My first impression of the first website, this is Real, was that the bird that flew across the screen really caught my eye. Then when the bird fell over and died, I knew that it had to do with the burning of coal. The website was implying that coal burning kills the wildlife. The animations for the introduction of this website really caught my eyes because it was entertaining to see all that happening and made me want to look more into the site.
The first impression that I had of the other website, Americas Power, was that this was the more serious website of the two and that it was setup in a more professional standpoint than that of the other website. It did not have any animations to make it cheesy and it was well organized with many statistics and recent news tabs. Initially I would say that the America’s Power website has better sources and appeal given the seriousness of the topic. By just taking a glance at the websites, one could distinctly tell which website was on which side of the coal energy topic.
The debate that the, this is real, website has is that there is no such thing as clean coal. It is said that the leading cause of global warming is due to coal burning. On the other hand, the Americas Power, website debates that Americas most abundant and affordable fuel source is coal and that they are working on making the burning of coal more eco friendly.
The audiences differ between the two websites. This is reality website, they try to aim their audience toward environmental activists whereas the other website, Americas Power, aims their audience toward the general consumer who are more interested in cheap energy instead of environmental protection.
The people that support the first website are all environmental and wildlife friendly groups. These groups include the League of Conservation Voters, Natural Resources Defense Council, National Wildlife Federation, and the Sierra Club, just to name the major groups. The other website, Americas Power, is represented by the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity and a bunch of other coal burning company’s. Both the websites have credible sources but it just depends on which side the person is standing. The first website has more environmental facts whereas the other website has more facts about using coal as energy in the U.S.
The emotional appeals that the first website shows are the appeals of environmental friendly supporters where as the other website appeals to a broad consumer base with incentives for cheap energy. These appeals are effective to both parties because it gives hard evidence to support the thinking of each party.
The visual expression in both the sites give effective rhetorical strategies because there are useful facts and statistics to support each position and with good facts a person can persuade people that know less about the topic than they do.
I find that the first website is more persuasive to my appeal because coal isn’t a clean source of energy but at the same time I do think that it is inexpensive and readily available to the public to use so I think as of this point in time I will continue to use coal energy.
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Sam, I agree with you that the bird flying across the screen in the This is Reality's site definitely catches the eye and makes a good point. But, like you said I believe that Americas Power is the more serious site. Also, I agree with you that coal right now is not a clean energy source. American Power though did a good job trying to convince me that they are trying to clean it up. They have invested a lot of money, and it has gotten somewhat cleaner. I completely agree with you though on the point that you make with saying that coal is inexpensive and a very readily available resource. Coal makes so many things possible for American's and the fact is American probably would not be American without coal. Something just needs to be to clean it up.
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