Moore's documentary is a one-way mirror

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Moore’s documentary is a one-way mirror

It is true, “Moore’s documentary is a one-way mirror”. He directs viewers to a particular point of view through the techniques of information selection, juxtaposition and in-depth arguments. This essay will illustrate how Moore supports his point of view by utilising three suggestive arguments, “the availability of guns in America causes a high yearly death rate”, “banning guns and ammunition will lead to less killings” and “ammunition can be bought in mass quantities without any restrictions whatsoever”.

Moore’s documentary is a one-way mirror through the technique of information selection. This conveys the argument that the availability of guns in America causes a high yearly death rate. Viewers are shown figures relating to the number of gun related murders in various countries. Several miniscule numbers flash momentarily. The American stat is shown last to emphasise the colossal difference between its cases and several other developed nations. In contrast to the other figures, the amount of cases in America (11127) is substantially high. We however are ambiguous to the size of the populations of all the countries listed. Subsequently, we are unaware of the amount of cases that occur as a percentage of the countries total population and therefore the true statistic.

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The Australian and American stats, as a percentage of the totals of their respective populations can be contrasted to show the extent of exaggeration that Moore has concealed effectively. The number of Australian related cases is a meager 65 which is also approximately 171 times less that the figure of the United States of 11127 cases. By placing these figures as a fraction of each countries population, the Australian figure is now approximately 12 times less that the American figure. This stat, though still staggering, would not have been as overwhelming to the audience and therefore Moore’s message would ...

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