to continue to rise. Geithner supports President Obama's plan to increase taxes and cut spending by moving the money around to different programs; House Speaker John Boehner rejects this offer as a "non-serious proposal." It concludes with a cliffhanger (no pun intended), stating Geithner's words, "they're going to have to figure out the politics on what to do next."

The author of this article, Krishnadev Calamur, is an author and editor at NPR, one of the nation's largest public radio companies. The context of this article is around the current issue that could turn into a crisis, which leads many Americans to be concerned. Calamur's purpose is to inform his audience of Americans further about the Fiscal Cliff by showing an undervalued but credible perspective.
By far the most effective rhetorical element that Calamur used was the unbiased, objective tone used in the piece. This attracts both sides of the political spectrum to read the article and assess Geither's perspective. In my opinion, Calamur used this strategy very successfully to accomplish his goal because there are very few articles nowadays that stay away from polarizing their audience and labeling themselves as a conservative or liberal writer.