This is a student's reading draft that improved a good bit between this point and when she was finished with it, but it should give you something of an idea about how you might approach this assignment.

As Brooks Jackson and Kathleen Hall Jamieson say in chapter 7 of Un-Spun Finding Facts in a World of [Disinformation], “ Weighing the trustworthiness of any website requires a bit of what investors and lawyers call due diligence” (144). This basically means that before you make any decision regarding an important issue, even issues not related to politics or analyzing websites that you need to do your research or a little background checking before you fall into a trap of deception. Throughout my research and digging I found that the PBS Savvy Voter Guide has very informative tools to help dissect a political ad or even in this matter a political website. We will discuss how appeal, emotion-communicating faces, and depicted actions help Barack Obama get his idea for change across to the public through his campaign website. In chapter 7 Jackson and Jamieson show us many ways to use “due diligence” to decipher whether information on the internet is accurate or just plain biased. Keep in mind that since we are analyzing Obama’s site, it is obviously going to be mostly partisan since he is a democratic representative. He’s not going to spend his time telling people why republicans are so great. There should be good evidence though to support his reasoning behind why he is the only one that is going to bring “change” and “hope” to society even though he and Senator Hillary Clinton are still duking it out for the democratic nominee.

The introduction gets most of what is called for by the assignment, except for a clear thesis. The writer has not yet made it clear some point of interest or importance about the website that will create a context in which the following points can be explained.

An appeal is the center of the ad or the website. It is the main point that the candidate wants to touch on. As I look at the intro page for Obama’s website it is easy to see that his main appeal is “change” or that he is going to bring hope to people around the country. A big red box stands out stating DONATE NOW and own a part of this campaign. But the sky and royal blue background bring on a reassuring and refreshing sense to his site, you almost feel safe by being on this site. It makes a lot of sense, to be able to bring change and hope into people’s lives you have to make them feel safe. As I enter the site I notice a passage at the top that states, “I’m asking you to believe”.. Again he wants to reassure people and make them feel safe.

The paragraph starts with a good topic statement and some explanation as to why that point matters. However, when the donation button is discussed, the focus of the paragraph is drifting from the appeal, the argument, of the site, to something else. The paragraph continues to meander one could say, but it does come back to some notion of the appeal, though not in an explicit way.

Change is a very good appeal, but let’s finds out if his site has details on what he is going to do to make this change happen and refresh the American public with hope. He uses a lot of “emotion-communicating faces” to show how in tune he is with the issues at hand. Again back to the intro page on the site, it shows a smiling Obama waiving to a crowd with supporters behind him holding “Change We Can Believe In” signs. Him smiling shows he is an emotional human being just like the rest of us. It shows that he doesn’t have to be tough and serious all the time to get his point across, like his opponents. Again this is something people can relate to. The public wants someone they can identify with on all levels even emotional levels. As we enter the site again, right next to the quote about believing you see a serious faced Obama this time. He obviously wants people to see that he is serious about making the public believe in change. Change is not a joke; change is what he wants to make happen. All over his page you see him with different facial expressions, showing he is a human being and not a puppet for congress to control.

This paragraph does a better job of illustrating the point, but not as good with the topic statement and the explanation as to why the topic matters, both of which are largely absent. Again, because there is no clear thesis, there is no context within which to explain why the point matters, so that doesn't happen.

“Depicted actions” are not as widely used on Obama’s website, but the ones he does use are very descriptive. Back to the intro page once more. As I mentioned before, he was waiving at a crowd while smiling. Him waiving to the people shows that he is a people person with communicative skills. This also falls back to making people feel safe with a vote for Obama. He wants people to feel like they can talk to him and relate to him on all levels. Back to the main page, you’ll see pictures accompanied by news columns and samples of campaign videos that show him talking to crowds, waiving at people, shaking people’s hands, lecturing with a serious look on his face, and many other actions that show how he is in reacting to people and questions about issues that our country faces. In the end it all remains the same that he wants to be known as the people person or maybe just a good friend to everyone, maybe so people talk about him like they might talk about an experienced grandfather who has thousands of stories to tell. His site also shows that he wants to be the people’s person because he has accounts with numerous social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook, You Tube, and Twitter.

As with the first point, readers are informed right away about what the paragraph will cover. The explanation as to why the point matters is missing, but there are a number of examples provided to show how the topic is working on the site. There is some explanation or analysis, but because there is no clear claim to tie everything together, the explanation is largely unfocused.

“Due Diligence” is a very important tool to use in deciphering any ad or website, political or not. Throughout the digging through Obama’s site I really didn’t find too much evidence that actually backs his reasoning behind why he is the one that is going to change everything in the American society. The fact still remains that Obama really seems a lot more humanly than the other candidates because of his effort to show the public how much alike he is to everyone else in society, whether it be lower class or higher class he also relates to everyone in between as well. Researching and questioning everything you see is the only way to know what is really going on, because if you don’t take the time to do that then you may already be wrapped up in a never ending ball of spin with no flash light to find your way out.

The conclusion does a good job by coming back to the idea in the passage that kicked off the discussion, but because there is no clear thesis, that point can't be driven home. The final sentence is heading toward something with regard to spin and the website, but it's not so explicit as it could be to make things abundantly clear.