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Jake Nance
6 February 2016

The Different Ways We Receive Information

While casually reading or actively seeking out specific information, we often have a
natural tendency to disregard the form of writing that the author chooses to use. As readers, and
writers alike, it is important to understand why authors choose different ways of conveying
information, and how this diversity in writing is used to target specific audiences with maximum
efficiency.
The genre, is the particular technique in which authors use to compose their work; this can be an
interview, a blog-post, a magazine/newspaper article, a website, and many more. In this
rhetorical analysis we will be focusing on the topic of the well-being of the indigenous peoples in
present-day United States, and how this topic has been conveyed by three different sources, in
three different ways; nonetheless all conveying the same general message in regards to content
and perspective.
All of the selected sources are similar in the sense that they all, directly or indirectly, indicate a
perspective that the indigenous population within the United States today is a target of frequent
discrimination and mistreatment by the larger portion of society. Two of the sources are based on
the meanderings and speculation of S. James Anaya, who is the UN Special Rapporteur for
Indigenous Peoples, and are different from one another, in terms of format, in the sense that one
is a blog post and one is an interview.
The third source is an informational website published by the Native American Aid, and was
included as a website source, particularly for the purpose of reinforcing the claims made by
Anaya in his publications. Rhetoric is clearly present through the unanimous perspectives of the
sources, that perspective being that there is definitively unreasonable treatment being
experienced by our Native Americans.
The first source to be analyzed is a website and/or blog sponsored by the University of
Arizona and in dedication to UN Probe, James Anaya. It primarily contains concerns, opinions,
and urgings to the United States government by Anaya in regards to an array of issues
surrounding indigenous peoples in the United States in modern times. The source could also be
speculated as a television interview, as it was televised and the text is more or less directly
derived from statements made by Anaya.
When it was published on May 11th, 2012, Anaya was beginning the UNs first-ever investigation
into the struggle of indigenous Americans residing in the United States; an investigation that
resulted in some recommendations to the government by Anaya, such as advising the U.S. to
return some land to Native American tribes, including South Dakotas Black Hills, home to the
famous Mt. Rushmore Monument. Anaya says such a move would be a step toward addressing
systemic discrimination against Native Americans that continues to this day. (Anaya) It can be
fairly argued that this is the most common form of news distribution seen today, as most of our

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information absorption is digital and a TV interview followed by a text discussing what was
talked about during the interview/program comprises virtually any contemporary news or
informational website that we see today.
This sort of genre is most effective when writers are attempting to reach a large, general audience
of people. This sort of source is also effective in demonstrating the fact that both peoples span of
attention and ability to retain the information, is heavily affected by the format in which it is
presented to them.
Another common mechanism of information distribution is seen through the practice of
face-to-face interviews, which is the method of the second selected source. This source is an
article published by National Public Radio (NPR), and can be considered a radio source as well,
as it did originate on the radio.
NPR is a non-profit media organization that serves a network of 900 public radio stations in the
United States, and this particular interview is conducted by Michel Martin. The interview begins
abruptly with a short introduction, in which the general focus of the interview is clearly lain out.
The estimated 2.7 million Native Americans living in federal recognized tribal areas have to
contend with problems like unemployment, alcoholism, sexual abuse, and suicide. (Martin)
The interview is not written in paragraph form, but rather is composed in the format of the
interviewer asking a question, which is recorded, and then the interviewee answering the
question, which is also then recorded. This is indicative that the author is trying to reach a more
narrowed audience than the previously-discussed source, an audience that appreciates a more
traditional form of journalism, and also one that enjoys reading a question-answer sort of format,
as opposed to an aggregate of paragraphs.
This source is also the most similar to the one previously-discussed, in the since that they are
both, in and of themselves interviews, discuss similar content, and obviously utilize the same
individual as their core frame-of-reference.
They are different, however, in the sense that they employ a different means of interview
conduction, one through television and one through radio, as well as the actual formatting of the
text and conversations. It is this source that can be most heavily relied upon for authenticity and
credibility, as it takes the direct quotations of Anaya in response to specified questions, without
including any form of partisanship that is seen slightly in the first source.
This is only personal speculation, however it seems that almost any source involving a television
station is bound to have certain biases and opinions that may not be based on anything factual; of
course with a few rare exceptions.
The final source is one provided by a Native American charity called the Native
American Aid, and can be considered strictly a website/online article source. This source is the
highest variant of the three, primarily due to the fact that it is strictly informational; meaning that
instead of taking the opinions and statements of people, it provides numerical statistics and data
regarding the conditions of Native Americans here in the U.S.

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It too, is rather pessimistic in its message, stating in its introduction that Living conditions on
the reservations have been cited as comparable to Third-World. (NAA) It then continues to
discuss three specific areas of human life, and provide specified data in regards to these three
areas; the three points of focus mentioned here are employment, housing, and health.
This article is probably the most narrowly-refined in terms of a target audience, as people that
read these sorts of articles as their main means of learning about events and issues, are generally
people that do very well with sorting through data, and more specifically utilizing numbers and
statistical facts derived from these numbers, to prove a point. This portion of the population is
small, but definitely exists.
An example of what is being referred to is seen in the first sentences of any of the three
categories.
In the category of health, for example, the first paragraph states: The average life expectancy
for Native Americans has improved yet still trails that of other Americans by almost five years.
About 55 % of American Indians rely on the Indian Health Service for medical care. Yet, the
Indian Health Care Improvement Act only meets about 60 % of their health needs. (NAA) After
reading enough of this article, it can easily be determined how and why I was able to conclude
that this sort of genre is for a certain type of human brain.
In fact, it is actually reasonable to say that every genre in writing can be more or less appealing,
depending on the individual, simply because we all think about and process information in our
own ways, simultaneous indicating that, the human brain, possesses an aggregate of various traits
that could not ever be duplicated from one person to another.
Through the analysis of these different forms of writing, we were able to see different formats in
which authors use to target certain audiences more effectively. More importantly, this
information can hopefully be used to find and identify the format of writing and reading that is
most effective for someone like myself.
While the first two mentioned held similarities as far as the main person of interest, as well as
content and perspective, they differed on the basis of the means in which the content is
displayed, one being a more traditional format of journalism, while the other being the highesttrending among news agencies today.
The final source was included to educate readers that information can also be conveyed in terms
of statistics and numeric data, for the smaller portion of people that enjoy getting their facts in
this manner; as well as for the purpose of reinforcing the information presented by the earlier
sources.