In this social media post, my targeted audience is the Generation Z population who engage in Instagram activity daily.
Instagram is a great platform for me because not only does it enable creative editing, but it also allows me to engage with my audience. By using polls, quiz questions, countdowns and other cool features, my audience would be able to interact with my project. I can also add music, stickers, emojis, and GIFs that would catch the attention of my Gen Z audience. Nowadays, young teens and adults are into “aesthetically pleasing” things, and Instagram gives me the space to create an aesthetic project.
In addition, my Instagram audience really matches the intended audience for this project, as most of my followers have a similar low-income financial background. Therefore, my message would really reach out to my followers.
In my Instagram post, I decided to target my audience by using casual and simple words. I noticed that on Instagram, most teens are there for entertainment and they are definitely not looking to open up a dictionary. I also used bullet points so that it is a quick yet meaningful read. Most of the youth do not have long attention spans and tend to skip stories. I added visuals like gifs and color combinations to create an aesthetic. Some might say that the picture on the bottom can be more overwhelming than the first, since there is so much happening. However, it is why I chose to use those pictures. It represents the vast difference in the way of living between the rich and poor communities. The crowdedness of the image allows the audience to feel the message and the “poverty” because the image is a reality for so many people. I also added a question on the bottom to make my post more interactive and receive thoughts and feedback. By tagging activists and politicians from my own community, rather than notable people like the president, it increases the chance that they will notice my post and spread my message to their followers. Overall, by using these techniques, I am able to fulfill my purpose which is to inform younger generations about the role of different incomes on the rate of violence.
NEW YORK TIMES
Dispute in Deli Results in Deadly Death
Last week on October 19, 2021, Ahmed Almulaiki was pronounced dead after being stabbed outside his deli. NYPD announced that a 911 call was made around 11:30 pm on Tuesday night. An argument had initially broken out in the deli. Sources state that a regular customer allegedly became frustrated after being 50 cents short from purchasing a cigarette. This frustration quickly turned into outrage. Shortly after, the dispute was taken outside where the two men are fighting. As seen in the surveillance footage, Almulaiki and the suspect are in a quarrel when another man comes and defends Almulaiki with a bat. This man is said to be a cousin of Almulaiki. The assaulter is suspected to be in his 20s. “Responding officers arrived to find him in front of the deli with a stab wound to his torso,” sources reported. Unfortunately, this fatal attack has resulted in the loss of the 34-year-old, Ahmed Almulaiki. NYPD announced that the suspect is still on the run and no arrests have been made as of now. Daily occurrences of crime like this, sadly, happen daily in low-income neighborhoods such as East Harlem. This is mainly due to the cycle created by poverty. Although wealthier houses seem like the reasonable target for crimes and robberies, this actually is not the case. Crimes like these rarely occur in affluent neighborhoods where families are able to live in gated houses and private communities with special surveillance and technology. Instead, in areas where there are higher unemployment rates, there are more desperate people in need of money and food. As a result, there is bound to be more crime rates. Additionally, children who raised in these environments, do not have access to quality education and are influenced to follow the adults. Thus, this cycle of prevalent violence in low-income districts continues.
For my second genre, I decided to write a short article that would feature on the New York Times newspaper.
My intended audience was specifically middle-aged adults and the general public, as it is an article that would go out to the public. Most older adults enjoy reading newspaper articles as their pastime. Therefore, with this specific audience in mind, I used different techniques unlike the social media post. I skipped use of slangs and words that only younger generations would understand. Instead of bullet points, I wrote longer and developed sentences. To imitate the newspaper style, I used a different font and wrote in two columns.
However, I didn’t want to make my article too boring for my audience. By using a current event as a hook, it grabs the attention of my audience and to keep them engaged, I didn’t use intense and complex words. I added a screenshot from the surveillance video to the article so that my second genre wasn’t all words. This attracts more readers after they see the outrageous picture of someone holding a bat over another person. For the audience to depict the event, I used descriptive language and imagery to narrate the attack. I tried to include as much as details such as the age, the name, the location. In efforts to create a catchy title, I also incorporated alliteration in my title, by repeating the letter “D.” I didn’t have any specific quotes from a witness or any person to use and I didn’t want to add false information, so I just added a quote from the article I attained my information with.
Reflection-
At first, I was a little confused as to how I would start this project. When I read the description and requirements for this assignment, I felt like there were many parts to this project. However, with the topic reflection and genre proposal, I was able to get a hint of what I was going to do for this project. In addition, reading the comments on the student examples really guided me. As I worked on this composition project, I found myself enjoying the process of creating both genres. It was fun to edit and finally use some of the Instagram features that I have never touched before. I got to pick my own color scheme and combinations. It was also fun writing a newspaper article. I got to act like a news reporter in the first half. I asked questions like “what would reporter Nawang say.” A rhetorical device I was able to incorporate was alliteration in my article title. In the latter half of the article, I found that it was easier to write because I knew what I wanted to say. After my research for the SBE assignment, I was able to understand the causes of this issue, making this assignment easier. I choose these two genres because I thought it targeted two different audiences, which would allow me to write in two different styles. I felt like this project was a more enjoyable than the research SBE project.
