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Digital Rhetoric in Politics
In 2008, the first wide scale political campaign through Twitter was utilized by President Obama. This success is measured in the over half a billion dollars raised through the internet. This use of social media has become a large asset for all political candidates and is currently utilized by all. The 2016 elections brought social media to the forefront and all presidential candidates utilized different forms of persuasion in their 140 character tweets.

Donald Trump often lacks factual references and has bombastic language that leads to a heavy emphasis on emotional rhetoric. Majority of his tweets lack factual basis that can withstand empirical verification. If taken a position the language used is vague and abstract. Nearly a quarter of Trump's tweets are Ad Hominem. Mostly, utilizing pathos Trump's twitter is now a major play in the world of politics.

Bernie Sanders uses Twitter in response to political events, issues, or fact. 82% of Sanders tweets state a position. Through these position-based tweets he also makes claim of "values" of himself, his political party, or Americans. While values are not a truth, they are considered a pseudo-truth. These blend together the strong uses of logos as well as pathos.

Hillary Clinton's tweets are mainly driven by facts, logos. This increases the validation through empirical means. Her tweets are written with direct reference to evidence or concrete situation. However, can contain ambiguous language that makes the merit of degree of truth less clear. Clinton also lacks emotive language in her messages, sticking only to the facts.

Jeb Bush employs rhetoric that is mainly fact oriented, with occasional ambiguity. Bush mostly Tweets with ethos through pseudo-concepts. Unlike other candidates, he makes moral statements. Bush's rhetoric mixes logos, pathos, and ethos.

Digital Rhetoric in Branding
In a 2012, a rhetorical analysis of Coca-Cola, Southwest Airlines, and the U.S. Army, three brands that often successfully employ social media, showed their social media utilized ethos, pathos and logos to promote the brand.

Coca-Cola spends 6.6% of their advertising budget on social media as they use nearly every platform. Their foundation of storytelling has consistently allowed the brand to be a top marketer of all time. Initially, Coca-Cola did not start utilizing social media, however with the use of pathos that marketing is thriving. The famous polar bears are a great way every year to create nostalgia and reminding viewers of the older generations loved the product. Coca-Cola’s Vice President of Global Advertising and Strategy states that Coke’s stories must add substance and value to people’s lives and it has to be the most compelling content possible. This focus on pathos successfully benefits the Coca-Cola brand. Now with these holiday cans, Coca-Cola provides information about the endangered Polar Bears as well as donates proceeds to saving them.

Southwest Airlines started its media campaign in 2006 by starting their own blog. As the first in the field to rely on social media, Southwest employs ethos to engage the community as well as help their customers. Focusing on transparent and timely responses, the airline hopes to be able to create a comfortable atmosphere. Through social media the brand has been able to showcase the personality as well as the core beliefs it stands for. While planning for content is an internal effort of multiple departments, Southwest also reaches out specifically to influencers: travel bloggers, brand fanatics, avid travelers, and importantly, employees who all contribute to the content. This creates a personalized yet authoritative position as these individuals have credibility and support the brand.

U.S Army was the first department of defense branch to come up with an app and regularly participate in social media discourse. The army first utilized social media when media outlets began more aggressively reporting on war efforts. Through this they were able to connect with their audience as well as bring new facts and figures into view. This use of logos allowed individuals to understand both sides of the story as well as draw support for the army. To strengthen the brand the social media is often filled with powerful quotes from leaders, historical moments as well as current mission updates. Using powerful language that strikes responsive chords to the audience, often seen in stories of sacrifice and heroism. This engages future recruits, people with loved ones serving, and anyone else interested in the army.