Genre Analysis: Child Abuse

Desiree Reazola
University of Texas at El Paso

Introduction
There's a growing concern in the United States of America and that problem is child
abuse. The main issue is that instead of it getting better, it is getting worse due to the fact that
nobody wants to get involved. The other day I came across a song that hits this problem like a
hammer hitting the head of a nail. The song is, "Alyssa Lies" by Jason Michael Carrol. It is a
song that is so true that it brought a tear to my eye. The situation of child abuse is a growing
concern that needs to be addressed not only in schools, but mostly in the homes, only this will
enable us to be able to put a stop to this.
Audience/Purpose
In the first genre, "Alyssa lies by Jason Michael Carroll, is a music piece that was
released on October 16, 2006. It is based on a true story to inform the listeners about how child
abuse is a very serious and how it needs to be put to an end. People should speak up even if they
just arent sure if abuse is going on because if no one decides to speak up then it will be too late
for that innocent child. The other genre is an article that was released on November 7, 2014 and
the purpose was basically to inform how a 3-year-old child was constantly beaten leading to his
death, and alert the people of what could happen when no one speaks up when a child gets
abused and that leads to death.
The intended audience in the first genre would more likely be people who have gone
through this hard situation, adults and young adults. We can conclude that the audience that
makes up the first genre would be adults more likely, due to the fact that their brains are more

developed and have a better understanding of what the song, "Alyssa Lies" story was trying to
get across. It doesn't really reflect to young childrens understanding because their
comprehension is not fully developed on what the song is trying to say. For the article, " 3-yearold hung up by feet, beaten and killed." The main audience for this genre would also more and
likely be adults and mid-young teen adults that have a better understanding on what is child
abuse, what the target is, and ways that it can be stopped. With the genres they are nothing
talking about child abuse, but one understands it more clearly than the other. The song, "Alyssa
Lies" puts it in a song form to catch the listener attention to hear what the song is really about
and to pursue the information that he or she is given from the song and make sure that person has
a better understanding; while genre two gives us an article that is based on a true story about a
boy named Scotty who was hung and beaten to death and just left there like nothing.
Also, the genres are different in the time that each genre is spent on to get the message
sent out to the rest of the world. Within the song, Alyssa Lies by Jason Carroll it has to be a
brief short message, yet strong enough to catch the listeners attention for that moment because
the audience will only listen for that moment when the information is given to you on the radio
or almost any other social media network. While the second genre could be spent on with a little
more time on reading since this is an actual incident that is important enough to be shown on the
news, newspapers and other sources of news. This news report could more and likely go viral
which more and likely did and now not only due people disrespect these two parents of what
they did to this poor, innocent child, people can really get a better understanding of what child
abuse is and ways that you can stop it if you see something that is not right. Even though each
genre is talking about another story apart from yours, they are still getting the message of
stopping child abuse before it is too late and that you might regret for the rest of your life just

because you didn't speak up. In the first genre it would take about 3-4 minutes to consume all the
information when has been given to you on the radio, but when you watch the news, or you
decide to get the newspaper, this will in fact give you a better understanding of this situation and
help you analyze the great injustice that was committed to the innocent child.
Rhetorical Issues
Ask yourselves this question, with the information in the song, Alyssa Lies by Jason
Carroll and the article that was listed on, ABC 7 Eyewitness News, is it really helping the
situation on child abuse or is it just a waste of time and money or do people just dont care to
listen? If you think about it and you open your eyes and ears and just look around, why is the
problem getting worse instead of getting better....WHY?
Ethos
In order to find out whether things are getting better or worse, the best sources to get this
information from would be best gotten from government agencies, police departments, case
workers, and education advisers. The reason we cannot ask neighbors or the common citizens is
because they just do not want to get involved. Having said this if you go to these websites for
example, American Humane Association, National Children Alliance, and Child Help they
provide people with information on child abuse. According to these websites the situation with
child abuse is not really getting better but worse. This makes you wonder has the human ethics
changed so much over the centuries. The human evolution has advanced on the basic principal
that whatever it takes the most important thing was to protect your family not matter at what
cost. Have our ethnics changed so much? Is this the price of being civilized? It makes you
wonder.

Pathos
Our society has become a society of technology where everything that is communicated
has become visual. At first dealing with the phone and the first development of the cellphone
people would communicate with speech, but now with the development of the internet, iPads,
iPhones, etc. The best way to get a message across is either by music, or visual effects. So what
artists try to do is try to get messages across using music and videos to try to touch the emotions
of the listeners while the media will use the visual effect to captivate the view in audience.
Logos
The question is what will it take to change this situation. We call ourselves human beings
that we are an intelligent race, we are a race of compassion, we have the ability of reason, we can
change the world for the better, so why havent we? They say God created us in his own image
and that we have his heart and soul, so where is it? What happened to our compassion? Where is
our instinct to protect the innocent? What has become of us? Is greed and crime corruption all we
know? We need to get our values back before it is too late and another child is abused.
Structure and Delivery
In the first genre the way it is presented, it deals part of the brain that deals with the visual effect
and the listening effect to try to get the emotional effect of the listener. While the second genre,
deals with the part of the brain that uses the visual and thinking process. Although, there are two
different techniques that are used they are both equally effective in getting the message across.

Conclusion
In conclusion, the song, Alyssa Lies by Jason Carroll has reached more individuals to
the awareness of child abuse than the article presented by ABC 7 Eyewitness News, because
of the fact that we have become a society of song than a society of knowledge. We tend to
remember the rhythm in songs and the visual effects that correlate to each other longer than
articles that are read even with visual effects. The bottom line still remains the same if we dont
get involved the problem will never be fixed and continue to worsen.

Reference
Carroll, M. J. Alyssa Lies. Waitin in the Country [CD]. Artista Nashville.
Police: 3-year-old hung up by feet, beaten, killed in PA. (2014, November 7). Retrieved from
http://abc7chicago.com/ news/police-3-year-old-hung-up-by-feet-beaten-killed-in-pa/
383644/
Child Abuse Neglects and Statistics. (2013). Retrieved from http://www.americanhumane.org/
children/stop-child-abuse/fact-sheets/child-abuse-and-neglect-statistics.html
National Statistics on Child Abuse. (2014). Retrieved from http://
www.nationalchildrensalliance.org/media-room/media-kit/national-statistics-child-abuse
Child Abuse Statistics and Facts. Retrieved from https://www.childhelp.org/child-abusestatistics/?