Ebola
is the disease that everyone is freaking out over, so of course the
Onion had to cover it. Full disclosure, The Onion is a satirical
website, which means that it is definitely the wrong website to be
getting Ebola tips from. The article superficially looks like many of
these Ebola articles look like, or any disease articles look like.
There are questions that a person would typically ask, and then the
answer. This way of presenting this article give it a bit of ethos,
so that some people would actually be tricked into believing all this
information was true. That's how the Onion works, in a sense. There
are the people who know it's satire, and then there's the poor
unfortunate people who don't, and will take this very seriously.
The
thing about satire is that it is usually used to prove a point,
because they'll say something frankly and it's begin as a joke, until
you realize it's actually true. For example, in the article where it
says, "Ebola
is contracted through contact with a health care system that vastly
overestimates its preparedness for a global pandemic". It takes
you a moment to realize that what they're saying, is in fact true.
Another example, "How
are Ebola outbreaks contained? Great
question!" This hits home the point that they don't really know
because we haven't contained it. Using satire, ethos, and humor, the
Onion makes you think more about Ebola and what is actually going on
with it, which is what I think their purpose was. Finally, the thing
that got me at the end, was the final question. “When
will all this Ebola hysteria end?
For
you? At exactly 11:18 a.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 28”. That got me at the
end, because the real point of the Onion is to entertain, which is
hit home but that last laugh.
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