Project 3
Genre 1:
Infographic
Genre 2:
Facebook Group
Genre 3:
Process Report:
Overview
My first genre was an info-graphic that originally was four pages. After workshop I shortened it to one page. That page contained a preliminary explanation of why younger people are more effected by violent movies. Then, I listed a study that focused on behavioral effects, one on cognitive effects, and one on desensitization. I used black, white, and gray mostly, but I also added some pops of blue to liven up the otherwise formal and bland design. This resulted in an interesting look that I think would appeal to most people. The gray-scale colors signify ethos, and the bright blue helps break the text up nicely. It was very hard to turn my essay into an info-graphic because I had so much information in my essay, and I could only fit a few pieces of that information into my info-graphic. I think I got the point of the essay across by stating the four main ideas: violent movies have a greater effect on adolescents and children, cognition is effected negatively by viewing violent movies, behavior is negatively affected by viewing violent movies, and violent films cause harmful desensitization. My promotional strategy was to post the infographic every so often to the aforementioned Twitter and Facebook group.
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My second genre was a Facebook group, and it was also dedicated to showing the negative effects that violent movies have on children and adolescents. I chose a stock image for the header, which used pathos by showing an innocent baby being shocked presumable by violent movies. I used this stock image in my Twitter and Facebook group to show that they were connected. Furthermore, my posts were more in-depth than my twitter posts but still short enough for the average busy parent to read. I choose Facebook because that is the social platform that parents and grandparents use the most. I modified the information in my essay slightly in order for it to work for Facebook. I also included relevant videos and citations in my posts for ethos. I did not have to modify the original content as much as I did for my Twitter. My promotional strategy was to post at the same times I posted my Twitter posts. I mainly did this because it could reach two different audiences, which consisted of those that are up in the early morning, and those that have just gotten off work. I eventually started sharing my group to all of my friends instead of just my group members. I also found that people only saw my posts if I posted around 5PM, so I stopped posting in the morning.
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The third genre I used was a Twitter campaign dedicated to showing the different negative behavioral effects of viewing violent movies, cognitive effects of viewing violent movies, and desensitization caused by violent movies. I used the hashtag #Psychology because it is simple, to the point, and easy to remember. I made sure that my images were stock images to avoid copyright issues. I chose to make small posts relating to bigger posts on the Facebook group I created. I did this so that people that were looking for only a small post could just read the tweet, but others interested in more info could find it on the Facebook page. I had originally linked my Facebook in every tweet, but I decided to only include the link every so often because I felt that linking it in every post was spamming. I assumed that my audience was made up of parents and experts in psychology. The parents would probably be drawn to the shorter posts because they were easy to consume, and could be read from any location. The links to the Facebook page would probably appeal to the experts that were interested in more in-depth information. I really had to shorten my ideas from the essay form in order to fit the word count. Furthermore, I provided supplemental videos to further explain my points. My promotional strategy was to post every morning and evening in order to fit the schedules of people that were morning oriented and people who were not.
Process Report:
Reflection
I used ethos in this project because I felt it was the best rhetorical appeal considering that the writing type I used was informative. However, I know that using pathos is better when trying to create viral content. Therefore, I tried to find images that used pathos for the header on the Facebook page and Twitter pictures. I would say that the twitter and infographic were the least effective. I had relatively no responses to my posts on Twitter even though I made a lot of them, and put a lot of effort into condensing my project two essay into smaller chunks. A few people did follow my Twitter, but they were relatively inactive on my page. On the other hand, my Facebook group was pretty successful. most of my posts were seen by multiple people and those people even participated in some of my polls. They only started to engage after I began sharing my posts to all of my friends rather than just members of the group. The more I shared, the more people interacted with my Facebook group. One person even complemented my group, stating that my project was interesting. I never got any response to my infographic even though I posted it on both my Facebook group and my Twitter.
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The original discourse on the topic of the effects of violent movies on children and adolescents was professional and factual, and I found that the discourse on project three was relatively nonexistent. Therefore, I could not say if the discourse changed at all. My opinion of the community did not change because I originally felt that my audience was made up of busy adults, and I think that that was proven by campaign because of the lack of response. I felt that this project was both different and similar to a research essay. It was different in that the posts and infographic had to be brief and condensed. Also, images and design were monumentally important to the success of the campaign. It was also different in that the campaign had an argument, and was not objective. However, it was similar in that citations were shown, and outside material was used to make important points. I also tried to keep it in the same order as the original essay because I felt that preliminary information about how young people prefer violent movies, then behavioral effects, then cognitive effects, and lastly desensitization was the most logical order. I felt that project three was a lot harder because anyone could write a research essay, but not a lot of people can make a social media campaign take off. It is hard to guess what people will respond to on social media; however, writing a research essay is straight forward. In order to write a research essay, you just need sources and time, but you need charisma to make a social media campaign work, and charisma is not something that can be learned in short amount of time. I also thought that project three was more difficult because I am more used to writing essays, than I am used to Facebook and Twitter. I have never really been a fan of social media, so I don’t use it often. Therefore, I probably struggled more because of my inexperience. However, I did think it was interesting to see the few responses I got and know that I was maybe making a small change in others.