Comparitive Rhetorical Analysis

               The issue which I plan on discussing in my comparative rhetorical analysis is that college athletes are currently not being paid for their athletic involvement.  Many people believe that athletes should be compensated for their performances, while others believe that the athletes should not receive any money from the college.  I chose this topic because I do not have a strong opinion regarding the issue, which will allow me to be impartial when attempting to analyze the media’s portrayal of this particular subject.  Although I do not have much of an opinion, the issue is still very much alive and continues to be brought up today.  This means that there are various different sources communicating their own message regarding the issue.  There are really only three options for opinions on this issue: The medium either supports paying athletes, does not want athletes to be paid, or has no clear opinion.  Information and opinions about paying college athletes are readily available from many medium, including twitter, local news stations, sports networks, and newspapers.  I believe that some of these sources will include arguments strongly supporting compensation for college athletes, particularly the sports networks, whereas others, possibly the newspapers or news stations, may lean the opposite direction (or be impartial) on this issue.  I am able to come to these conclusions because of audience to which these media are presenting their information to.  The sports networks are knowledgeable that much of their audience supports athletes, across the board.  On the other hand, newspaper or local and national news stations are much more likely to be more fair and unbiased in order to maintain a positive reputation.  Any taking of sides may be seen as unprofessional, so therefore could be costly in these forms of media.  Twitter could present and argue the issue of paying college athletes in many different ways.  The exact viewpoint is strongly dependent on the user who posts or tweets about the issue.  Generally, the people who really want the change enacted, are the most outspoken and supported.  For this reason, I suspect many of the twitter posts relating to the subject will be in favor of paying college athletes, although I do believe there will be some who would like to resist the change.  Additionally, many athletes (who would likely supporting compensation for college athletes) have large following bases which can lead to a greater exigence or drive to write the post.