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Yvette Guevara

Jennifer Johnson

ACE Writing 2

8 June 2019

You Can Read or Watch the News

What if you woke up tomorrow and all the water in your city became undrinkable and

unsafe? The people of Flint Michigan lived with water in these conditions for about three years

before anything was done to help them. For economic reasons, Governor Rick Snyder switched

their water source from Lake Huron to the Detroit River while the city built a new pipeline. The

next day, the city’s water was contaminated with lead, but the government assured them that

there was no dangerous level of lead and the water was safe to drink. Eventually, the people of

Flint noticed how many people were falling ill and dying due to lead poisoning from the water

they drank and showered in. The events that took place in Flint was on the forefront of media

outlets for a few months before news coverage eventually died down from nationwide media.

News articles, like The Guardian article titled “Bottled water must be delivered to Flint

Residents in Lead Crisis” written by Ryan Felton sole purpose is to help inform the audience

looking into the situation without influencing them with the opinions of the writer. Another way

that Flint stayed in the eye of the public was through documentaries. A more memorable

documentary, Fahrenheit 11/9 by Michael Moore, that since its 2018 release, is being talked

about by many because it visually shows people nationwide just what the people of Flint are

experiencing on a day to day basis. While news articles give the audience nothing but hard facts,
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documentaries approach issues in a far more depth way than what a news article can do, while

presenting facts to an audience.

The driving force of a news article is its logos. The only job of a news article is to present

facts that is supported by evidence to inform its audience. News articles that were released at the

start of the crisis to present day, allow the audience to keep up to date with what is going on in

Flint. When the city government officials issued statement after statement that the water in Flint

was safe, news outlets were quick to report it to the public. To understand the severity of the

crisis in Flint, The Guardian published an article that reported on a court ruling by U.S District

Judge David Lawson that stated all residents of Flint must be delivered four cases of water per

week until the situation is solved (Felton 2016). To many around the world and in the city of

Flint, the decision came as a “surprise.” The article stated that the Crisis in Flint began in the

year of 2014 and this court ruling was decided in 2016. For two whole years, the people of Flint

lived with lead poisoning and the government was only now addressing the situation at hand.

The news article’s job is to inform the public on the situation and not to purposely evoke any

kind of emotion out of the audience. Surely, the audience reacts a certain way to the news but,

Felton reports with a neutral tone throughout his piece and his sole purpose is to inform his

audience.

Not only is the job of a news article to present published facts to the public, but

newspapers are also used as an outlet for the people to express their concerns and city officials to

issue their information. Providing a point of view by including quotes from others allows the

audience to better understand the situation at hand. Including the quotes of various people also

enhances the credibility of a news article to keep the audience’s attention and loyalty to the news

source. Publishing direct quotes of the victims of the Flint water crisis allows the readers to
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picture the severity of the situation. For example, a woman by the name of Melissa Mays was

interviewed for The Guardian piece and she expressed her happiness on the court ruling, but

further went on to say it is only a “..Band-Aid of a gaping wound” (Mays 2016). Although the

people of Flint were forever grateful that they would receive clean bottled water, the cases

rulings did not even come close to solving their issue. Providing Mays’ input further allows the

audience to understand the severity of the situation.

Documentaries have become a mainstream way for people today to learn more about

topics they are interested in. In a 2018 documentary named Fahrenheit 11/9 by film director

Michael Moore, Moore goes in-depth and analyzes what events have taken place since the

announcement of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and what more could come. One of the

events Moore focuses on is the Flint water crisis. With this documentary, Moore does what a

news article and editorial does all at the same time; Moore tells the audience the facts of the Flint

water crisis and pays a visit to the city to go more in depth with the problem. By filming himself

going to the city, Moore allows the viewers to see what the water looks like when it's running,

how trashed and scattered the city is, and the symptoms of rashes, hair loss, and how ill children

are becoming. Pathos is the strongest rhetorical device used in documentaries to sway the

audience and in Fahrenheit 11/9, Moore appeals to the audience’s emotions by using pathos by

playing solemn songs in the background of the scene described before. Throughout the film it is

clear to see that Moore’s goal is to tap into the emotions of the viewers since he talks to people

who are outraged of the events that took place in Flint. The rage of the people Moore speaks to is

expected to transfer over to the viewer. A documentary goes into more depth of a certain topic

and usually, those topics are not avidly being talked about in the media. In this case, Moore

talked about events that died down in the media because different news stories break every day
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and are updated. Yet Moore managed to keep the conversation going during and after filming

this documentary.

What kept the viewers talking about the water crisis is the passion that Moore exhibited

throughout the documentary. Besides first-hand taking part in the Flint protests for change,

Moore’s voiceovers have a direct, solemn yet ironic tone that can’t help but captivate his

audience. Documentaries are not only used to inform but also to evoke emotions from the

viewers as well. The goal of the documentary is to leave the audience in awe and have them feel

emotions of shock and anger that the events in Flint happened. The imagery, the victims of

tragedies, protests, music used in the documentary are all catered to have the audience feel a

certain way, and it is used across all documentaries. Moore describes the action of Governor

Rick Snyder switching the water source of Flint’s water as a “slow-motion ethnic cleansing.”

Depending on the viewer, one might think that Moore is making a harsh stretch and the other

will agree. By interviewing Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, Moore successfully attached credibility to

the news that he puts in his documentary. Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha explains the severity of lead

in water and its consumption by stating “there is no safe level of lead. It is “irreversible” and

“moms who ingest lead can see DNA changes in their grandchildren” (2018). Moore even goes

as far as filming himself taking part in the Flint protests, going to the governor’s office just to

offer him a drink with water brought from Flint. Moore showing his activism in Flint exhibits his

own stance on the situation and creates a tone of urgency and frustration with the Governor and

the crisis the people of Flint are in. The documentary is used to make conversation and have the

audience ask questions and persuade them to see the severity and inhumanness of the crisis in

Flint.
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Throughout the Flint water crisis, several news articles about what was going on in the

city were being published almost daily at the peak of the crisis in 2014. News articles, like the

one by The Guardian, allow the audience to inform themselves of what is going on at the exact

moment it is happening. News articles cut out the fluff of opinions and serve cold hard facts to

the audience. On the other hand, documentaries like Fahrenheit 11/9 helps the audience have a

visualization of what is happening by using video clips of people, city, and water that was

contaminated with lead. The documentation and almost “behind the scenes” look give the viewer

a better understanding of the situation. Both the news article and documentary approached the

problem that occurred in Flint in their own way. They almost both have the same goal, to inform

the people. However, the documentary wants to move and sway the audience rather than just

inform, like a news article does. Since the documentary was only released in 2018 and the crisis

began in 2014, the news article is the most expedient way to learn what happened. Though they

both can work well as a reliable news source, it truly depends on how quickly you would want

the information.
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Works Cited

Felton, Ryan. “Bottled Water Must Be Delivered to Flint Residents in Lead Crisis, Judge Rules.”

The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 12 Nov. 2016, www.theguardian.com/us-

news/2016/nov/12/flint-michigan-lead-bottled-water-delivery.

Moore, Michael, director. Fahrenheit 11/9. Briarcliff Entertainment, 2018. Film