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From Academia to a Flashy Tabloid

Sam Carpenter
Prof.Allison Bocchino
03/17/2024
Part 1: Genre Translation
TABLOID TRANSLATION
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Part 2: Metacognitive Reflection

Modern political history is a specific academic discipline that includes a variety of

intricacies that help shape the discipline. To best understand what modern political history

articles discuss, you must be well-versed in political science and history. I have explored this

academic article through "The Bush Effect: polarization, turnout, and Activism in the 2004

presidential election"1 by authors Alan I. Abramowitz and Walter J. Stone. This article falls

under the modern political history discipline and contains various types of distinct genre

conventions imperative to making up this discipline. Throughout the article, there is distinct

jargon and tone, historical references, and graphs that employ the academic discipline of history

and convey the distinct style of this discipline. The article contains both a contextualizing and

argumentative tone, which allows for the historical landscape and argument to be laid out

throughout the paper. These two tones are consistently seen in academic articles focusing on

history and demonstrate two distinct conventions of articles falling under the academic discipline

of history.An example is the "Bush Effect: George W. Bush

was the most polarizing presidential candidate in recent

political history and was the main reason turnout and

activism increased dramatically in 2004"2.It is clear that the

article not only contextualizes 2004 but argues George

Bush's effect on the political climate in 2004. Furthermore,

the historical references in this article are seen in both

writing and visual representations. One example is seen in Figure 13

1
Alan I, Abramowitz, Walter J Stone, “The Bush effect: polarization, turnout, and activism in the 2004 presidential
election,"Presidential Studies Quarterly 36, no. 2 (June 2006): 141+
2
Abramowitz,Stone, “The Bush effect: polarization, turnout, and activism in the 2004 presidential election”.
3
Abramowitz,Stone, The Bush effect: polarization, turnout, and activism in the 2004 presidential election”.

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The graph and historical references are essential defining factors in modern political history and

help create a structure consistent with history articles. Although I have listed the main

conventions of this modern political history article, many more help shape this academic

discipline. These characteristics help the article adhere to the target audience of academics like

historians or political scientists. In addition, these characteristics set a structure for modern

political history articles, which help to define this discipline. In this reflection, I will demonstrate

the process of translating a modern political history article into a tabloid and how this helps grab

the attention of a wide variety of people.

When choosing my translation for the non academic discipline, I still wanted to capture

the argumentative tone prevalent in "The Bush Effect: polarization, turnout, and activism in the

2004 presidential election"4. However, I also wanted to make this topic more intriguing so it

reaches a broader audience. This was when I decided on a tabloid as it is an intriguing, bold, and

argumentative nonacademic discipline. When I picture a tabloid, I think of a bright and flashy

cover that grabs the attention of an everyday person. I feel that a tabloid appeals to a broad

audience interested in what is happening in the world. However, I wanted to dig deeper to

understand a tabloid's distinct genre conventions fully. After shuffling through

various types of tabloids, I came across a few that stuck out to me. The first

example is from Globe Magazine5, a notorious tabloid magazine company. I

chose this one in particular because it also discusses the topic of politics, with

Joe and Jill Biden on the front cover. This magazine uses bright, bold colors to

hook the target audience and encourage them to buy it. It is clear that when

4
Abramowitz,Stone, “The Bush effect: polarization, turnout, and activism in the 2004 presidential election”.
5
“2024 campaign ignites New Marriage Crisis,”Globe Magazine, February 27, 2023.

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discussing politics, tabloids often cast political characters in a negative light in order to make the

story seem very interesting.

Furthermore, catchy phrases are used to hook the reader further. The

second example is also from Globe Magazine6 and is distinct in that it discusses

George W Bush, the central figure in my selected academic article. This article

portrays Bush as cheating on his wife, emphasizing the negativity and gossip

tabloids try to create. This harmful and gossiping tone is a consistent genre

convention I have observed. The tabloids also consistently use big yellow letters

and white bold letters. In addition, pictures and letters are placed in a hectic and

crowded way throughout the page. For the third example, I chose a different

magazine company US Weekly7 because it is a recent and popular representation

of tabloids. This tabloid further reinforces the main genre conventions with Big

yellow and white letters, crowded placement of pictures of words, and a gossiping

tone. Lastly, I also observed the inclusion of other stories on the sides of the

tabloid to further appeal to a broader audience. These conventions hook in the

average person and, in this case, make them learn more about the discussed topic. The

captivating characteristic of tabloids will aid in increasing awareness about political polarization,

an undermined societal concept.

Going from an article with so much information to a tabloid with minimal writing was

difficult, as I did not want to mislead readers about the article's primary focus. To capture the

main focus of the academic article, I paid a lot of attention to detail when creating my tabloid.

This detail is seen in the political references, with the red and blue background featuring the

6
“Found Bush Love Letters to Condi”, Globe Magazine, January 11, 2010.
7
“Inside Taylors Mysterious World,”US Weekly, August 22, 2022

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capitol and the crack in between the American flag to convey the political divide. However,

translating the main points of the academic article to a tabloid proved the most challenging part. I

found "Learning the Language"8 by Perri Klass, very helpful when translating. Klass emphasizes

the specific and distinct jargon that exists within academic disciplines. This specific jargon is

something I looked for while translating, and it helped me capture both the academic and

non-academic disciplines. I removed unnecessary information from the academic article to keep

the tabloid format. In addition, I included the big yellow and white bold letters, which included

information about the academic article while also maintaining the conventions of a tabloid. In

addition, I featured the catchy phrases seen in my three examples and took one directly from the

academic article with a subheading, "George W. Bush: From Uniter to Divider."9 I also included

pictures, but I ensured they had meaning behind them, with two main ones conveying Bush's

transition to a polarizing president. The three pictures on the side entailed the genre conventions

of tabloids in which they feature side stories. However, they were very relevant to the contexts of

the article as they refer to three main politicians and political scientists in the academic article.

One example is that "John Kerry may have benefited more than George Bush from increased

turnout in 2004 can be seen in the behavior of first-time voters and previous nonvoters."10 I

simplified this to become a side story of the tabloid, capturing both the conventions of the

academic and nonacademic articles. The main convention I had to change/leave out was the

prevalent statistical evidence in the article, as it did not fit with the tabloid theme and seemed too

complex for a nonacademic discipline like a tabloid. In addition, I had to simplify many of the

main points and exaggerate certain statements to fit the tabloid conventions and grab a wider

8
Peri Klass , “Learning the Language”. A Not Entirely Benign Procedure: Four Years as a Medical Student,
Learning the Language. (New York . G. P. Putnam ,1987)
9
Abramowitz,Stone, The Bush effect: polarization, turnout, and activism in the 2004 presidential election."
10
Abramowitz,Stone, The Bush effect: polarization, turnout, and activism in the 2004 presidential election."

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audience's attention. The only rule I really I bent for the conventions of a tabloid was discussing

a complex academic topic which is often not seen in tabloids which have more of central focus

around pop culture.Some concerns I considered were how important the tabloid needed to look

visually and how strategic I needed to be about the writing in the tabloid due to the minimal

space I had. I also found a helpful skill was being an average everyday person myself, which

allowed me to picture what would be most enticing and clear for the tabloid. Something that

brought me a lot of clarity and guidance while translating and reflecting on this translation was

Giles's definition of "Intentions—a sense of audience and purpose and of what the writer wants

the essay to do—are essential to a good piece of communication."11 Her emphasis on including

intentions in the structure and cultivation of my reflection and translation pushed me to analyze

what I included and why I included certain things during my translation.

Translating from an academic to a nonacademic discipline was tough and presented many

challenges. However, I found analyzing the main conventions of nonacademic and academic

disciplines and implementing them into my translation an effective and efficient strategy.

Although I had to leave out some aspects of the academic article, I captured the article's main

focus in my tabloid. Using a tabloid allowed me to bring a complex and undermined concept of

political polarization to a broader audience of everyday people.

11
Sandra L Giles, “Reflective Writing and the Revision Process: What Were You Thinking?,” in Writing
Spaces:Reading on Writing, Volume 1,ed. Charles Lowe and Pavel Zemliansky(Parlos Press and respective authors,
2010), 191

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Works Cited

Abramowitz, Alan I and Stone Walter J , “The Bush effect: polarization, turnout, and activism
in the 2004 presidential election”. Presidential Studies Quarterly 36, no. 2 (June 2006): 141+.
Gale In Context: Biography (accessed January 31, 2024).
https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A147615306/BIC?u=ucsantabarbara&sid=bookmark-BIC&xid=3
9b4e7b7.

Klass Peri. “Learning the Language”. A Not Entirely Benign Procedure: Four Years as a Medical
Student, Learning the Language. New York . G. P. Putnam ,1987

Giles, L Sandra “Reflective Writing and the Revision Process: What Were You Thinking?,” in
Writing Spaces:Reading on Writing, Volume 1, edited by Charles Lowe and Pavel Zemliansky,
Parlos Press and respective authors, 2010 , 191

“George Bush Love Letters - Elvis - Tiger Woods Baby.”Globe Magazine, Jan 11 2010 .
Accessed February 28, 2024. https://www.ebay.com/itm/224021813174.

“2024 campaign ignites New Marriage Crisis,”Globe Magazine, February 27,

2023.https://totalmagazines.com/products/globe-magazine-subscription. .

“Inside Taylors Mysterious World,”US Weekly, August 22, 2022

“Karl Rove.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 29 Feb. 2024,

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Rove.

“John Kerry.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 4 Mar. 2024,

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kerry.

“Morris P. Fiorina” “The Hoover Institution”,

https://www.hoover.org/profiles/morris-p-fiorina

“George W. Bush.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 26 Feb. 2024,

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._Bush.

iSkoundre ​“George W Bush Smile by Iskoundrel on DeviantArt.” DeviantArt,

www.deviantart.com/iskoundrel/art/George-W-Bush-Smile-937474822. Accessed 6 Mar. 2024.