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Jon A. Leeah
Genre Analysis
2/21/11
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Abstract
In this essay you will find the analyzation of two different genres of discourse communities pertaining to the same subject. This analyzation was written to better see how certain genres of discourse communities are more effective and how they are not.
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Healthcare has been a rising issue within our country. Many people believe that our current system is flawed and reform is needed in order to rectify the problem. With the issue being such an enormous debate, there has been many articles and video ads posted giving various thoughts on how the matter should be handled. President Obama issued an online article posted on Barack and Bidens website, presenting his ideas on the matter and how it should be handled in order to address the situation. Republicans retaliated with a commercial, agreeing that our current healthcare system needs to be reformed, but Obama’s plan would not be the solution. The opinions of each are expressed through different genres of communication. One is an article while the other is a video. Each genre presents and affects the subject differently than the other. Through analyzing “Obama and Biden’s Healthcare Plan” and “RNC TV Ad” you are able to see more clearly how the different genres affect the subject matter.
In Obama’s healthcare plan, he is writing specifically for one audience: the people of the United States. The people of the United States are important; because, they are the ones ultimately affected by the healthcare system. However, since the article is online not everyone will see it, unless they are interested in his plan. Therefore this online article’s actual audience only would pertain to people of the U.S. who are interested in his plan and want to learn more. The President’s article begins with several examples on why our healthcare system is faulty. He includes statics such as “Insurance premium's have doubled in the last 8 years (Obama, paragraph 1)” or “over half of all personal bankruptcies today are caused by medical bills (Obama, paragraph 1)”. This information is already known by most people; since, these incidents happen to
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the average American citizen. With this knowledge, Obama follows those statements with his plan to mend the current situation. However, the article on Obama’s plan is considerably lengthy which could cause someone to loose interest on what he was trying to relay.
The Republicans released a commercial dealing with the same subject as Obama’s plan; however, they gave their own perspective on the subject to the audience. The intended audience for their commercial would be the same as Obama’s; since, they are also trying to persuade the people of the Untied States that their reform is more practical than Obama’s. One could also say that the republicans are targeting people with democratic views. They would do this to try and sway them not to follow Obama’s views but the views of the Republicans because they believe their plan to be superior. In this particular commercial, the audience watching would already know about the notion of a new healthcare reform but would want to know why the Republicans believe that their plan is superior to Obama’s. The commercial presented by the Republicans is a fairly short one, not lasting more then 2 minutes. This is better for the audience; because, it’s able to present their idea in a short concise manner, without loosing the audience’s attention. Also, people watching Television have no control over the commercials being presented on tv. So if some one is watching a certain channel they like they would have to watch the commercials that follow, unlike Obama’s article where you would have to be curious about his plan and search for it. This enables the Republicans to get their message out more effectively. The commercial’s main purpose
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was to help the viewer realize that Republicans believe in lowering health cost as well but that Obama’s plan on government take over would not be the proper solution.
In Obama’s article on healthcare, he gives many examples and statics on why we should reform our healthcare system and how it should be implemented. All the examples and statics used in his article have been researched and cited from very credible sources such as the kaiser family foundation and health research and the Bureau of labor Statistics. This enables Obama’s credibility to increase in the reader’s eyes. Obama starts off his article with the statics to shock the reader, helping them realize how inefficient our healthcare system has become. He then proceeds with his plan to correct the problem. This strategy develops an emotion of reassurance for the reader. In order to reassure his audience, Obama inputs textual evidence ensuring them that his plan would be the correct choice. All the evidence presented in his article come from reliable and credible sources to help support his opinion on how they should handle the matter.
The Republican’s commercial on healthcare provides the viewer with their thoughts on how the matter should be handled and why it shouldn't be handled Obama’s way. The Republicans start off the commercial stating “Republicans believe that every single American deserves healthcare (RNC TV Ad)” and Republicans believe in a healthcare system that reduces prices across the board ( RNC TV Ad)”. This increases their credibility with the viewer; because, it shows the viewer that they are concerned with the peoples’ best interest. The Republicans also state that the matter should be “bipartisan”, stating that the matter should be resolved by both parties and not
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just one. Additionally, this mentality increases their credibility by showing that they would want to work together on solving the issue. By presenting these ideas of diplomacy and care, they are able to evoke emotions of respect, relief, and reassurance. These emotions all move the viewer to accept the idea of their healthcare reform.
Obama structured his article to help present his ideas in a well organized manner. He started off by giving several statics on our present day healthcare system and the flaws it contains. After this, he proceeds further into the article explaining how he would fix the flaws and lower those appalling statistics. He is able to delve deeper into detail about his plan because of the genre he chose to use. When writing an article, you are able to give explicit detail on the topic, as Obama did. He had no limitations or time constraints. This enabled him to specify the actions he was going to take if his healthcare plan was adopted by the people. Through the structure and organization of his article, you are able to clearly comprehend the purpose of it. He states in every paragraph how he proposes to repair the healthcare system and the steps needed to accomplish it.
The formation of the Republican’s commercial is structured to help you think and realize that Obama’s plan is not the best solution. They begin the video by asking the viewer a question on healthcare and how it should be “bipartisan”. This allows the viewer to begin thinking about the notion of working together and agreeing on a compromised solution. The commercial then begins to give their reasons why Obama’s plan on healthcare wouldn't be beneficial to the people. However, they are not able to completely present the details about their reason because of the genre chosen to
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advocate their reasonings. Commercials have time constraints, allowing them only to briefly discuss their opinions on the matter. This genre prohibits them from giving specifics on the matter. Nevertheless, the video is still able to express the purpose of the commercial by explaining, obscurely, how the matter should be handled.
The style and language used in articles helps set the tone to be used. In Obama’s article, the language used was very formal. This allows the reader to see and understand that the tone used is that of a serious, academic one. Through doing this, it stresses the significances of what his plan can achieve for us. The font and style used also helps establish the seriousness. The font used was bold and black with plain lettering. This gives the reader a sense of sternness along with encouraging the reader to continue with the article.
In the Republican’s commercial, the language used was very formal as well, showing that they believed the issue to be very serious. They also included a special political term to help the viewer see how they want the problem handled. The term used was “bipartisan” which means two differing political parties come to an agreement on a certain matter. They also used music to help convey the desired tone. The song had a slow and serious pace, establishing a somber tone. Thus foreshadowing how the tone would be if Obama’s plan was accepted.
After analyzing the two differing genres: articles and videos, it was easy to see that articles would be the more affective and efficient in explaining your opinion. You are able to go into more details providing a much more persuasive response from your
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readers. Additionally, you can manipulate the reader by using the font, style, language, and structure to compel your audience to agree.
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Reference Page
1) Obama, Barack. "Barack Obama and Joe Biden's plan to lower health care cost and ensure affordable, accessible health coverage for all." ObamaBiden. Obama for America, 2008. Web. 20 Feb. 2011. <http://www.barackobama.com/pdf/issues/HealthCareFullPlan.pdf>.
2) RNC Tv Ad "Bipartisan". Republican National Committee, 2008. Film.
