Thursday, April 28, 2011

Genre Analysis

This Genre Analysis looked into this image and this video. Both the image and video deal with child poverty and child labor.

Abstract
The Genre Analysis paper covers the analysis of two different types of genres through comparing and contrasting. The two genres chosen, a short PSA and a poster, will be dissected in the same areas and discussed further. The different areas the genres are analyzed through audience, use of rhetoric, structure, along with style and language used in the genre. The different areas analyzed have more ornate parts to them that help the analysis become more in depth and specialized. Through the analysis of the two genres, viewers become more aware of what they are actually looking at and what reaction is intended by the creators. 

Introduction
Analysis is the process of examining elements of anything that helps create interpretations. Through the processes of analyzing two genres, a short PSA and poster, help viewers to understand what it is they are really looking at and understanding what the creator wants you to get out of their work. The two genres I chose, both advertisements for UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund), were analyzed through the different sections, audience, rhetoric usage, structure and style and language. By looking more in depth, the genre becomes more explicit in the reasons and purpose for its existence. 

Audience & Purpose
The first genre I looked into was the UNICEF poster. The poster is intended for anyone that wears clothes not made themselves. The poster shows a shirt with the logo of a young child picking cotton that we assume was used to make the shirt shown. The audience already knows that the shirt was made by a young child in a country where child labor laws are nonexistent or do not equal ours in the United States trough the logo placed onto the shirt. After viewing the poster, the audience is interested to know how old the child is, how hard it is for the child to be performing this labor, and what can be done to help children who suffer in countries where their welfare is not an important issue. The poster itself is simple in design and will only take the viewer a few seconds to see what it is the logo on the shirt is implying. Through analysis of the audience and purpose of the poster, I find that the poster is really directed towards people who purchase their clothing and don’t realize it may be made by young child laborers.
The second genre, a short PSA created by UNICEF discusses their view on “Zero”; the amount of children that die due to starvation and other causes of death due to poverty. The intended audience of the video is to anyone that has access to the internet and television that may come across the PSA. Before the audience has seen the PSA, they already know that the people featured in the PSA are known celebrities and the information that is given by the speakers. The audience wants to know what they can do to help the “25,000 children” that die everyday go down to zero. If the audience actually watches the entire video, they will spend about 60 seconds, a little longer than the poster discussed first. The purpose of the PSA is to let people in the U.S. know what is happening in other countries and to inspire the audience to help UNICEF in their projects.

Rhetorical Issues
The creator of the poster tries to establish UNICEF’s credibility by adding the organizations web address to the bottom corner whereas the video attempts to use celebrities to create their credibility along with statistics and also giving the UNICEF website. UNICEF wants people in the United States, and other counties that hold child safety in high importance, to see that their “necessities” come from the expense of pitiable child laborers in other countries and feel a sense of shame for themselves and sympathy for children.  The PSA allows the viewer to think of their own children dying from these causes. These emotions stir up the will to help the less fortunate, in most human beings. The poster and the PSA do not show any reliable evidence that there are children out there making our clothes or dying under harsh conditions but the web address provided links viewers to more evidence and information. The poster and the PSA are just attempts to get viewers interested in the situation and to start their own research on the subject.

Structure
The structure of the poster is important to the overall outcome of the intended affect on the viewer. The poster appears to be an every day advertisement for a main stream clothing company but when the viewers looks at the logo they see that it is a young child with a miserable expression on its face picking cotton. There are some conditions placed onto this genre because it is only a poster and can only share a little bit of information. An example of the poster’s limitations would be that the genre isn’t able to show the exact conditions of the child depicted on the logo and the amount of children who suffer from these conditions. There could be more information that wasn’t able to be represented on this genre on another like a PSA or a news story. The positive element about using a poster for advertising is that you are able to get your idea through simply and effectively. 
The PSA structure allowed the different celebrities to have their own time to speak and all of their lines formed sentences that informed and created emotion for the viewer. The website given at the end of the PSA was shown on a different colored screen with a light blue color that made this information pop out, unlike the way the website was shown on the poster. Unlike the poster, the PSA was allowed to give more information and the use of many spokespersons gave the PSA more credibility than the poster. By using a PSA, the creators are allowed to facilitate their purpose by giving more information, more “action” for viewers to looks at to motivate viewers ti take action in the “Believe in Zero” UNICEF campaign. The use of an actual campaign makes the viewers more interested in participating. 

Style & Language
The poster offers no specialized language and the PSA uses comfortable and easily understandable language letting both genres more accessible to viewers. The only lettering on the genre is the UNICEF logo and their web address. This allows people to make their own viewpoints about child labor and to look more into the issue or choose to ignore it. The coloring and size of the text allows it to blend in with the rest of the poster and not take away from the image. The creator of the poster really wanted the image to be the biggest pice of the poster and let that speak for itself. 
Both genres used very simple vocabulary that is understandable by more people and can get across to different groups of viewers. The PSA was allowed to use more visual and auditory affects to capture the viewers. The parts of the PSA with the celebrities are all in black and white and just hold the actor by themselves without a lot of dramatic make up and clothing. The end of the PSA is a white screen with light blue lettering and the UNICEF logo and information letting it stand out from the rest of the video and catch viewers attention.

References
Believe in Zero. United States of America. Retrieved january 31, 2010 from: 
Posted by at