Propaganda Assignment: Entertainment

EntertainmentName-calling

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1Yt0xJKDY8

A.      Mariah Carey is the artist with the idea for the video. Obviously, there were producers and a director who helped her create the video. She actually created the video about the rapper Eminem. The producers and Mariah are probably just trying to gain publicity by mocking him. Publicity is a big thing in Hollywood these days because it means the attention is set on you, which brings up your popularity to the public.

B.      The target audience would be her fans, because they would find it funny that her song is about another musician. The fact that she is mocking Eminem could also affect the general public; however, his fans may not be pleased about it. Eminem retaliated by making his own song bashing Mariah.

C.      The propaganda technique of name calling is used in this video when she says words like, “obsessed”, “delusional” and “confused”. Although these words are not explicit in any way, the connotations that they imply are negative, implying that Eminem is sort of desperate for Mariah. However, she does not show any proof of this in her lyrics or her video. She is just calling him these words to emphasize the reason she created this song and video is the first place. In the video, she also mocks him by playing her own counterpart, dressed up in the typical Eminem attire. This just aids her in mocking ways.

D.      To defend yourself against name-calling, you can ask yourself the following:
1) Find the true meaning of the words (obsessed, delusional, confused). Does Carey have any     connection to these words? Does Eminem?

2)      Do I support the idea (if I take out the negative words)?

3)      Examine the idea independently (from the language being used)

E.       MariahCareyVEVO. Re: “Mariah Carey – Obsessed.” Online posting. November 25, 2009. YouTube. March 2, 2011. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1Yt0xJKDY8 >.