Composition of Two Genres: Rationale

The first composition consists of information from my desertification research paper and a political cartoon. The purpose of this composition is to introduce the audience to the topic of desertification while urging action through fear mongering. In the research paper, desertification is introduced as a challenging issue that has numerous causes and very uncertain solutions. Much of it goes over the effects of desertification and the different ways it could be solved. One of the solutions discussed in the research paper is the cooperation of governments and the public in smart and sustainable resource management. In the political cartoon composition, one of the underlying causes of desertification, water mismanagement, is presented in the form of water pumps, which direct groundwater to their respective cities and citizens on both sides of the picture. The underground reservoirs are shown running low to display how current water practices in different countries are unsustainable. The reservoirs are connected to symbolize how this is a shared problem, not just a situational outside issue. To reinforce these motifs, sand dunes, cracked soil and animal skeletons are shown in both the U.S and the mexican sides of the cartoon. These details also aid in promoting a sense of impending doom and fear to hopefully encourage action from the audience.

 

The audience of the political cartoon composition are primarily adults in the United States who read the newspaper instead of using social media. This is due to the fact that the second composition consists of the desertification research paper and facebook posts. By creating a political cartoon, I’m able to introduce the topic to a wider range of people rather than only those that use social media. Due to the more liberal nature of political cartoons in newspapers, Large cities are used in this cartoon rather than small towns or farms to relate to the targeted liberal leaning audience, who primarily live in big cities off the coast. To ensure that viewers don’t pass the problem off as someone else’s burden, infrastructure from different cities such as the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco and the Freedom Tower from NYC are used in the unlabeled city on the USA side.

The second composition is composed of the research paper and two similar, but distinct facebook posts. Facebook is used as a platform because its ability to spread and promote information via outrage media and fear mongering among similar minded people sharing within their social bubbles. Posts that gain a lot of attention in their original group eventually draw the attention of audiences from other demographics as well. And the larger the amount of attention is given to an issue, the more likely it is to be picked up by politicians in their conversations with the public. This ties into the target audience for this composition, which are not only the public, but ultimately lawmakers in the government as well. Usually, it’s extremely difficult for new issues to reach politicians because they try to promote party agenda and ideals. Therefore, in this composition, the two separate posts and adjusted to fit the needs of the two main political parties of the United States, which are the Democrats and Republicans. On the Democrat side, families, women and children are used in the image along with a small description about the impact desertification has on human suffering to cater to the Democrat’s socially conscious ideals. A large and startling statistic of the 22 million climate refugees are used to show that this is a global issue that can affect us on a local level as well, since migrant and refugee policy is a hot button topic in the U.S currently. On the Republican side, an image of a large number of minorities overlooking a sand pit with a small caption are used to incite the isolationist and racially prejudiced tendencies of the conservative Republican party. The picture is captioned with the same startling statistic as the Democrat side, but worded in a way that caters to what republicans currently care and worry about, which is a large influx of migrants immigrating to the U.S.