Week 5, Column 5: SOAPSTone
Will L.A. really be Alec Baldwin's kind of town?
Occasion:
March 6th, 2014, posted on the LATimes website. The Larger occasion, as Daum mentions, is that the incurable hothead, Alec Baldwin, is moving to Los Angeles. The immediate occasion, however, is Baldwin's belief in the strength and protection of the walls well known in the famous city for protecting the famous. |
Audience:
Through Daum’s carefree posting and mellow words, it is easy to identify that the writing is aimed mostly towards Alec Baldwin, who, according to Daum, does not know much about the topic, but the writing is also aimed towards an informed audience: people who have and understand all of the facts before them. Daum mentions specific, detailed facts about the city of Los Angeles that only those who have live there for a long time would understand. |
Purpose:
Meghan Daum’s purposes are never personal. Her purpose in this article is to sprightly exhale all of her knowledge on L.A. in order to argue about the bear-ability of it for a celebrity like Baldwin. The author appeals to her audience's ethos by spilling out all of her personal experiences. She repeatedly mentions the pros and cons of her topic to show that she understands both sides of her argument. |
Subject:
The subject of Meghan Daum’s article is the city of Los Angeles. Daum elaborates on the city's positive and negative, according to celebrities, and repeatedly references Alec Baldwin's superstitions about L.A. According to Daum, Baldwin believes L.A. to be "a place where you can live behind a gate, you get in your car, your interaction with the public is minimal." |
Tone:
Daum displays a favorable tone throughout her entire post. Through her tone, Daum relays facts confidently to the audience and clearly executes her argument while giving the impression that Alec Baldwin's accurate knowledge on the topic is minimal. |
Highlight of the Week: Audience
Meghan Daum's audience in this article is different from her previous articles because it consists of two different categories. The first category that the article is aimed towards includes those people who are informed on the topic: people who have and understand all of the facts before them. The people that make up this particular group know all there is the know about the city of Los Angeles, whether or not they actually find the city appealing. Daum makes this apparent through her scrupulous definitions of L.A. The second category that the article is aimed towards consists of only one person: Alec Baldwin. Daum describes him as a "self-congratulatory philanthropist and incurable hothead" and believes that, even though he lets his superstitions of Los Angeles drive him into continuing his life there, it might actually be the perfect place to turn his nightmare of unleashing endless offensive epithets without serious judgement into reality.
Link to the full article:
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/commentary/la-oe-0306-daum-alec-baldwin-new-york-20140306,0,3035160.column#ixzz2w8gVSzY4
Link to the full article:
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/commentary/la-oe-0306-daum-alec-baldwin-new-york-20140306,0,3035160.column#ixzz2w8gVSzY4