My initial response after listening to this podcast is a mixture of conflicting feelings. These conflicting feelings are arriving due to the fact that so much was touched upon within the podcast. Beginning very negatively, I felt ashamed listening to the content of the podcast and embarrassed that I may be associated with the people first interviewed in it. The opposing feeling comes from the end of the podcast, displaying a much more positive outlook with the final act surrounding the “WE ARE” chant, so famously exemplifying who we are as members of this university.
I’m torn, probably because I’m not a partier. I recognize that a lot of people do party and I don’t judge or act unfavorable towards them. Honestly, I am friends with a lot of them. Everyone is different so everyone has different personal opinions. For me, partying isn’t as accessible or wanted at this moment in my life. I have a lot of other things that don’t allow me the time, need or want to party. So here I may become biased because I feel like some of the people interviewed/or discussed were acting so stupid, for example, the young girls attacking the police car who acting so disrespectfully towards him. Did they know they would be on a podcast for the whole world to hear? Probably not, but even so, it’s embarrassing for other university students, even partiers, to be judged and become victims of the persona that others have created.
I’m proud to be a Penn State student, but am I ashamed too? I might be if I acted in the manner that some people interviewed in the podcast did, but I don’t. I shouldn’t be ashamed for other people’s actions because they are embarrassing themselves. While some might take a different approach, I feel that the university is large enough to hold a variety of stereotypical groups, not just the “partiers”. I don’t have to be associated with them if I make it known that I am not. Rather than worrying about our pride, we should be more focused on the safety of our students. With safety will come better choices and therefore better outcomes. To me, that is much more worthy of pride than being considered the number one party school in America, but again, that’s a personal opinion. I’m not for banning alcohol in the University, but I do believe action can be taken to limit it so as to not inflict on those, such as the neighbors, who do not want to be a part of it.
Many appeals occurred throughout the podcast. I noticed logos a lot throughout it. Credibility of many subjects came up, including the survey that ranked us “#1 party school”. Graham Spanier himself quoted that the “students vote” therefore we were ranked #1 for a reason right? He insinuated that we are ranked number one because students want to be number one, we want to be number one in everything, including football, mascot, partying, etc. He has a point. The fact that Graham Spanier was quoted several times and audio of him was used allows for better logos of the production company of this podcast. With the President speaking, it must be pretty legit, right? I thought so.
Ethos is obviously used too, we all have arguments within this situation, and so we all have claims. For the students, the claim is that it’s college and according to the one fraternity member, when else will we get to do this? He has a point too. This may lead to the questions like, when does it become too much though? This claim is that of those held responsible, the University, it’s staff, Graham Spanier, the alumni, etc. Another claim in this podcast is the podcast itself. They are making a point to shed light on the University’s drinking problem because that is the sole topic, so of course every effort has been made to expose it. I do believe though that the podcast presented it professionally and made it personal, they included many recognizable on campus locations such as McLanahan’s, Indigo, Beaver Stadium etc. This helped in its claim and credibility as well as constantly providing listeners with nation-wide statistics and research about university students and drinking habits.
One major appeal to logos in this podcast too was the research and discussion of the most recent alcohol related death of a PSU student. The interviewers/narrators provided insight into the ordeal, why and how it happened and what the University did afterwards.
Overall, I felt that this podcast was intriguing and done respectfully. It defined PSU through the perspectives of many, including community dwellers, students, police force, and even staff. The definitions seemed accurate to me and were a mix of positive and negative. I feel that there is still an issue here to be addressed but I also think that the University will remain much the way it is because it is loved so much by its growing abundance of students and alumni.
