CHEATING AT CRICKET- RESPONSE Following the ball-tampering debacle with the Australian men’s cricket team in South Africa; The Age Newspaper’s economics editor, Ross Gittins explores the issue in his opinion article, “Cheating at cricket just one of the unthinkable things Aussies do now” (27 march 2018). Gittins contends that Australia’s ball tampering incident is only one of the issues facing the nation and there are more pressing issues. The author addresses his audience of the Australian public in a concerned, critical and ashamed tone. In an attempt to set the tone for his opinion article, the author strategically places an illustration by Simon Letch at the beginning of the article. Letch’s use of proportion draws the audience’s attention …show more content…
The author uses patriotism as a technique when stating, “There was a time when it would have been unthinkable for Australians to stand by while an elected government physically and psychologically mistreated people whose only crime was to arrive by boat without an invite.” By criticising his target audience, he appeals to their sense of patriotism in a pursuit to make them feel guilty. This argument is connected to Letch’s illustration in the top left corner, which features a figure holding a sign, which reads ‘GO BACK’. Gittins provided his target audience with a visual reference on his argument by showing Australia as the villain with a frowning and disapproving facial expression and the refugee looking upset sitting in a puddle of water with his head down. In relation to the mistreatment of welfare precipitants, the author uses the technique of mocking when he referred to the Australian Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull as “Mr Harbourside Mansion” to provide a preliminary opinion before stating his argument. By making the Mr Turnbull less relatable to his target audience, Gittins has placed his reader in a position where they are more likely to support his criticism of the government. Letch’s illustration also reflects this argument by having Malcolm Turnbull or the government search the empty of pockets of welfare recipients (figure on the ground), providing a visual representation of his argument to his target