Month: March 2014

Primary Source – Critical Analysis

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When going through my sources one resonated with me and became a focal point, if not the focal point of my research about Bob Marley. This source was found on Wikipedia: The One Love Peace Concert. This became my primary source, not because of what it actually conveyed but how many doors it opened me up to while doing my research. Once I found this source numerous ideas and questions flowed into my mind. Being a history major I was eager to know more about the One Love Concert. It created questions such as “How did this impact people? Why did it happen and what factors contributed to this?” among many more. The answers to these questions had something to do with Bob Marley and reflected his importance.

Looking at the document, and actual event, the authors were Jamaican political factions: JLP (Jamaican Labour Party) and PNP (Peoples National Party). The leader of each group coincided with each other to push aside conflict. In response the One Love Concert was held. The aim of the concert was to spread peace on both the political level and social level. It’s not often two political groups push aside their differences, let alone host a concert in collaboration. Both leaders part took in significant methods to ensure that the concert would be as influential, and importance, as possible. The most noticeable method used by the political groups was bringing Bob Marley back from exile to perform. Using Bob Marley instead of another singer was extremely tactical because of the stigma and message attach to Bob Marley. Up until this date in time, 1978, Bob Marley was known for strong messages of peace and love. Using Bob Marley served as a symbol for the concert, hence the name of the concert being after one of his songs. During this time no one was more popular than Bob Marley. So by using him as a symbol the JLP and PNP were allowed to strongly attack their aims with Bob Marley at their side.

Looking at the Wikipedia source and not the content, or event itself, the author changes along with the materials; however the aim stays the same. Looking at the wiki, the audience is the viewer while the author is who ever wrote the information. The event doesn’t change, as history is unchangeable, however as the context that the information is presented changes, the author does with it. The aim stays the same: peace, on both social and political levels. Looking at the Wikipedia article the concert is used as a material to support the aim to its audience. Bob Marley, again, serves as another symbol to allow the audience to connect to a topic of common interest. That means the person can relate to Bob Marley more so than the concert because Bob Marley is more popular.

In my rhetorical defense I describe the exigence and kairos for this document. In fact, while looking at this document I found it extremely important to understand the kairos, or timing. After researching the concert more and more, I found that it was held during a time of political turmoil in Jamaican. This contributed to how the concert is looked and why. In result, along with exigence and kairos, this document was my primary source because it contains valuable information as well as demonstrates how an author uses aims, methods and materials.

LINK: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Love_Peace_Concert

Branches:

• http://debate.uvm.edu/dreadlibrary/kerr.html

    • http://issuu.com/marleyarchives/docs/1978-03-30_black_prince_of_reggae__is_out_of_exile?e=4111797/1846409