Friday, October 17, 2008

Comm 101- Malcom X and Martin Luther King

In Chapter 22 both King's and Malcolm X's differences are explained in terms of their views on action against civil rights violations and their views on their dramatic influence with their famous speeches. 

One the one hand, you have King's message of nonviolence which heavily influenced many people to join his cause and be supportive towards it.  On the other hand you have Malcolm X's message to stand up for yourself and take action which also influenced a lot of people.  It was like they were two sides to the same coin.  They both wanted to take action against civil rights violations toward their people but each had different methods on how to accomplish it.  Both men had the same message but each had different ways to speak their message to the people.  One was more passive and the other more militant.

3 comments:

JahCat said...

I also found the use of these two men very interesting. How people choose to interpret messages are also interesting. Both men were great speakers and had the ability to modivate their listeners. I think that they both interpreted a lot of ergos and pathos into their speeches which made people believe what they were saying with a passion. The civil rights movement was an emotional time for the nation. Using certain emotions in their speeches helped create their followers.

JimTin said...

I also found this chapter very interesting. I found it very interesting how Griffin compared Malcolm X and Dr. King's goals and differed their actual strategies in reaching those goals. I think that this is a great example in what works and what doesn't. And while I am not one to say that Malcolm X's strategies might not have worked had he be alive today, it is clear that Dr. King's persuasion was much stronger.

Tornn said...

One thing that is always ignored is how out of proportion the media, our textbooks, and all other forms of information tend to ignore how equal these two were in their influences of people who wanted change. They portray Malcolm X as some insane radical who wanted to use violence and therefore he didn't have as many followers. But when they had both started off, before the government portrayed him as mad, they had similarly large basses of followers. Then they were both killed off by (i believe) the government.