Writing Portfolio

Placemaking, Belonging, and Advertising

Georgia State University (GSU) is currently undertaking the Identity, Placemaking & Belonging project. This project affects to refashion the downtown campus to become more conducive to students living and staying around rather than coming and going as car commuters. In short, the goal of this project is to make the GSU’s downtown campus akin to Atlanta’s beltline system in miniature. It would appear that the university’s hope is to attract more students to live and study at GSU during their university years, much like the Atlanta Beltline has attracted new residents to move into Atlanta. The university promotes this project through various forms of online media, and the project is reported on by outside media outlets. The content of this paper will analyze the rhetoric surrounding two such media representations.

WABE, Atlanta’s Public media station and affiliate of NPR news, released an article entitled "Georgia State University is planning a $107M remake of downtown Atlanta” on November 13th, 2024. The article offers a factual account of events surrounding GSU’s campus revitalization efforts, with highlights including an $80 million donation from the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation kickstarting the project, GSU’s plans to tear down some of its older buildings to make way for student pathways, and the decrepitude Atlanta’s downtown still finds itself in in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. The article also mentions that the goal is to have the project completed before the upcoming 2026 World Cup in June (WABE).

GSU likely promoted the reporting on this project to attract future students and secure funding for future projects. The news article format presents some constraints for these intentions, as no flagrant propagandizing would be allowed. However, it also allowed the university to spread its message to a sympathetic audience. As WABE is affiliated with NPR, an organization in the center left of the political spectrum, its readers are likely to be bohemian-bourgeois types. These are exactly the same types of people that moved to Atlanta for the beltline and might wish their kids to enjoy something similar in their college years. They might send them, or a check, to GSU.

The article utilizes various forms of rhetorical appeals. NPR, and by extension WABE, enjoys a good reputation among its listeners by remaining factual and not leaning too far into polemics. It is an ethical organization trusted by its readers. Additionally, in the second paragraph, it is mentioned that GSU spent $27 million of its own funds to complete the project. This generosity shows that GSU cares about the future of its students. The article also contains an endorsement from Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, thus displaying support from an influential authority figure. Concerning logos, the article communicates GSU’s revitalization efforts in a logical progression. It makes references to monetary figures and clearly stating why these efforts will benefit not just GSU, but Atlanta’s downtown in general. On the field of Pathos, there are a couple inspirational quotes from GSU’s president Brian Blake as well as from the university’s executive vice president and chief operating officer Jared Abramson. Finally, Blake mentions the added services GSU will be providing for the homeless population that congregates around Woodruff Park—a charitable motion that might endear audiences toward the project (WABE).

An accismus is an ironic refusal of something that is actually desired (Changingminds.org). One can be read in a quote by Blake. With regards to the imperative given by the Woodruff Foundation’s initial donation for the project, he says: “They kept saying, ‘Money is not your issue. Give us your ideas. Do the dream...’” (WABE). If one thinks in the long term, the entire point of this project is to secure future resources for GSU by attracting future students and complementary businesses around the campus. Money in the near term may not be so much an issue, but a financially secure future is. Considering this, this accismus is effective at downplaying any greed the audience might perceive in GSU.

This WABE article does a good job at persuading an audience sympathetic to urban investment. The appeals to Ethos and Logos seem the most convincing rhetorical strategies here, as the constraints of a mostly centrist media source disallow overt emotional appeal. Nevertheless, there are some points of pathos peppered into the text in the form of quotations from influential persons and through the exposition of charitable side projects that GSU will be pursuing concurrently.

The second piece of media to be analyzed is GSU’s official video entitled “Pathways to Success: The GSU Blue Line”. The video features upbeat music, drone shots of downtown Atlanta and GSU's downtown campus, and shots of historic Atlanta residents like Jimmy Carter, Martin Luther King Jr. and Ted Turner. The central conceit of the 2:07 minute video features a voiceover of civil rights icon Andrew Young reading a prompt that goes as such: "If you know dreamers... if you know innovators... if you know entertainers... if you know competitors... if you know Atlanta, then you know Georgia State University, Atlanta's University." (“Pathways” 0:09-035). After each prompt, the video displays brand imagery of companies associated with Atlanta, like Coca-Cola or Home Depot, or prominent personalities associated therewith like the aforementioned Dr. King or Ted Turner.

The exigence of this piece of media is much the same as that of the WABE article: GSU is building hype around its campus revitalization. The audience for the video seems different, though, as it primarily targets prospective or current students. The constraints of this video are its short run time and video format, both of which lend themselves to advertising to a young audience. In order to appeal to such an audience the video must be entertaining, inspiring, and quick. In fact, it almost matches the style of TikTok, a platform most popular among the young. Accordingly, it primarily convinces through pathos and ethos appeals.

The video relies most heavily on pathos. The exciting music, pretty drone shots and graphics, and flattering displays of GSU's sporting events pump up a young audience like a pep rally. This hype is buttressed by the voice over of Andrew Young. The attachment of this civil rights icon lends this project a sense of moral righteousness, which will appeal to many black and liberal students—core demographics of the university’s student body. The video's short format prevents it from expositing too much on facts, though it does contain some logos appeals. The fast-forward shots of a building being destroyed and replaced by a walkway park as well as the shot of the rapid construction of a baseball stadium show the project's progress and existing success.

As previously stated, the video follows a conceit of Andrew young reading off a prompt of "If you know x, y, z... then you know Georgia State." Andrew's lack of conjunctions between these statements is an example of asyndeton. Though there are pauses between each pronunciation, the lack of conjunctions here adds suspense and make the arrival of the words "Georgia State" more exciting.

Another rhetorical tool used in the video occurs at 1:13 when Brian Blake is speaking. At the end of his speech he says that Georgia state will be "A true college town, downtown." This phrase combines paregmenon, or the repetition of words in different form, rhyme, and alliteration to great effect. The word "town" is emphasized with its repetition in the subsequent "downtown", and the repeated "t" sound and rhymes draw even more attention to the word town. This is a wonderfully simple yet poignant sendoff to a speech; it makes audience members have towns, and all communal associations contained therewith, in mind as the video progresses to a graphic of more communal space being available (“Pathways”).

"Pathways to Success: The GSU Blue Line" is quite effective at persuading its intended audience. It has flashy visuals, memorable quips, and showcases companies and celebrities around the campus that might attract a young audience to want to attend the university. The voiceover of Andrew Young and his asyndeton throughline is core to the piece, as it provides a guiding framework from a trusted source. Though it is light in logos appeal, the firm pathos and ethos of the piece suffice to persuade a young audience, to whom logos is less important.

The two pieces of media advertise GSU's Identity, Placemaking & Belonging efforts to two separate audiences well. GSU communicates its goals and the community benefits thereof to a mature audience in WABE's article, relying primarily on WABE's trusted reputation and facts to convince. In “Pathways”, GSU uses flashy visuals and references to trusted authority figures to convince a young audience in lieu of spouting boring facts. While both of these strategies worked well, perhaps the first could have utilized more pathos and the latter more logos to convince a wider audience. Perhaps GSU might have requested one more inspiring quotation to be placed at the end of the article to move the audience to action; maybe the video could have mentioned some statistics or facts about the Placemaking efforts having positive impacts on graduation rates. In any event, the positive rhetoric will hopefully serve as a steppingstone to increased community at GSU and Atlanta at large.

Works Cited

“Figures of Speech.” Changingminds.org, 2026, www.changingminds.org/techniques/language/figures_speech/figures_speech.htm. Accessed 15 Feb. 2026.

Georgia State University. “Pathways to Success: The GSU Blue Line.” YouTube, 12 Nov. 2024, www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAEwUeevCvo. Accessed 13 Feb. 2026.

“Georgia State University is planning a $107M remake of downtown Atlanta.” Wabe, Associated Press, 13 Nov. 2024, https://www.wabe.org/georgia-state-university-is-planning-a-107m-remake-of-downtown-atlanta/. Accessed 13 Feb. 2026.