Rhetorical Analysis of the Wonkblog
Hosted by the Washington Post, the Wonkblog employs journalists who write about domestic policy, economics and politics with the intention of being an alternative to the Washington Post. Although the Wonkblog exists to delve into social, political, or economic issues much like the Washington Post itself, the authors’ take on these topics from a social issues standpoint is what makes the blog appealing to the audience of working millennials. And just like its parent, the Washington Post, the Wonkblog emphasizes professional journalistic writing, stressing the intellectual standards of of logic, accuracy, and breadth.
The target audience of the Wonkblog is that of young working adults and it serves as an alternative to the Washington Post. For example, when it comes to talking about business, the Wonkblog focuses on companies generally familiar with a younger working audience. Looking at business related posts going back a few weeks, one blog post talks about the decline in sales of K-cups and K-cup machines while another talks about Chipotle falling sales. Although these two companies are struggling as the Wonkblog posts pointed out, the blog does not mention all the recent news about plunging profits of the major oil companies, nor the volatility the stock market has been recently displaying. This is because the Wonkblog’s target audience is young working adults, and things like oil prices and the performance of the DJIA are generally not of concern to that demographic. K-cup machines are popular among young working people, and are found commonplace in an office-style work environment. Chipotle also markets itself at young, working, health-conscious millennials. The Wonkblog, being aware of this, mainly focuses its economic and business posts limited to companies and topics of interest to the younger working population.
When it comes to politics and even the economy, the Wonkblog attempts to take these posts from a social issues perspective since social issues are important to millennials. One example of that is a post from a week ago that talks about a study that shows evidence of voter ID laws favoring white Republicans. Another post from last week talks about how Donald Trump’s accent stereotypes him as a “blunt, no-nonsense New Yorker.” The post also quoted a linguistics PhD candidate saying that anywhere in the world, people who are considered to speak the “bad” version of a language are marginalized, rural, poor, or a minority. This once again highlights Wonkblog’s goal of pleasing its target audience of working millennials by looking at politics from a perspective they like, which in this case is social issues centered around equality. Even posts that seem to have an innocuous title, like “the fairest--and funniest--way to split a restaurant bill” end up focusing on social issues. The description for the post about splitting a restaurant bill goes on to say “how to talk to all the white men at your dinner table about inequality.”
Although there are about five or six authors working for the Wonkblog covering a broad range of topics from Chipotle to Donald Trump, they all end up presenting themselves in a similar way. They all write from a third person perspective, never once referencing to themselves, although there are a few rare exceptions. The posts also read much like a news article, including having paragraphs broken up into short blocks like one would see in a newspaper. Nearly every single blog post uses at least one outside source, whether it be a researcher, professor, or a professional related to the topic. This is because the Wonkblog is riding on the reputation of the Washington Post to provide professionally written content, and in order to meet that expectation, the Wonkblog’s posts are written in a professional journalistic style. Although the readers of the Wonkblog may not be reading the Washington Post itself, they are still expecting the same level of quality for the content.
The Wonkblog does a good job of meeting all of the intellectual standards of critical and creative thinking. However, some of these standards are especially apparent throughout the blog, such as the use of logic, accuracy, and breadth. For instance, the post about Donald Trump’s New York accent strongly embraces these three intellectual standards. As discussed earlier, Trump's accent gives him an image of a “blunt, no-nonsense New Yorker.” The writer provides a logical explanation as to why Trump does that, and why it possibly contributed to Trump’s success. Using a linguistics professor as a source of quotes and information, the author explains that Trump uses this accent to appear competent, blunt, and even decisive, which according to the polls are the important qualities in a candidate for Republican voters. The author also notes that Obama will also speak differently based on an audience. “When he gives speeches at black churches, for instance, his voice develops a twang,” the author wrote. The author concludes the post by saying that due to the social significance people attach to accents, “the way that a politician talks becomes a rhetorical tool--another way to connect with voters or to burnish a certain public image.” The author of this post shows a mastery of the intellectual standard of logic by being not only explain why Trump talks the way he does, but also tie it into Trump’s success and the success of other politicians who used similar strategies.
Accuracy is also a major intellectual standard that the author upheld. Not only is the post free from error, the author goes above and beyond to include multiple linguistics professionals, including professors, to back his claims. Lastly, the author upholds the intellectual standard of breadth by looking at this from more than one perspective. Using the linguistics professors as a source, the author explored linguistic discrimination to explain why people modify their natural accents to appeal to certain groups, showing that this is more complex than just Trump being Trump.
Although just one post, the one about Trump, is used an example of intellectual standards for consistency, other posts even by different authors similarly uphold the intellectual standards. For example, the post about declining K-cup sales presents its evidence in a way that expands on the breadth intellectual standard. The post talks about multiple reasons behind the decline of K-cup sales, including a surprising observation related to the increased income of Americans. "Americans, suddenly finding themselves with fatter wallets, are paying to buy coffee prepared by other people again," the author said. The post then went on to talk about consumer awareness of the environmental impact of K-cups being another factor in the decline of sales. Rather than fixating on one possible cause behind the decline of sales, the author focuses on multiple possible reasons, demonstrating the mastery of the intellectual standard of breadth. And like the other post about Trump, this author also uses multiple professionals and industry analysts as sources to demonstrate how the intellectual standard of accuracy is consistently upheld throughout the blog and even among different blog writers.
Although just one post, the one about Trump, is used an example of intellectual standards for consistency, other posts even by different authors similarly uphold the intellectual standards. For example, the post about declining K-cup sales presents its evidence in a way that expands on the breadth intellectual standard. The post talks about multiple reasons behind the decline of K-cup sales, including a surprising observation related to the increased income of Americans. "Americans, suddenly finding themselves with fatter wallets, are paying to buy coffee prepared by other people again," the author said. The post then went on to talk about consumer awareness of the environmental impact of K-cups being another factor in the decline of sales. Rather than fixating on one possible cause behind the decline of sales, the author focuses on multiple possible reasons, demonstrating the mastery of the intellectual standard of breadth. And like the other post about Trump, this author also uses multiple professionals and industry analysts as sources to demonstrate how the intellectual standard of accuracy is consistently upheld throughout the blog and even among different blog writers.
Overall, the Wonkblog presents itself as an alternative or an introduction to the Washington Post for working millennials by focusing on topics that millennials care about. These topics range from restaurants and brands that millennials are familiar with or frequent, or news, politics, and economics from a social issues perspective emphasizing equality. Although the Wonkblog is maintained by several people, they all use the same journalistic techniques and uphold the intellectual standards in order to show that they can be professional outside the Washington Post as well.
Sources:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/02/12/the-poor-are-better-off-when-we-build-more-housing-for-the-rich/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/02/03/down-go-coffee-pods/
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