Ethos, Pathos, and Logos in News Reports about Power Lines | Retro Report

Using media about power lines and the panic over electromagnetic fields, students analyze how an author uses ethos, pathos, and logos in informational text. During the 1980s and 1990s, news coverage of scientific studies suggesting that power lines might cause cancer ignited widespread public fear that lingered long after researchers reached the opposite conclusion. The nationwide cancer epidemic that many feared never materialized. Decades of research found no biological mechanism by which electromagnetic fields could harm living tissue, and a review of 500 studies by the National Academy of Sciences concluded that power lines posed no major public health threat. Nonetheless, initial emotions aroused by early reporting were hard to overcome. After this case study, students then write their own informational piece using the same rhetorical tools.