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Paris Edwards Jr.

Prof. Joy McDonald

English 102-11

13 February 2017

Genre Analysis on Violence in Chicago

Introduction:

In todays society, media is the outlet to everything. The old way of communicating news

through newspapers or even over the radio has gone seldom with the new wave of technology.

Social media, videos, and moving pictures (gifs) have now taken over the way different

messages are reached worldwide. Not only does this method allow for quicker travel of news

across the globe with videos, websites, or even social media apps and blogs; it also provides a

much easier way to access different information since everything is sent out and even archived

electronically. While the advancement in news given through technology has been a blessing to

many users, it has also come to be a curse to others.

To get updates around what is going on around the country or even world they often turn

to their preferred media. However, these medias can often have some biased or even full blown

negative messages to the stories that they are covering. The one subject that I feel has been an

overwhelming topic in media today is violence in Chicago. As a young African-American male

from the south side of Chicago, I feel that I can attest to the many things that are happening

around the city both good and bad. I have seen many horrible things happen in the city, but also

the good things that have also taken place that does not get as much coverage. The article,

Close-to-home Murders Another Element of Chicagos Violent Year published by the Chicago

Sun Times and the Windy City Live video, 12th District Basketball Tournament: Teens and Cops
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United are two different genres that concern the violence in Chicago and relations with the

police even though they do it in two different ways. To determine which genre conveyed their

message the best, their rhetoric, style, and language will be analyzed.

What is the Purpose of the Genre?

The purpose of the article is more so to inform or give a brief synopsis of what has

happened in the city within the past year. The article, Close-to-home Murders Another Element

of Chicagos Violent Year, demonstrates the negative side of Chicago. When they open the paper

to find a story such as this above, it draws them in to continue searching day by day, wondering

what else is going on where they live. Newspapers sole purpose is to get word out quickly and

across a broad landscape of people. With the Chicago Sun-Times being a well-known and

respected publishing company, they often tend to meet their quota of reaching their intended

audience. The video, 12th District Basketball Tournament: Teens and Cops United is a video

from a local television morning show entitled, Windy City Live. This show covers different

events that happen around the city, and sometimes even throughout the world. The current video

is about a basketball league that was started in the south loop, a community within the south side

of Chicago. The purpose of the video was to shine light on a positive event that was happening in

the inner city. The league was founded by Officer Paris Edwards, also my father, who decided to

run the tournament to send out a message to the community and as an outlet to keep young

children off the street and away from getting into any trouble. The purpose of the video could

also be to show that not all police officers are evil, seeing that officers facilitated, officiated, and

coached all throughout the tournament. They did this all while interacting with the youth who

already believed that all police officers were evil.

Rhetorical Issues: Ethos, Pathos, and Logos:

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The article begins with a sad story about a young teen who was murdered while in his

neighborhood, followed by the staggering number of murders, 700 plus, to end off the year of

2016. Starting off the article with that sentence gives the rhetoric appeals of both pathos and

logos. Hearing about a young 15-year-old boys life being ended all too soon gives a sour taste in

ones mouth. Having quotes by people who knew the victim is also a way that it hits on the

pathos appeal. Seeing the pain and agony behind a persons words gives the reader a chance to

let our imagination run wild. Based on the way a person interprets the words of the article, it can

cause them to feel like maybe they had some type of relationship with the victim. The

newspapers and other media purposely tend to target people who may not have much knowledge

of what is happening in the inner city. When people are ignorant to what is happening throughout

the city, they tend to go and buy a paper or visit the website to find out what events are currently

happening. The video displays Kairos because of how and when this event took place, it was at a

time where violence and even police relations with the community where at an all-time low.

Almost every day there was another shooting involving the police that often resulted in the death

of a person. The rhetoric appeal that this video also has is pathos. Seeing the smiling faces of the

children and the clips of them enjoying playing the game shines a light on the inner city of

Chicago, where everything is usually always a negative connotation. However, when a sign of

hope is sprung about that brings the community together, it creates a new morale in the city.

More events like this is what I believe can kill the huge spike in violence and crime in the inner

city.

Structure and Delivery:

The structure of the article is catered to where it can be easily understood. There are no

complex words that will cause anybody to have to pull up a dictionary, everything is pretty
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straight forward. It is also not too lengthy to where the reader can lose focus and become

disinterested. It is uses the reverse pyramid style of writing, where it is introduced with a tragic

event to get the reader drawn in and then goes on to detail throughout the rest of the article. The

video begins with a melody that resembles one of a Saturday cartoon theme song. It also shows

children playing while the commander of the 12th District is being interviewed. The founders of

the program are interviewed first before they bring in the participating children to give their

ideas and views of the tournament.

Conclusion:

After analyzing the above two genres, the video did a better way of conveying a

message. Simply by the fact that when one can see a smile on a childs face who is so often being

exposed to negative aspects throughout the community, it touches a persons heart in a totally

different way. People always say that the eyes are a window to the soul, which is why an article

cannot convey a message as effectively as a video can.

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Works Cited

Charles, Sam. "Close-to-home murders another element of Chicagos violent year." Chicago
Sun-Times. N.p., 21 Nov. 2016. Web. 13 Feb. 2017.

"12th District Basketball Tournament: Teens and Cops United." ABC7 Chicago. N.p., 28 Mar.
2016. Web. 13 Feb. 2017.