Running Head: THE DIALOGUE ON AUTOMATION

Genre Analysis: The Dialogue on Automation

Sergio Olivas Jr.
University of Texas at El Paso

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Historically, new technology aided society as it allowed human beings to perform tasks in
a more efficient manner. In the twenty-first century, however, new technology is projected to
eliminate more jobs than it produces. Surprisingly, several industries that will be affected include
agriculture, bookkeeping, and transportation. Two pieces of journalized information, one
iconographic and one typographic, both reflect on the dialogue about the role robots play as well
as human adaptations in the modern economy. The iconographic genre, Will Robots take our
jobs? | FT Comment, was published on YouTube by the Financial Times on April of 2015; the
typographic genre, What Clever Robots Mean for Jobs, was published by the Wall Street
Journal on February 2015. While both genres discuss automations development as well as the
arguments on both sides of the coin, the personalization of the video directed towards a younger
audience contrasts the maturity of the article that is directed towards professionals.
Audience and Purpose
The audience of Cardiff Garcia the narrator of Will Robots take our jobs? | FT
Comment includes business and computer science students in high school or college. It is
evident that the video is directed to a younger audience because the video was published on
YouTube, a format most commonly used by millennials and younger age groups. This video is
directed towards business and computer science students due to the genres use of specialized
language. The words and phrases that come close to being classified as specialized include:
coded, occupational categories, big data, average living standards, and globalization
(Financial Times, 2015). This mild degree of specialized jargon aids the videos purpose: inform
the audience of current talking points relevant to answering the question will robots take our
jobs? By limiting the specialization of the language, the video allows students focus on the
general concepts of the issue. Additionally, the genres length of five minutes and fifty-seven

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seconds limits the information provided to general big ideas, not an in-depth analysis. For
example, Garcia, who anticipates his student audience will not be familiar with technologys
current development, begins by stating that the conversation about machines in a modern
economy is currently a large topic in economics since machines are beginning to match human
judgement, perception, and non-routine movements (Financial Times, 2015). This simple
introduction in the first ninety seconds of the video gives the student audience a basis to inherit
more big ideas such as the viewpoints of optimists and pessimists on automation later during
the video.
While the Financial Times aimed to introduce an economic discussion to a younger
audience, the Wall Street Journals article introduced the same economic discussion towards a
professional and academic business audience. The two genres share the same informational
purpose as it can be interpreted through the caption under the title of the article: Experts rethink
belief that tech always lifts employment as machines take on skills once thought uniquely
human (Aeppel, 2015). However, since the article is from a business news publication, it is
geared towards a general business-oriented audience. The articles length is limited to about
2,000 words, making it an adequate enough to educate the audience broadly about economists
dialogues. For example, instead of having the readers read Erik Brynjolfssons book on
technology in the new era, the article summarized an important fact: The book noted that only
six years before Googles startling driverless car announcement, fellow MIT economist and
automation expert Frank Levy had published a well-regarded book that said driverless cars were
impossible (Aeppel, 2015). Via key points accompanied by examples instead of an in-depth
discussion, the article informs the audience about the academic arguments on automation in a
condensed fashion.

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Rhetorical Issues
Ethos
The iconographic genre establishes initial credibility by identifying Cardiff Garcia as the
U.S. editor of FT Alphaville. However, Garcias credibility is not elevated to the degree of an
editor of the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal since FT Alphaville and the Financial
Times are not easily recognizable publication sources. By researching the background of FT
Alphaville, it determined that FT Alphaville is a news and commentary sub-branch of the
Financial Times with branches in the United States, Europe, and Asia (FT Alphaville, n.d.).
According the FT Alphavilles website, they are a free daily news and commentary service
giving finance professionals the information they need, when they need it (FT Alphaville, n.d.).
The publication delivers information via four typographic services: rolling news and
commentary, three morning briefing notes, Markets Live, and The Long Room (FT Alphaville,
n.d.). For the iconographic genre analyzed, the Financial Times is expanding their base to an
audience who are more comfortable with video formats such as YouTube, expanding their
credibility to audiences of different age groups.
Similar to the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal is a financial publication that
reports global economic trends, different markets such as technology and energy, and other
general business topics for all business majors (The Wall Street Journal, n.d.). Unlike the
Financial Times, however, the Wall Street Journal is a better identifiable with the average
American. A major indicator of the Wall Street Journals base, aside from the content of their
articles, is the repeating pop-up block offering the reader a subscription to have access to all of
the Journals content (Aeppel, 2015). The commitment of an individual to pay for the resources
is solely derived on the individuals desire to receive periodicals on business related topics. Thus,

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business professionals are likely to constitute the majority of the Wall Street Journals established
audience, making the publication a credible figure in the business world.
Pathos
The Financial Times exhibits more emotional elements than credible elements as the
video exploits different emotions specifically concern through its use of twentieth century
video clips. The best example is at the beginning of the video when a 1970s scene of a robot
standing on a platform ominously tells a human audience: Quiet, please. Im doing the talking
(Financial Times, 2015). This came after Garcia claimed that economists are concerned that
technologys rapid growth will net eliminate jobs (Financial Times, 2015). This is a subtle effort
to extract the audiences concern because this is a scene of a robot exuding dominance and
authority over humans. This scene was placed as an appropriate transition from describing what
the issue is to why it is an issue, grabbing the audiences attention by personalizing the danger of
automation.
While the iconographic genre uses a concern-based emotional appeal, the typographic
genre is a different story as it lacks emotional appeal by keeping an objective perspective. As a
professional business publication, the genres limitation to facts diminishes commentary
dialogue. One of the ways the article keeps an objective perspective is through its consistent
third-person voice as compared to the videos first person voice such as I dont buy,
without you noticing it, and were taking our lessons (Financial Times, 2015). The only
occasions the article used I was when it was quoting Bill Gates and David Autor who each gave
their personal remarks. Gates asserted that he is worried by peoples lack of awareness to the
threat of their jobs while Autor stated that he believes automation is widening the gap in income
inequality (Aeppel, 2015). Instead of the author declaring from a first-person perspective that

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automation is producing problems, the article is able to link Gates and Autors quotes together to
acknowledge the problems automation has presented, thus keeping the article objective.
Logos
While the video heavily uses emotional appeal, it also presents logical arguments along
with their reasoning. For example, after elaborating on the issue and dialogues on automation,
the video advises the audience that humans should look at the lessons from humanitys inception
(Financial Times, 2015). The video genre with a single narrator gives argumentative freedom to
deliver his message, and in this case, Garcia provides commentary on the current approach to
handle automation, which is only looking at humanitys development from the industrial
revolution. Garcia claims, By comparison, the two-hundred and fifty years since the industrial
revolution is a tiny sliver of the human experience (Financial Times, 2015). Garcias reasoning
advocates taking all the lessons since the dawn of humanity as humans developed to the modern
day (Financial Times, 2015).
The articles logic does not advocate for an approach but rather uses factual claims to
refute certain beliefs. The article genre allows the author to make a claim and elaborate on the
claim to clarify it. For example, instead of hoping that the audience will accept the idea that there
is nothing to fear about automation, the article references the deployment of ATMs decades ago
and its impact today. The article claims that instead of bank tellers losing their jobs in significant
numbers, bank teller jobs only decreased by two percent (Aeppel, 2015). Contrary to fears
generated by some experts, the banking industry grew since the deployment of ATMs (Aeppel,
2015). The article does an excellent job to fact-check certain claims by providing examples that
would not substantiate those claims.
Structure and Delivery

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The structure of the video allows Garcia to introduce a subtopic followed by clips in
which he elaborates the subtopic. All of the subtopics were delivered in a fluid format to allow
the concepts build on each other. For example, the camera is directed at him as he claims that
driving is an example of advance autonomy, switching into a first-person, black and white clip of
an individual driving a 1950s automobile (Financial Times, 2015). This black and white clip is
accompanied by lively1950s music helps make the argument that in a traditional sense, humans
were the operators of vehicles. This clip ten transitions to a clip of an automated Google car
driving by itself, reflecting the earlier claim that robots are doing tasks that were thought be
uniquely human (Financial Times, 2015). This clip is then followed by a series of scenes
featuring city buses and taxis the jobs subject to be automated with the new technology
(Financial Times, 2015). The features of the iconographic genre and its fluidity helped create a
realistic picture of the evolution of the automobile and its implications.
Relative to the video, the article shares the same fluidity build-up and structure. For
example, the sub-heading Robot Employment initiates the discussion by stating that Oxford
economists estimate half of U.S. jobs could be lost (Aeppel, 2015). The sub-heading then
transitions to the economists at MIT under the lead of Erik Brynjolfsson gather once a month to
speculate thoroughly the implications of automation (Aeppel, 2015). In one of these gatherings,
MIT economist Scott Stern made the claim that automation is no longer increasing wages
(Aeppel, 2015). This slight build-up is greatly enhanced by a chart that accompanies his
statement (Aeppel, 2015). Since the article was published on the Wall Street Journals primary
website, it allows the article to use additional features to produce more content than the article by
itself, like the clips used by the video to give visual demonstrations of the topic. The chart
depicts a positive correlation between productivity and wages up until 2000, in which complex

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automation has allowed productivity to increase, but not wages (Aeppel, 2015). The fluidity from
the typographic genre along with the iconographic elements allows readers to follow a coherent
and developing argument with graphs conceptualize the full message.
Conclusion
While FT Alphaville and the Wall Street Journal are both equally credible sources and
while have similar intentions to educate new-comers to the current development in automation,
their unique genres spilt the focus of their audiences between young adults and professionals. By
personalizing the topic, the video uses more emotional appeals than the article. Additionally, this
personalization allows the video to promote its own commentary while the article refutes claims
through historical examples. Both articles follow a fluid and coherent argument, however, the
videos uniqueness in genre permits the usage of both iconographic and oral elements to justify a
claim, while the article relies on typographic and occasional iconographic elements. Taking into
account the specific audiences both genres targeted, both the video and the article successfully
used rhetorical techniques to enlighten the audiences on the issue of automation.

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9
Bibliography

Aeppel, T. (2015, February 24). What Clever Robots Mean for Jobs. Wall Street Journal.
Retrieved January 29, 2016, from http://www.wsj.com/articles/what-clever-robots-meanfor-jobs-1424835002
Financial Times. (2015, April 2). Will Robots take our jobs? | FT Comment. Retrieved January
31, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzQ5jShhfuU
FT Alphaville. (n.d.). About FT Alphaville |FT Alphaville. Retrieved February 02, 2016, from
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/about-alphaville-2/
The Wall Street Journal. (n.d.). Retrieved February 04, 2016, from http://www.wsj.com/