Running Head: Ferguson

Ferguson: Genre Analysis of an Articles and Video

Audrey Duran
Rhetoric & Composition 2
Joanna Hinojosa

Ferguson

Introduction:
The article is focusing on the issue with what happened at Ferguson, Missouri and
how the people are situating with the issue after. Many people were affected by what
happened, especially the citizens within Ferguson, now the citizens are outraged and want
the fight for what they believe and not back down. The Title is Lessons from a Tragedy
by Rand Paul, Karreem Abdul-Jabbar and Sybrina Fulton. The video is dealing with an
artist who is creating these images based on Ferguson. The video is by BBC and the artist
is Howard Barry. Howard Barry is dealing with the issue in his own way and creates the
pieces of work from what the people of Ferguson are feeling. He uses the newspaper
articles on Ferguson as his canvases (BBC, 2014). The citizens want people to understand
that they are scared of the police and want to fix the issue so no one will get hurt in the
future.
Audience and Purpose Questions:
The intended audience for the article is mainly the authoritative people in
Ferguson that speak English. Not surprisingly, Big Government has been at the heart of
the problem (Paul, 2014). The authors are trying to reach out to the authoritative figures
so they know what they did was wrong. The article is trying to inform us of the issue that
Ferguson had in the past and to persuade the authoritative figures to understand what they
did was wrong.
You probably have heard of the Kent State shootings on May 4, 1970, when the
Ohio National Guard opened fire on student protesters at Kent State University
You probably haven't heard of the Jackson State shootings. On May 14, 10 days
after Kent State ignited the nation, police at the predominantly black Jackson

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State University in Mississippi killed two black students (one a high school
senior, the other the father of an 11-month-old child) with shotguns and wounded
12 others(Abdul-Jabbar, 2014).
.

The article can also be to the general public to inform them what is happening and

that it is not being ignored. Each author is tackling a certain issue that they want to come
across and the audience is the one who will read it and interpret it in a way that they will
do something or they wont. The audience is most likely to know what happened in
Ferguson and interpret their own ideas of what happened and the authors are informing
the readers with more information that will enlighten them. The audience will spend
about 20 to 25 minutes reading and reading it and understanding what they read and
understand what the authors are trying to say. Most of the article is informal but when
they quote someone or refer to a statistic it is very formal. It is appropriate because it
helps the reader understand the words more clearly and when the formal is shown they
understand that it is the authors ethos. There is no specialized vocabulary the authors
use, because is for the general public and the authoritative figures there is no need to be a
certain dictation.
The intended audience for the video is the general public that speak English
because Howard Barry is trying to inform the audience the way he is feeling through his
drawings. The audience can be the citizens in Ferguson. The citizen might be feeling the
same way as he is and feeling appreciated that others understand what they are going
through. The audience is likely to know what is happening with the riots and what
happened to Michael Brown and the looting. The video is about 3 minutes long, they
might replay it to understand the art he created (BBC, 2014). There is a chance that the

Ferguson

audience will also look for more images that Howard created. The language is very
informal, and is appropriate to the audience because the drawings are very violent and
that is not formal. There is hardly any specialized vocabulary because Barry is speaking
as though he is speaking directly to the citizens in Ferguson; there is no need to place a
certain vocabulary within the video.
The article is more for the authoritative figures, and the video is more for the
general public or the citizens in Ferguson. The article is trying to inform the audience to
understand their reasoning and the video is to inform the audience how he feels and how
it can change people. The article is trying to convince the audience that the information
that they are saying is trustworthy and to take action, while the video is try to make the
audience understand his pain. The audience in both articles knows the same amount of
information but in the video since it is a few months after it can give the audience a more
understanding. The audience will take more time reading the article than watch the video.
The article is more formal than the video; the article has more diction than the video.
They both do not have any specialized vocabulary, because they are aimed for a specific
audience. They do not need to use a certain dictation because they want the audience to
understand what they are trying to say.
Rhetorical Issues:
The interviews and the study statistics is the credibility for the article. It Is effect
because it reassure the audience that what the author is saying is fact because of the
proof. The emotion in the first author in the article is hateful towards the police and the
militarization that involved in Ferguson. Police are looking and acting more like
soldiers than like cops, with bad consequences. And those who suffer the consequences

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are usually innocent civilians(Paul, 2014). The second author understands, he knows
that this was going to happen eventually and wants to start doing something to stop it by
being peaceful because violence does not get anything done. In fact, we need more
protests across the country -- peaceful protests that address issues, rather than violence
that distracts from the message. Protests are about gaining political power, not alienating
potential supporters(Abdul-Jabbar, 2014). The third author was devastated because
Michael Browns family wrote her a letter and she has no words to make the family feel at
ease. I wish I had a word of automatic comfort, but I don't (Fulton, 2014). The
information is from a response to what happened in Ferguson and people want to be
heard.
Howard Barry is credible because of all the locations his works is in that are
honorable to be in these museums (BBC, 2014). He is showing his emotion and it might
help others understand what he is feeling. The emotions Howard Barry is feeling are
anger and heartbreak because of what happened is affecting him due to the fact that he
also has a son, and is scared to let his son be affected by the situation (BBC, 2014). Many
citizens are rioting because they have an issue with the authoritative figures and want
them to understand what they feel. He shows the drawings he made and it shows the
anger and sadness with the newspapers (BBC, 2014).
The article uses statistics and quotes from study and interviews for their
credibility while the video uses his locations that he has his art work for his. Each author
within the article has a different kind of emotion and the video mainly has angry and
sorrow. Both are appropriate for their audience and that shows their different prospective.
It helps the audience by showing a different side of view on many people for the article,

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and the video only shows Howard Barrys. The article and video both want the audience
to know how they feel but the article wants the audience to do something about it.
Structure and Delivery:
The time was about two weeks after the situation for the article. Some freedoms
the article had was that it had many points of views with the different authors. A
limitation could have been that it did not have an author that was a proponent for Officer
Wilson. The article was divided into sections that made each section one of the authors. It
helped shape an idea of what happened at Ferguson and what should have happened
before, during and after the situation. None of the communication features contribute to
the message; it was all one font with no visual or colors. The elements are trying to help
the audience understand that there is not one interpretation of the article that is why they
had many different points of views.
The video was three months after the issue at Ferguson. The freedoms the video
has is what Howard Barry wants to show BBC, maybe he wants certain drawings to be
shown and some not to be. Through out the video it shows Howards drawings and the
people with Ferguson that he drew. The only text was in front of a dark drawing that said
Howard Barry uses newspapers as his canvas (BBC, 2014) in the color white. The
drawing shows Howards emotions that he feels from what happened in Ferguson.
The article was written shortly after the incident while the video was many moths
after. The article has many people points of views and only Howard Barry for the video.
The video had many visuals of his drawing and what he feels and see what is happening
in Ferguson while the article had not visuals. The drawings in the video that Howard
created varied from just black and dark shades of grey to bright yellow and red. The

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article is trying to help the audience get motivated to go out and do something about the
riots and the killings, while the video is trying to show his emotions so that people can
really understand how he is feeling and many other citizens in Ferguson.
Conclusion:
Each genre was portraying the message that they see fit and will work affectively.
The article had many different views to help show the audience that there is not one side
to the situation. The video shows the emotions but Barrys drawing gives sympathy and
not a driven emotion to go out and change the society. The article shows different ways to
inform the public on how to get involved. The article wants people to get involved and
make changes that will better the community.

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8
References:

Barry, H. (2014, November 22) BBC News Ferguson shooting Michael Brown protests
inspire artist Howard Barry. [Video File]. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvbbn4aivfw
Paul, R., Abdul-jabbar, K., & Fulton, S. (2014). Lessons From a Tragedy. Time, 184(8),
28-29. Retrieved from http://encore.utep.edu:50080/ebsco-w-a/ehost/detail/detail?
sid=669cfc1a-3d46-490c-a9b52f79e4986c74%40sessionmgr4004&vid=0&hid=4207&bda