Hunting Ground Analysis
Documentary of Sexual Assault Victims. By Docas Darkwa
Thesis
In the documentary Hunting Grounds, the purpose of the documentary was to inform people on the sexual assault happening on campus and pursue people on decreasing this ongoing problem on college campuses. The documentary did not achieve this purpose due to the lack of ethos and logos as well as a clear bias which made the documentary ineffective.
Sexual Assault on college Campus
Ethos
Ethos appeals to information from someone with experience. In this case, it was hard for the documentary to actually prove that the stories were true. Another factor was that some of the citations were old. The information given through those citations would not be as much credible as they were years ago because the facts may change over time. The stories were taken into personal account instead which may make the claims sound vague and made up. More information from other accounts of the victims case would have been more helpful to decipher whether the stories told were true or not.
Logos
Logos appeals to factual evidence and statistics. In the documentary Hunting Ground, there were a lot of facts shown throughout the film. It seemed that most of the data collected was exaggerating. For example, when they showed the amount of cases reported, there was not much offenders being punished for what they did. The sources cited were from years ago which makes the credibility of the information vague.
Bias
The appeal of bias is being in favor of or against one thing. In the documentary there weren't much interviews with offenders. The interviews were only held wit victims and former administrative staffs. There was no account of personal interviews with school presidents or press conference with any of the schools current administration. None to little conversations with male victims of sexual assault. The credibility of he film might be affected by not involving men in the picture for being victims of sexual abuse.
Conclusion
To conclude, in the documentary, The Hunting Ground, the overall purpose of this documentary was to inform and educate people on sexual assaults that happen on college campuses. Therefore the films purpose was not fulfilled in the following elements Ethos, Logos and Bias.