Logan Paul Apology Analysis

Once a post is on the Internet, it is there forever. There is no going back on what was posted, but we can try to fix our mistakes by begging for forgiveness or by blaming other factors. In this paper, I will be analyzing Logan Paul’s apology from early January by using Dramatism and the Image Repair Theory. First, I will explain who Logan Paul is and why he made this apology video, then I will explain how I used Dramatism and the Image Repair Theory to analyze this artifact. Logan Paul is a famous YouTuber that became known from his videos on Vine. His content on YouTube is known for its shock value and over-the-top prank videos. I am analyzing an apology video about the content Logan uploaded on December 31st, 2017. The video consisted of

One of the key concepts that we can use to analyze this video is the dramatistic pentad, which is an application used to analyze how one gets an audience to see his or her point of view as reality (Griffin et al. 294). The dramatistic pentad has five key points: act, scene, agent, agency, and purpose. In this video, Logan has a prominent ratio of the agent and the purpose; the agent being himself and the purpose being why he posted the suicide video in the first place. Starting with the agent, he says he had a lapse in judgement and says he shouldn’t have posted the video. This can persuade people to understand that everyone makes mistakes and that he is only human. Also, he states that the reactions from the suicide video were raw and that when he and his friends came across the dead body they didn’t know how to fully react or feel. Bringing that up helps get us to see how people react differently to certain situations. Next, Logan says how the purpose of his videos is to entertain and push boundaries, meaning going above and beyond people’s expectations. This insinuates that Logan is someone who tries to bring his fans new, exciting content. It helps persuade people to see that what he did was wrong, but it can still be understood as to why he thought it was a good idea at that time. Throughout the

This theory explains how people analyze a situation to figure out how to respond, how people use different messaging options, and how “perceptions are more important than reality” (Benoit 2). First, we must look at how Logan viewed his crisis. In his apology video, he states that he had a lapse in judgement. We can infer that this means he had no preparation to explain the suicide video because he originally thought it was a good idea to post it. Next, he had to analyze the backlash he received from people who saw the video. He had to understand how severe the accusations of him posting a video of a suicide victim was, so he could figure out how to tailor his response. In this case, he saw a lot of YouTubers and people, who have dealt with suicide and mental illness, accuse him of using suicide to get views. This made him tailor his message by directly apologizing to them, while also giving a brief explanation of why he posted it. Lastly, his relevant audience is his fans. While he tailored his message to influence audiences that may not watch his content often, an apology video helps appease his fans. This is because it makes fans feel better knowing that someone they care about seems to feel bad about a crisis they caused. As stated earlier, mortification was used to persuade his audience, but it was also used to fix his image by showing he felt wrong for what he did. Another