It has a rhetorical aspect in that it is not just giving us a history lesson; it also argues other

things. It argues that media is used as a social tool to promote activism.

“The lense through which the film is viewed.”

Thesis: Selma also persuades its viewers of the pivotal role of media in shaping the Civil

Rights Movement and stresses its ongoing pervasiveness in today’s society and issues. It

does this by using the rhetorical devices of perspective, emotional appeals, and

arrangement, and to emphasize the importance of media.

Paragraph 1: Topic sentence: One of the rhetorical devices employed in the film is

perspective. The presence of a tall, Caucasian reporter in a telephone booth during the

“Bloody Sunday” scene forces viewers to see the event through a different lens, which

affects its meaning to the viewers.

Paragraph 3: Topic Sentence: A third technique the film uses is arrangement to argue

for a set of causes and effects. In this situation, the cause is media and the effect is

change. Media directly affects President Johnson’s reputation, thereby indirectly

persuading him to initiate change through the Voting Rights Bill.

The film Selma is itself an example of media being used rhetorically, and

throughout the film shows just how influential this kind of rhetoric can be.