Running head: GENRE ANALYSIS

Genre Analysis on a Scholarly Article and a News Report: Screen Devices and Infant
Development

Michelle Aranda

University of Texas at El Paso

GENRE ANALYSIS

A genre analysis is used to compare two different pieces of information in order to

determine which one archives its purpose in a most effective way. In this genre analysis a
scholarly article and a news report are going to be compared by their audience and purpose,
rhetorical appeals and structure and delivery. These two articles attempt the same topic but they
do it with a different approach. The scholarly article Technology and Television for Babies and
Toddlers by Natalie Arthur is mainly intended to be more deep, detailed and precise with the
information that it presents than the news report Toddlers may be at risk from technology, warn
experts as new study shows use soars by diaper set by Heidi Evans and published in The New
York Daily News. This last one shows the information in a more visually attractive structure and
more of a summary. The scholarly article thesis that babies under the age of two should not have
any screen time, and that ways to introduce babies to technology without overstimulating the
babies brains should be introduced to parents. The news report thesis is related to persuade
parents to avoid the use of screen technology by toddlers and babies. Even when this two articles
have a similar thesis, the method to express their information could differ significantly.
Audience and Purpose of News Report
The first characteristic to analyze is the audience and purpose of this genre. The intended
audience for this news report are principally parents of toddlers or babies, as well as people how
take care of children of those ages, especially those with access to electronic devices like tablets,
smartphones, etc. Taking the language used to write this article, which is English, into
consideration it can be concluded that parents in First or Second World countries are more
vulnerable to this information. This can be appreciated when the article states, We know that
you cant spend 24 hours a day with your child, but we encourage moderation for electronic
devices (Evans, 2014). This comment is clearly directed at parents, but it could be also heading

GENRE ANALYSIS

for people in charge of toddlers. By the way the report is displayed it can be establish that parents
know they usually let their kids play with their electronic devices because that is a way to keep
them calm. Also, they know how much time they let their babies to use their smartphones, or
tablets, or any other electronic device. The report says, Madueno said she only lets baby Camila
use the iPad or iPhone few times a week. But Madueno knows how Camilas eyes light up when
she sees her moms device (Evans, 2014). It can be said that parents know they should not let
their kids play for a long time with these electronic devices. The audience wants to know how
could it be harmful or beneficial for their kids to have access to this technologies, and why.
Given that this news report is not more than two pages long and the information is short the
audience will spend just five to ten minutes reading the article and looking at the different
pictures that it contains. Once they finish reading the article, the message will continue to affect
them, since they are related to the topic discussed every day. So they will be more likely to
reflect on it and analyze if they are affecting their kids as a consequence of letting them use their
electronic devices.
This information was intended for parents, with the purpose of informing and persuading.
Inform to their audience about the consequences of the use of electronic devices in toddlers. And
persuade them to avoid let their babies use tablets and/or smartphones. The language is formal,
since it is a news article. But there is a colloquial language; therefore, it is not hard to understand
the words. The use of proper grammar and the style of the article is what makes it somewhat
formal. There are just a few big words that could be hard to understand since they are not
necessarily used in the common daily life. This specialized language includes words like
cognitive impact, iPad, iPhone, brain development, screen technology, and electronic
devices. The rest of the article uses vocabulary related to technology and electronic devices, but

GENRE ANALYSIS

again, it is not too specialized or uncommon language. Todays society had made us used to this
language since we use this electronic devices all the time. The phrases at the margin of the article
to emphasize the relevant parts of the article. There are pictures of babies using tablets, iPhones,
etc. Also, there is a picture naming some of the possible dangers for babies of screening. There
are hyperlinks at the margin of the article with related stories about toddlers using smartphones,
tablets, and related technology devices. At the very beginning of the article there is a link of a
video about this same article, in which they show an interview with some parents and
professionals in the field of toddlers development. Now that the audience and purpose have been
analyzed, the rhetorical appeals can be discussed.
Rhetorical Appeals of News Report
There are three rhetorical issues to analyze: ethos, pathos, and logos. Ethos refers to the
credibility of the piece. The news report Toddlers may be at risk from technology, warn experts
as new study shows use soars by diaper set is published in the New York Daily News, this fact
helps to build credibility. Along with this, there is a link at the authors name that sends the
reader to the list of articles that she had wrote. Moreover, they provide results from their research
and the professional information of the people they interviewed. The rhetorical appeal of pathos
is defined as the emotions that the genre attempts to evoke from its audience. Throughout all the
report, worry, guilty, and concern are the principal and most notorious emotions that this genre
attempts to evoke, as well as empathy and tenderness. Worry about how much damage they may
have cause to their babies by letting them use tablets and smartphones, and guilty because it is
very likely that this audience had provide more than once an electronic device to toddlers just to
entertain them. Also it evokes concern about the damage that the use of tablets could have made
to their children. Finally, the logos of an article is associated to the logic of the information, the

GENRE ANALYSIS

evidence, and the veracity of the presented data. In this news report, the author provides evidence
when talking about the results of a recent study by San Francisco-based Common Sense Media.
Similarly, with the interview of Tovah Klein, director of the Barnard College Center for Toddler
Development, and Dr. Ari Brown, a spokeswoman for The American Academy of Pediatricians.
This evidence is reliable because the audience can research about the persons interviewed in the
article and the institutions they mention and prove its veracity. The use of the rhetorical appeals
helps to archive the purpose of the genre, as well as the structure and delivery, as it will be
explained.
Structure and Delivery of News Report
The structure used for this report helps to achieve the purpose of the author. The
information is wisely organized. The title gets the audience attention, and the author manages to
keep it with the interview showed at the begging, followed by research results, pictures, and
interviews of professionals of infants development. The pictures along the article helps to
improve the attempting to evoke empathy and tenderness as well as evidence of the use of tablets
and smartphones by babies. Also, the hyperlinks at the top of the article helps to involve in a
deeply manner to the audience, since they could continue a research about the effects of
technology on toddlers. The genre can limit the information provided in the report. This could be
because they cannot go deeply about the studys results or the complete interviews. However the
information that they give its enough for the purpose of the article. For the reason that it is a
newspaper article, and it is available on Internet, it increases the audience that can have access to
it. The different components of this news report that have been analyzed helps in general to
convey its message and accomplish the purpose of it.

GENRE ANALYSIS

6
Audience and Purpose of Scholarly Article

The intended audience for this scholarly article are librarians. This is easy to understand
from the beginning of the article when the author says, So what do we, as librarians, do when
these parents request movies (Arthur, 2010, p 58). Since this article is written in English, and
published in the journal Children & Libraries: The Journal of the Association for Library,
American librarians could be a most specific intended audience. The author means that the
audience knows that is important to avoid screen times for kids under two years old, and that
they want to know what strategies they can use to advise parents of babies and toddlers that look
for movies and/or computer games for their kids. It is a short article, two pages long, so 5
minutes are enough for the audience to read and understand the content. The message can affect
the audience after they read it because they can make a difference in their communities to
improve a toddlers development.
Since this is a scholarly article, the main purpose is to inform. When the author states,
having a list of baby-appropriate technology may offer parents a way to introduce their baby
to technology without overstimulating the babys brain. (Arthur, 2010, p 58). It could also be
consider as a purpose to persuade the audience that as librarians they should enforce the use of
adequate technologies that improves toddlers brains development. The language used in the
entirely scholarly article is formal. The structure, grammar, and vocabulary of the same is what
make it formal. In this article there are very few examples of specialized vocabulary. Screen
time is the most common one used in this article, and refers to the time that babies and toddlers
spend in front of any electronic device with a screen, being television, tablets, cell phones and
computers the most common ones.

GENRE ANALYSIS

The text format, font, and size provide the article with a formal view. The picture and
general information about the article helps to build the credibility. The lack of hyperlinks makes
the audience focus only in the information provided at the article. The picture at the end,
containing information about the program Born to Read provides the opportunity to expand the
audiences research.
Rhetorical Appeals of Scholarly Article
The ethos or credibility of this scholarly article is present in this article from the list of
references provided at the end of the article. Also, the information provided at the end of the first
page about the author helps to build credibility. Analyzing the rhetorical appeal of pathos,
concern could be the principal emotion that the author is trying to evoke. But the rhetorical issue
of pathos is not the strongest rhetorical appeal in this article. Finally, logos is established by the
diverse evidence provided along the article. Clear examples of this are the statistical results from
AAP studies, which is reliable evidence.
Structure and Delivery of Scholarly Article
The information offered in this article has a logical organization. It starts presenting the
problem and along the article it provides solutions to the same. The last page with the visuals
helps to keep the audience interest. The information presented in this scholarly article is nor
limited by the genre. The author has more freedom to express and accomplish its purpose
because of the genre. It is clear that its purpose is to inform, and the formal and academic context
of the article helps to do this. The structure help convey its message because the information is
not mixed with graphs or any other visual distractors. The fact that it is published on a journal
makes their article not as accessible as it could be.

GENRE ANALYSIS

Comparison and Contrast of News Report and Scholarly Article

The two different genres used in this genre analysis have a very different way to present
their information and accomplish their purpose. The news report haves a more visual approach as
well as a more colloquial and common language while the scholarly article presents more
experimental data and contains a very little amount of visual elements. This is relevant because
since the audience of both genres is different, it is necessary the use of diverse elements to get
their respective audiences attention. Another difference is related to the use of rhetorical appeals.
The news report makes a deeper use of pathos and ethos; however, the scholarly article contains
a logos approach. Besides these differences, these two genres have a similar purpose, to prevent
the use of screen technology by babies and toddlers.
Conclusion
The news report Toddlers may be at risk from technology, say expert; study shows use
sour by Natalie Arthur, published by the NY Daily News, shows a great difference with respect
to the scholarly article Technology and Television for Babies and Toddlers. These differences
are caused by the genres they belong to. Even when both of them archive their purpose, the news
report archive it in the most effective way. The news report provide a more extensive varied
information and makes a more productive use of the rhetorical appeals. The scholarly article
analyzed is a short one and this limits the amount of information that the audience received. So it
can be conclude that even when the genres had different structures and ways to provide the
information, each one is a useful tool to do it, depending on the intended purpose and audience.

GENRE ANALYSIS

9
References

Arthur, N. (2010). Technology and television for babies and toddlers. Journal of Children &
Libraries: The Journal of the Association for Library, 2, 58.
Evans, H. (2014, April 7). Toddlers may be at risk from technology, warn experts as new study
shows use soars by diaper set. New York Daily News.