Rhetorical Analysis Of Small Change By Malcolm Gladwell

In “Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted,” Malcolm Gladwell addresses that while social media can quickly spread information among a large group of people, it is not the driving force of social activism. According to Gladwell, real change cannot be achieved through the impersonal use of social media. People who use social media, especially those who participate in social media activism, are most affected by Gladwell’s words. Gladwell effectively backs his argument by utilizing different modes of development and middle diction.
Most prominently featured in Gladwell’s work, compare and contrast allows him to draw attention to the differences between activism of real change and social media’s form of activism. Real change requires people to put their lives on the line. People, according to Gladwell, were more likely to put their lives at risk because “the more friends [they] had who were critical of the regime the more likely [they] were to join the protest” (174). Part of what inspires people to protest in a dangerous
One example of middle diction is when Gladwell says that “innovators tend to be solipsists” (172). “Solipsists” is not a word used in everyday language, but despite that usage, he expands on the idea in the next sentence and gives context to the meaning of the word. In middle diction, difficult words are commonly defined in context. Another example of middle diction is when Gladwell initially alludes to the NAACP, calling it a civil rights organization, then later expands by saying that “the NAACP was a centralized organization, run from New York according to highly formalized operating procedures” (176). The NAACP is fairly well known, but even so, Gladwell still explains his allusion. Because most literate people can easily read and understand middle diction, using middle diction is appropriate if he wants to reach people who use social