In this blog, for my Comm 333 Persuasion course, I will be discussing and analyzing the documentary Minding the Gap. This documentary captures the toxic masculinity that happens towards these young men and what brought about these issues. The director, Bing, brings difficult questions to the table that brought a harsh reality and was able to have these 3 friends be vulnerable about their life experiences. I will be bringing attention to the subtle persuasion that present itself. There are multiple examples of the Social Impact Theory and how some decisions that they made, was a part of group conformity. I will be discussing the different perspective of credibility that this show produced. The last and final topic I will be discussing is the Social Judgement theory and how the different latitudes were integrated into their lifestyle.
The start of this film was these group of boys named Keire, Zack, and Bing. They would use skateboarding as a form of therapy, and they considered it their escape from reality. In one scene, they were walking up 6 flights of stairs as a group. Bing, Zack, and other associates started getting tired and started to say, “I’m heading back down”. Keire on the other hand wanted to attempt a skateboard trick up on the building, but eventually they convinced him to walk back down. This was a great example of the Social Impact Theory. Keire conformed to the pressure of both of them wanting to leave. The Social Impact Theory shows us that when a group becomes larger the more pressure the opposition has on them. His decision being primarily interpersonal since his friends was louder than himself. Another example that was presented in this film was when Zack who did not want to chug a beer, but his friends insisted and kept cheering him on. He winded up chugging the beer. I could not count how many were in the room, but it was 5+ people! In this documentary, the Social Impact Theory is more verbal than anything. It seemed to be cheering and teasing others is how they got each other to conform to an action. In these cases, the Social Influence Model would not apply because Keire and Zack both conformed in larger groups. In this theory, if the group is larger, they would be less likely to conform.
Next, I will be speaking about the credibility, that was a little difficult to connect. I say difficult because we would not consider these 3 teenagers to be “credible”. In this documentary they are credible since it is focused on their own personal experiences. This film has an example that was hard to spot out at first. When the 3 teenagers are being asked where and how their trauma came about, they opened up about people in their life who caused it. They interviewed the moms of these boys (they were the cause for most of their frustrations) and they were explaining how their sons grew up and about the trauma they spoke of. This scene showed a different perspective about credibility and how it does not need to be a famous person to be credible. It was more directed towards the secondary dimension of credibility their sociability and composure played a part in their interviews. The sociability aspect was more towards Zack since he started off as guy everyone liked at the start of the interviews. As the show went on the interviews that were about him became more and more negative. This might be a stretch, but I thought it was interesting to see credibility on a secondhand scale.
The last theory that I will be speaking about is he Social Judgement Theory. This documentary showed the 3 latitudes from time to time. One example is when the filmmaker, Bing asked Keire’s mom “Do you have a boyfriend?” and she was taken a back and stated, “Don’t you think that’s too personal”. This can be viewed as the Latitude of Rejection because of her reaction and her avoidance towards the question. In another example, the 3 teenagers were speaking about their future and what it will consist of and as they were speaking the girlfriend of Zack was more nonchalant towards everything. Acting as if she did not have a say, and this could be viewed as Latitude of Noncommitment. According to the ELM model Keire’s mom was most likely peripherally processing since her answer was not as direct. Usually, the negative and positive latitudes would lean towards central processing, but considering how fast her response was and the question not being answered, it is peripheral processing. The same is with Zack’s girlfriend, she was not interested in engaging with the conversation, but still was present. The ELM and the Social judgement theory both can play apart in how we view attitudes, verbal, and nonverbal cues.
With that being said, this assignment encouraged me to learn about the Social Impact Theory, Credibility, and the Social Judgement theory. This documentary showed me the different perspectives in persuasion whether it is interpersonal or intrapersonal. The Social Impact Theory showed me how impactful the pressure of groups can be and how easy it is to slip in with others. Credibility portrayed itself in its primary and secondary dimension which created two different perspectives in this documentary. The Social Judgement Theory showed me that you can be at the level of latitude of rejection and still be peripherally processing information. The persuasive elements that I have learned from module and from Minding the Gap, I can now apply to other media artifacts. Overall, this assignment has made me view movies differently and I now will start paying more attention to persuasive elements that are presented.
Reference Links
Public Broadcasting Service. (n.d.). Minding the gap. PBS. https://www.pbs.org/pov/films/mindingthegap/#:~:text=trailer-,about,he%20gets%20his%20first%20job.
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