Sweet and Sour Served by Kids in the Kitchen

This essay will examine the article ‘Sweet and Sour Served by Kids in the Kitchen’. This article was written by Tim Soutphommasane and published in The Australian on December 10, 2010 (Soutphommasane, 2010a). According to his website, Dr Soutphommassane is a left-wing, political philosopher and commentator. He is a University of Sydney Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute for Democracy and Human Rights and School of Social and Political Sciences. He has been a regular columnist for The Australian for ten years. He also writes for the Melbourne Age (Soutphommasane, 2010b). The Australian is a national daily newspaper with a circulation of about 129,363 and a readership of 417,000. It also has an online edition (Space, 2013). This essay will critically examine the arguments in the abovementioned article and, assess the strength of these arguments against theory. The article is an opinion piece about the reality television show, Junior Masterchef. Based on the highly successful Masterchef format, young male and female contestants aged between eight and 12 participate in cooking challenges. At the conclusion of each episode, one contestant is eliminated from the show based on their performance in the kitchen and their execution of the cooking challenges. In the ‘grand final’ one contestant is crowned ‘Junior Masterchef’. According to Soutphommassane, the show attracts 1.5 million viewers on a Sunday night and is one of Australia’s most popular cooking shows. It is also syndicated to other networks around the world. Clearly, it is a ratings winner for the television network. While 1.5 million Australians watch Junior Masterchef, Soutphommassane article shows he is clearly uncomfortable with the concept of the show. In his article, he uses all three persuasive techniques: logos or logical arguments; pathos or emotive arguments and ethos or credible arguments (Eunson, 2008). He starts by questioning the ethics behind Junior Masterchef. He disagrees

References: Eunson, B., 2008. Communicating in the 21st Century 2nd ed. Sydney: John Wiley & Sons Soutphommasane, T., 2010a. Sweet and Sour Served by Kids in the Kitchen [online]. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/sweet-and-sour-served-by-kids-in-the-kitchen/story-e6frg6zo-1225965014528 [Accessed Access Date Soutphommasane, T., 2010b. Tim Soutphommasane [online]. http://www.soutphommasane.com.au/home/about [Accessed Access Date Space, N., 2013. News Space - The Site for Media Professionals [online]. http://www.newsspace.com.au/the_australian/demographics [Accessed Access Date