WOLVES AND PERSUASION
Wolves and Persuasion
How the Persuasion Strategies can be Applied to
Persuasive Messages
Bethany Alkire, Elinor Balensuela, Jonathan Jenkins, and Matea Thompson
Indiana State University
The video “How Wolves Changed the Rivers” uses cause-to-effect reasoning to persuade
the audience that the reintroduction of wolves has been beneficial to Yellowstone National Park.
According to the text, “Persuaders frequently use cause-to-effect reasoning to identify events,
trends, or facts that have resulted in certain effects” (Larson, 239). In this case, the video presents
the event of the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone National Park and the various effects
that have resulted, including a decrease in the deer population, an increase in vegetation, an
increase in song bird populations, a decrease in coyote populations, and an overall increase in the
number of animal species, activity, and diversity. The video demonstrates the third strategy of
casual reasoning defined in the text: “a series of cause-effect relationships lead to a final effect”
(Larson, 240). Beginning with the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone National Park, the
narrator offers a series of cause-effect relationships that lead to a final effect of the rivers being
changed.
The video also uses Rank’s Model of Persuasion to try to convince the audience that the
wolves have been beneficial to the park. Rank’s Model of Persuasion is more commonly called
the intensify/downplay model. This model uses both the good and the bad parts of a persuasive
argument and spins them in a way that is beneficial to the persuader. Larson defines intensify as
“certain positive aspects of their product, cause, or candidate, or some negative aspect of the
competition” (Larson, 29). This means that persuaders you intensification in two different ways:
they use it to bulk up their own good points or they use it to highlight the opposition’s
flaws.Conversely, downplay is defined as the way that persuaders can shuttle away “certain
negative aspects of their brand, cause, or candidate, or the positive aspects of the competing
brands, causes, ideologies, or candidates” (Larson, 29). Downplay is almost like ignoring the
truths that are right in front of your eyes; persuaders don’t want to talk about their flaws nor the
parts of their opposition that are good.
In “How Wolves Change Rivers”, there are several different instances of downplay and
intensifying, but we will focus on one downplay and one intensification. The first comes right at
the beginning of the video. The narrator is talking about how the wolves’ reintroduction into the
park has been a good thing. The narrator then says that when the wolves were reintroduced,
many people thought that they’d kill other animals or even people; he says that “Now, we’re all
aware that wolves kill other animals”, but then he just leaves it at that. He uses the downplay
tactic of omission here. Larson says that omission is when “some persuaders simply leave out
critical information to avoid highlighting their own shortcomings or the competitor’s strength”
(Larson, 32). Here, the omission of how many animals were killed by the reintroduction of
wolves leaves us wondering if there is a reason for the brief mention of this. The omission of the
exact number of other animals or people killed is a key piece of critical information that many
people could (and if they are clever contributors to society should) be wondering about. Is the
good that the reintroduction of wolves doing better than the bad that they might be causing?
When it comes to intensification in this video, one of the best elements is the composition
of the persuasive piece. Composition is when persuaders use the “physical composition of the
message to emphasize one’s own good points” (Larson, 31). This composition uses “the
background, the music, and the voice-over combine to “compose” the ad’s co-created meaning”
(Larson, 31). This video opens with a white screen and nothing but the howling of wolves. It
instantly sets you into the mindset of wolves and of nature. The video continues with shots of
wolves and of nature. The shots are all perfectly planned out; the images are beautiful, widesweeping shots of nature and of animals. Images of the park and of the animals that are in it are
intermingled underneath the British narrator’s voice. This narrator, credited as George Monbiot
in the opening sequence, speaks excitedly of the impact that the wolves are having. The timber of
his voice rises dramatically as he enthusiastically speaks of the great things that the wolves have
done. Finally, the music is calmly playing along in the background. The cadence of chords
creates a crest of hope underneath the narration; the cords are all major chords, meaning that the
chords invoke a sense of happiness and positivity. The cords aren’t awkward or harsh
underneath. They are used to invoke a sense of happiness and enthusiasm about what the
reintroduction has done.