Corey Caldwell
Comm320-Green
Paper 4
April 8, 2016
Promoting A Social Cause
There are a variety of social issues that can be better understood through
knowing how appeals to cultural values are used in persuasive messages. The
organization that peaked my interest the most was the Be a STAR organization, an anti-
bullying organization. The Be a STAR organization has a broad audience that allures to
a large demographic, and also uses various appeals such as value of the individual,
ethical equality, puritan and pioneer morality, and change and progress to promote their
cause.
In terms of the purpose and audience of the Be a STAR organization, the first
paragraph of their webpage states “Be a STAR, WWE’s anti-bullying initiative, has the
mission to encourage young people to treat each other with respect through education
and grassroots initiatives. Be a STAR promotes positive methods of social interaction
and encourages people to treat others as equals and with respect because everyone is
a star in their own right” (“Be a STAR”, 2016). Additionally, if you scroll toward the end of
the page, there is a line in large, black, bold letters that says ‘Resources For You,’ and
listed below it gives the option to click on three different links for parents, for teachers,
and for students. That being said, I would also say that the webpage is directed at
parents who believe their children might be getting bullied, teachers who have bullies or
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students being bullied in their school and/or classroom, and for students who are being
bullied.
The Be a STAR organization uses a wide range of appeals to values, but the few
that stuck out to me most were value of the individual, ethical equality, puritan and
pioneer morality, and change and progress. In terms of the appeal value of the
individual, I felt that when the webpage stated “…promotes positive methods of social
interaction and encourages people to treat others as equals and with respect because
everyone is a star in their own right” (“Be a STAR”, 2016). It’s clear that the anti-bullying
initiative feels that each and every child is of value, which ties into the appeal of ethical
equality that I also believe they have implemented into their website.
Not only do they clearly believe that each person is unique and, therefore, of value,
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