Artifact Analysis

I am writing this blog post for my Persuasion communications class at Old Dominion University. We had the task of choosing a movie and then analyzing and explaining where persuasion fits into the movie and how it is used. For my movie, I chose ‘10 Things I Hate About You’ directed by Gil Junger. This movie is a great example of persuasion because it is used almost entirely throughout the movie and with a lot of the characters. In the beginning of the movie, Bianca was trying to persuade her dad to let him go to parties and hang out with boys. The character is a young, blonde, pretty girl who is striving to be popular. The movie makes the viewers not trust this character because she is going behind her dad and sisters back just to try and become popular. Her sister, on the other hand, Kat, seems to be more trusting to the viewers because it is known that she is passionate about issues and is not interested in partying, just about social issues and school work since their mom died. The movie persuades you into trusting Kat more because she is older than her sister and it is perceived that she knows more as well.

There is also persuasion being used in the movie with trying to get Kat to go on a date and to parties so that Bianca can go as well. Bianca and Cameron, the boy who is interested in Bianca, convince Patrick, who is this troubled student who everyone is afraid of, to ask Kat out and he keeps trying to persuade her throughout the entire movie. Towards the end, the movie also persuaded its audience to let loose sometimes and that it is okay to allow yourself to have fun. Not only did Kat and Patrick end up falling in love, their dad Walter also learned that it was okay to let his daughters have some fun because he can trust them to make their own wise decisions. The movie ending is a feel-good type of movie and when I was done watching it, it made me reflect on the fact that sometimes I am like Kat, and I stop myself from having fun because I don't think I can or I’m allowed to. Seeing that it worked out in the end for her gave me reassurance that if I were to do the same, nothing bad would happen. The Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) comes into play there with that. I already had a certain attitude towards parties in high school and also having a boyfriend. I was more against parties because I always thought that if I went, I would get in so much trouble and possibly expelled. I am not too sure what made me think that, if it was my parents telling me that would happen or if I saw too many tv shows or movies where students got expelled or detention for stuff like that. You can turn on your tv and watch almost any tv show about highschoolers and at least one episode will probably be about detention for acting up. I was terrified of that happening and then not being able to get into the college I wanted. However, once I watched this movie, it gave me a sense of comfort knowing that detention is not the end of the world and that it is okay to have a love life and also be able to get good grades at the same time.

This movie is more targeted towards the age range between about 14-18 because it is based off of high school students and their goal was to go to parties and have fun. I watched this movie for the first time when I was in high school and it had a bigger impact on me than it did when I watched it again this week as a college student. The social judgment theory (SJT) also plays a part in this movie because if someone is 100% against parents letting their kids go to parties and have fun, they might have a more critical outlook on this movie and think that the girls should not have been allowed to do any of the things they did. The Theory of Reasoned Actions (TRA) model is at work in this movie because there are a lot of stereotypes in this movie and what people consider to be normal. You see a lot of media portraying highschool to be easy and all about who is popular and all of the cool parties. Using those stereotypes allows the producers to get more people interested in watching the movie and have better opinions about how they feel with the characters partying since they know about the topic.

Persuasion is a powerful tactic that everyone uses, whether the person is aware of it or not. You see it used in everyday conversations, jobs, advertisements, and even in movies and social media. If you were to open Youtube or Tiktok, you will see creators doing ads to get money. Since it is someone we follow and like, we are more likely to purchase the said item because we trust the person's judgment. In movies and media, some of them portray something to be bad or good. There are ads out there about smoking and they show someone who has or has had cancer or any other horrible side effect from smoking. Or, there are commercials that show how good something is and that everyone who buys it is happy. In the future, I will definitely be more cautious about if I am buying something because I want it, or because the advertisement was so good that it made me believe I wanted it. Also, I will be more cautious of the tactics people use to persuade you in a conversation and be more aware about that.

Cragan, J. F., & Shields, D.C. (1998). Understanding communication theory: The communicative forces for human action. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon. p. 12

10 Things I hate about you. (1999).

Staats, H. (2004). Theory of reasoned action. Theory of Reasoned Action - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics. Retrieved October 6, 2022, from https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/theory-of-reasoned-action

Wagner, B. C., & Petty, R. E. (2011). The elaboration likelihood model of persuasion: Thoughtful and non-thougful social influence. In D. Chadee (Ed.), Theories in social psychology (pp. 96-116). Oxford: Blackwell.