UC Berkeley Protest: Audience Analysis


Students at UC Berkeley were protesting against Milo Yiannopoulos coming to campus and giving a speech to the student body. Since he is someone with an incredibly controversial history, many students were against him coming to the school, and came together in protest against the school’s choice to hold the event. The photograph shows students holding a simple sign that screams “No!” and “Refuse Fascism.org.” This sign was used in protest against Yiannopoulos for the school administration to see in hopes of them cancelling the event, in which they did. The audience of this protest sign was not just the administration to tell them “No!” to hosting Yiannopoulos, but the audience was also the rest of the student body, targeting more so those students who may support Yiannopoulos. With the poster, students promoted an anti-fascist website, targeting the audience of people who support and like Yiannopoulos as “fascists,” claiming him to be one as well. Making a bold statement ensures the audience feels impacted by the protest. This protest poster has a similar audience to the Nixon-Nazi poster since they both are targeted to those who support one specific person with controversial views, and are used as a way to gain supporters onto their side and take down the other. Both posters use a negative “-ism” such as nazism and fascism to take down a specific person, and make the audience feel badly by associating them with that “ism” so they no longer support Nixon or Yiannopoulos. The ultimate goal was to not only prevent Milo Yiannopoulos from speaking at the school, and to discourage people from supporting him.

Kaitlyn Francis

Comments

  1. UnknownOctober 4, 2017 at 4:43 PM

    This protest reminds me of the recent protest which happened at University of Baltimore after the president of the university invited Betsy DeVos to be the fall commencement speaker. Inviting the U.S Secretary of Education is controversial since she doesn't support public education, something that UB students are proud of. Students participated in walk outs and held up signs to emphasize their disapproval of the invitation.

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  2. UnknownOctober 4, 2017 at 5:47 PM

    The audiences of the UC Berkeley protest and the Nixon-Nazi protests are similar in that they are directed at a specific person whose views differ from theirs. It is imperative that Yiannopoulos is aware that this student group does not want him to speak. The fact that such a large group of people are coming together to support this cause makes the effect of the protest much more effective, rather than only a couple people protesting.

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  3. AnonymousOctober 4, 2017 at 7:05 PM

    The message from these protesters is almost a warning for its audience, saying do not allow violence or facism. They go after other students at other colleges to make sure they do not allow what they are fighting on their own campus.

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  4. Eric LangOctober 5, 2017 at 7:33 AM

    I like how you mentioned that an additional audience was the student body. Protests such as these are not only aimed at administration, but to the general student body in order to gather additional support. I'd like to add that the protest is also aimed at the general public outside universities as well, as protests are very publicly visible and deliver a strong message, even to those not directly involved.

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  5. UnknownOctober 6, 2017 at 12:05 PM

    I feel that this protest was not just to discourage others from supporting Yiannopoulos but to also encourage others to speak of. College students tend to be very vocal about their opinions and it’s only just a matter of getting them to open up. This picture of no, this unified condemning of bigotry could inspire others to speak up and join the cause.

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