The article I
have chosen for WP3 is called “Addressing the Texting and Driving Epidemic:
Mortality Salience Priming Effects on Attitudes and Behavioral Intentions,” by Ioannis Kareklas and Darrel D. Muehling, an article about
the driver’s perception of texting while driving.
For the genre
aimed at the younger audience, I’m planning to create something like a Buzzfeed
list because it would allow me to write in my normal, informal speech as
opposed to the style of a children’s novel or an academic essay. I can take a
scholarly article and “dumb” it down for an audience of my age or kids in their
teens. I think it’d be satisfying to be able to write an assignment with tons
of slang and colloquial language. Many teens aren't too interested in this sort
of “texting while driving” debate, shown by the fact that teens are the ones
that most often break that law. A prime example includes me, a student guilty
of getting a ticket for texting while driving. However, Buzzfeed lists can
easily grasp teenagers’ attentions, so creating one about texting while driving
could easily spread the importance. To convert the article, I would title the
list as the main idea of the article, and the numbered bullet points would all
implement the article’s evidence. In addition, because the scholarly article
and the Buzzfeed list are geared toward difference audiences, the tone will be
completely opposite. Moreover, I believe that a Buzzfeed article really
captures the essence of what makes up a genre aimed toward a younger audience,
such as the tone and style, the inclusion of pictures, the short length, etc. Because
the author is of the younger audience (me), the scholarly article could easily
be translated into the Buzzfeed list.
The older audience
is a tricky one. Though I’m not definitively sold on this, I want to create a talk
show’s interview. Texting while driving is a very important topic most often
argued by adults, so two or a group of adults having an interview on that
subject wouldn't seem too far-fetched. However, I’m having trouble translating
the article into a script of an interview, most likely due to the fact that an
interview doesn't necessarily only pertain to an older audience. Thus, to
narrow the audience, I must aim the interview towards the emotions of the
parents. Most people hate seeing Public Service Announcements because of the guilt
that comes with it. Yet, parents often take these PSAs to heart if it affects
their children. Therefore, if I can combine both the interview and the PSA, I believe
the conventions and tone would constitute a genre intended for the older
audience.
So those are
my two ideas…
Hey Mitchell, you presented ideas very clear and I am intrigued in what you are going to do. I will admit it that I text and drive a lot more than I should but I always attempt to make the safest decisions while driving. Your idea for the younger generation is great with doing the Buzzfeed article. I would rather read a article from Buzzfeed that entertains me than a scholarly boring article. You got to make sure that you do not make the article too colloquial that it strays away from the original article. For the older the generation, are you going to make a video of an interview or just simply write the script for it? In my opinion, it is a lot harder to translate the genre of an article to an older generation than a younger generation. I am excited to see what you do for this Writing Project.
ReplyDeleteHi Mitchell! I think your idea of a Buzzfeed article is awesome. I love Buzzfeed and I think it's a great way to communicate with people of our generation. It's interesting, entertaining, comical, and can also be educational. I think it would be really cool if you put a lot of pictures in, and if you can, maybe make a list of the the consequences of texting while driving or of the main points from the scholarly article. And then you could bold main phrases, and phrase them in a way that is humorous or eye-catching. Kind of like the Men's Health article we saw in class? I think it's a great way to catch a reader's attention, and I've seen plenty of Buzzfeed articles that follow that sort of layout. You could also add memes and any snapshots of gifs. that you find that are relevant, I've seen Buzzfeed do that a lot too, as an image that reflects the reader's reactions, or agrees with the reader's reactions. As for the older generation project, I think it's really cool that you're thinking of ways to mix PSA announcements and interviews. Did you want to do a video or something written? If you do a video you could have a serious beginning where someone gets hurt or something from texting and driving (or you could take a clip from a tv show, I know they had something like that on Glee at one point) and you could put in an interview of the parents afterwards and have them say a couple of things against texting while driving, and then end the video with one of those serious black screens with a single sentence in white saying something like "don't text and drive" :P I think your ideas are really cool, good job, you can do it! :D
ReplyDeleteHey Mitchell,
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of doing something like Buzzfeed. Buzzfeed, like a lot of the social media of today, is an extremely effective method for attracting young people to your work. Typically when I go on Buzzfeed or I see something posted about it, most of the posts tackle real issues that many people don't really think to talk about. Of course they do it in a funny way. I think I just watched one about pooping without your phone. It was hilarious but also true so Buzzfeed is an effective way of teaching readers while entertaining them at the same time. Ironically, you go from hilarious to super serious when it comes to texting and driving. I think it's a great way to transition into your PSA genre. I think because most adults and older people drive, they always see signs on the freeway that say "click it or ticket" and what not. So this is an effective way of addressing certain issues while keeping the older generation interested. I'm super excited to see how your work turns out and I wish you the best of luck!
Mitchell,
ReplyDeleteI feel like a major "old head" right now because I'm going to have to do some boning up on what Buzzfeed actually is. "The damn kids these days..."
You have good reasons for doing what you're thinking, and that should help your post-translation self-analysis to be a relatively smooth endeavor.
Both your ideas are very original, and there's no substitute for originality.
Z