This Issues in Communication narrative is designed to provoke individual thought or discussion about concepts raised in the chapter.

Jody Hubbard is a dietician and nutritionist who travels around the state to speak at middle, junior high, and high schools. She primarily speaks to students in health classes, but sometimes the school will arrange for her to speak to several different groups of girls. Her biggest concern is the emphasis our culture places on thinness and the negative ways this affects young women today. Jody has a Ph.D. in nutrition, but, more important, she has personal experience—her mother taught her to diet when she was only eight years old.

Jody has created several different presentations which she gives to different types of audiences, and she tries to establish an emotional connection with the students so that they will feel comfortable asking questions or talking to her privately. She shows them pictures and images from popular culture of beautiful women and explains how computers are used to make the women look even more thin and “beautiful” than they are in real life. She describes how the definition of beauty has changed over the years and even from culture to culture. She then talks about health issues and the physical damage that can occur as a result of dieting. Finally, she addresses self-esteem and the notion that a person’s sense of beauty must include more than how much a person weighs.

Sometimes, Jody feels that she succeeds in persuading some students to stop dieting; other times, she feels that she fails.

Apply what you have learned about influencing others as you ponder and discuss the following questions: What were Jody’s action goals? What types of appeal did she make to persuade her audience? How did she seek to gain credibility in students’ eyes? About what ethical considerations would Jody need to be especially careful?