Genre 1: Social Media Post

For my first composition of genre, I decided to go with a social media post. I wanted something that could not only reach so many people in a matter of seconds but also capture their attention immediately. This is why I opened up my post with capital letters and used exclamation marks at the end. The red emoji exclamation point is bigger than the usual exclamation point, so I used it as a way to catch the reader’s attention better and show that I am very serious about what I am saying. I want them to be drawn to what I’m saying out of the need for an immediate response. This is typically used when someone is yelling, trying to draw emphasis on what they are conveying to their audience. A lot of people surprisingly don’t even know what the gender wage gap is, and some blatantly ignore its existence. This blatant ignorance is what I try to address with this opening. Also, I was aware of the text limit that is present on Twitter, so it forced me to have to condense what I wanted to say into a concise but powerful post. This way, the viewer would not be overwhelmed by length and not just bypass the post in its entirety. By doing this, the post was able to meet its overall purpose of drawing attention to the gender wage gaps’ effects on women and call for it to be closed as soon as possible. My target audience in this post was the federal government, specifically Joe Biden and members of the House of the Representatives. I decided the best method of getting their attention would be on the Twitter platform as I constantly see many politicians on here posting daily about their pitches in congress and what they want to enact into laws. I felt that by posting on here, it would catch the attention of either President Biden or members of the house of representatives. To increase the likelihood of them seeing this Twitter post, I used the hashtag feature, which would notify them about a post being referenced to them and will appear on their feed. I focused on them as a means this either President Biden using his position as President to apply pressure on the legislative branch to something more proactive in closing the gap; in reference to the house of representatives, any one of them have the power to bring up a bill to be passed to a law, so I broaden it to help garner supporter from everyone in there. I also tried to list different gender wage gap facts that I know the government had the power to easily overturn it, and by throwing it in their faces, it will increase the likelihood of them answering and garner support from others to keep on reposting this same message. Seeing a large number of people’s concerns with this problem also increases the possibility of them solving the problem.

Genre 2: Meme about the Gender Wage Gap

For my second composition of genre, I decided to go with a meme centered at attacking the United States government’s response to the gender wage gap. I imagine seeing this meme on social media platforms such as Instagram and Twitter as they are platforms young adults and children use very often and are bound to see on their stream and share with their followers, and the reposting cycle continues. When creating my second piece, I was keeping in mind, what are the ways children and young adults spread messages in ways that are easily understandable and relatable to them. That is when I thought to myself that a meme would suffice. The meme depicts a man who is having a hard time making a decision between two options. This is a problem all people go through all the time as there is always something that we have to choose between like what food to eat, what to wear etc. However, the options placed in front of the man, being a physical representation of the US government, is not as hard as he makes it out to be. We all know the obvious answer, which is to solve the gender wage gap in the United States, but the government refuses to come up with a concrete solution. They are more likely to be more proactive in international affairs than what is happening in their own homeland. I wanted to highlight this issue to gain the support of younger viewers, mainly people around my age range. People around my age have a tendency to make sure that their voices are heard, and they use all means to let them be heard, such as through social media or through protest. I have seen them be rampant in many other issues such as the Black Lives Matter movement and global warming, and by them seeing this and being made aware of the problem, especially women who will be affected by it in future careers, they will feel it is a matter of great importance and take action. My purpose in this meme is to dramatically emphasize how the US government needs to get its priorities straight in terms of what is actually important for the furtherment of this country. When I made this meme, I could see it being in a variety of places. I can see it being on social media, mainly Instagram and Twitter, as I see many memes on there on a daily basis and acted as inspiration for this one. Also, I can also see it on websites that talk about the gender wage gap and want to apply visuals to show that this problem needs to be solved as soon as possible. Personally, I have seen this meme format many times, each trying to call out obvious answers that the man is having a hard time picking between. I’ve also seen many people on social media post this kind of meme format and spread pretty rapidly on the internet. It’s so funny that it’s almost alarming how obvious an alarming how hard the man is struggling with this decision, and this use of humor is meant as an eye opener to the audience of how unfair the current system that is in place, the gender wage gap, truly is.

Reflection:

When I made these two genres, a social media post, and a meme, I had in mind a piece of information that can spread so quickly. I had always been fixated on this issue for many years now since I learned about it while researching. I wish I had known about it earlier so I could, on my own end, try and post information about it and partake in a protest aiming at closing the gap. This is why I chose to make these genres to encourage my peers to be aware while also wanting the government to close it as well. I used an aggressive tone in both of my genres as a way of making my stance on this issue as clear as possible, which is that I am against the gender wage gap, and something needs to be done about it. I feel that this was effective as the message was pretty understanding, and anyone reading it can tell what my message was. I wanted to make the two compositions of the genre as relatable as possible. Hence, that is why I tried to relate them to the audience I addressed in each of them. For the social media post, I addressed the house of representatives knowing that not only are they a law making body of the United States of America, but quite a few of the members of this section of congress are made of women with their leader, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi being a woman as well. By them seeing a problem that personally affects them based on their gender, this would sway them to try and solve this problem. For the meme, I tried to relate to the audience by making it appear like they are usually day to day choosing what to do but for the United States government ignoring and not even knowing which to pick between the obvious choice speaks volumes in which my audience perceives it. A challenge I faced was for my social media post in which I was pondering how I would get the politicians to see my post as fast as possible as I know they are very busy. So I figured the fastest way for it to get their attention was to use hashtags this way; they were made aware that they were being referenced in a post, and they would go and see what it is about. While making these two genres, I felt I was able to tap into my more creative side compared to the research essay, which followed a more specific guideline. This assignment allowed me to be more open in how I would tackle this problem, and it caused me to think a lot about the genres I analyzed in the research paper that presented their different aspects of rhetorical situations. Thus acting as something I use as a guideline on how I can go about my genres as well.