With language and writing being a dominant part of our society, I think it is important to establish bias perspectives in everyday information we are exposed to. Media and other manifestations of information are usually interested in shaping the mind of an individual to make them useful to the user. This often means making people believe that they are selling the absolute best product or in the case of politicians, making people believe that their believes and values are of those that will best benefit society. I am going to be exploring how the genre in which information is communicated in can be used to alter an individual’s perspective on an issue. For example let’s look at advertisements directed towards children. Usually advertisements for kids are exciting with lots of color and lots of action; something that will grasp a child’s attention and not give too much detail as to bore them. Children will often become attracted to certain advertised objects not because of the characteristics of the object but by how the object is advertised. In the photo presented below, we can see how a diverse amount of color and action (portrayed by the bird swinging from a vine) can make a child feel attracted to something, not based on the information presented but how it was presented. This same effect can be used just as readily on adults.
On September 15th, my Sociology and Political Science class had a joint lecture about Japanese internment camps here in Canada during the 1940’s. During this lecture we watched a documentary called ‘A Degree of Justice’ which depicted the Japanese internment camps through eyes of Japanese people who suffered from them. This presentation of information gives the viewer an immediate sense of remorse and dismay for the injustice that took place. Using the affected Japanese people to pass on this information has a great effect on the way in which the information is received. Not only does this presentation show how someone’s life has been torn apart, it gives the presentation realism. It shows that actual people who were affected by this injustice and it is not something that has been forgotten about, nor should it be forgotten about. It proves that the Japanese internment camps are not just a historical event that can now be buried and moved on from,
but in fact that there are still people who are alive and suffering from these events. This is an example of how genre can be used in a positive way to convey serious information in a way that it will be heard.
Another example of this use of genre would be serious graphic narratives. In my ASTU 100 class we are currently studying the graphic narrative ‘Persepolis’, written by Marjane Satrapi. My professor, Dr. Luger, pointed out that graphic works are generally depicted as something that is not serious but is in fact humorous. Comic books are usually used for entertainment and to tell exaggerated and funny stories about superheroes and villains; to grasp the reader’s attention through imagination and fictional tales. So what is the purpose of using graphics to represent a non fiction and serious event in history? I would argue that the way in which this story is told is the way that will make it most memorable to the most amount of people. Using graphics as a presentation for this story gives readers a morbid and unsettling feeling that makes them ask “Did I just read that?” In the photo presented there is a man being tortured which is depicted in almost a comical way. The feeling that settles across the reader after being exposed to this type of genre is one that will stay with them, a feeling that makes them question the events that they are reading about taking place in different parts of the world. Stated by Satrapi in the introduction of the narrative Persepolis, is that the book was written with the intention of spreading truthful information about what happened in Iran, and to make sure that these events are not forgotten. The genre of this narrative is very effective in this sense for it helps the essence of the book stay with the reader long after it has been read.
Genre can be very effective if known how to use it, so as citizens in our globalizing world, we should take precautions to understanding how genre works. Once we understand the mechanisms in which genre is used we can see how it is affecting our views and even use it to our advantage.