Running Head: POVERTY AFFECTS HEALTH 1

Poverty Affects Health: Genre Analysis of an article and a You-tube Video

Guadalupe Bugarin
University of Texas at El Paso







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Poverty Affects Health: Genre Analysis of an article and a You-tube Video
America the beautiful the place where people come to start a new life and live the
American dream. How is it that a place known for its new beginnings has its own people living
in poverty? Poverty is one of the things that many people oversee in America and it should be a
human right to live in dignity, free from want, and is itself a fundamental right to live above
the poverty line. (Silva-Cadwell, 2008) There are some people unaware that these horrible things
are currently taking place and under our noses. Currently, millions of Americans are living in
poverty due to their unstable financial status. Unfortunately, there are many more awful things
that come with poverty; one being poor health. Due to their low income, if a persons small
cough isnt treated properly then that can lead to a chronic disease e.g. asthma. Poverty not only
prevents Americans from getting proper health care but is the cause of many other negative
aspects.
There are numerous genres that are used to communicate on how poverty affects health.
The online article, Four Ways that Poverty Hurts Americans Long-Term Health, by Sy
Mukherjee, and a You-Tube video titled Poverty and Health, created by Monet Silva-Cadwell
and uploaded by John David Shea, were genres chosen to inform people on how poverty has an
enormous negative effect on health. These genres raise awareness which allows us to become
knowledgeable on how health is affected by poverty and with that we can find a way to prevent
the frail health many Americans sadly have.
Audience and Purpose
The intended audiences for the online article are the citizens from the United States of
America that want to help diminish poverty in this country. This includes elders, adults, teens,
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and even children that want to help people obtain excellent health even though poverty is a
negative contributing factor. This article is attempting to inform the audience that one of the
negative side effects that poverty causes is poor health care. The audience is more likely to
realize that there are many people in the U.S. that have been or are currently living in poverty by
reading this article. Many of the audience might already know of people living in harsh
conditions, but do not know that it has long-lasting effects on Americans general wellness that
can be difficult to reverse. (Mukherjee, 2013) It will take around five to seven minutes for the
audience to read and another two minutes to reread it. The language that is used throughout the
article is formal and its appropriate for the audience and purpose. Even though there are some
medical terms used they are commonly used in everyday life.
When it comes to the YouTube video, the audience mostly consists of American citizens
and computer users e.g. teens and adults who prefer to obtain information off the internet. This
iconography wants to inform discourse communities that are familiar with technology in order to
explore topics on how poverty affects health. As stated before the audience already knows that
there are people living in poverty but dont know that it leads to poor health because many
people tend to ignore the bad aspects in life. This video is approximately five minutes long; even
though it is a short video, there is plenty of information given. At different times of the video
there are formal and informal language being used. Thats appropriate for the audience and
purpose because there arent many difficult words used.
Both of the genres use a formal and professional language but target different audiences.
The online article targets discourses communities that are familiar with basic medical
terminology. On the contrary, the YouTube video doesnt use medical terminology. Also, both
genres are found online but in different sites which can have a disadvantage for people that dont
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know how to use the computer. Poverty and Health is a video where you have to adjust the
sounds, settings, and wait for the video to load. On the other hand, the online article is more user
friendly because all you need to do is scroll either up or down.
Rhetorical Issues: Ethos, Pathos and Logos
The online article, Four Ways that Poverty Hurts Americans Long-Term Health provides
several sources that help prove that the information that is being stated is credible. Throughout
the article the author, Sy Mukherjee, mentions several studies that were conducted in different
universities; including Yale School of Medicine. Also, he mentions a quote from a book that the
professor from Community and Family Medicine at Duke University School of Medicine, Dr.
Bernard Fuemmeler, wrote. Additionally, he disclosed different credible organizations such as
Economic Research Service (ERS) and the American Lung Association. All of this information
helped reveal a strong use of ethos in the information that he wrote. Since the article was used to
raise awareness by giving statistics and facts the article evoke little emotional responses from the
audience.
On the other hand, the video from YouTube doesnt really have a good source of ethos. It
doesnt state where they obtained their information from but it sounds believable. Although the
YouTube video was weak on ethos, it did stimulate an emotional response from the audience.
The video has several pictures of children, poor houses, food and a doctor with a stethoscope.
The visual effects did help the audience visually understand what was being stated. Before the
pictures are shown there were big and bolded question that help the audience realize that those
are the items that most people living in poverty dont have including bad health care.
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Both of the genres had their pros and cons about ethos, pathos and logos. The article did
establish creditability by using different studies done at universities yet the video had zero. The
article only had one picture of a woman with poor hygiene yet the video had several different
impacting pictures. Neither the article nor the video had good uses of both ethos and pathos
nevertheless they both had logos.
Structure
In Four Ways that Poverty Hurts Americans Long-Term Health, the information is laid
out nice and neat. In the introduction of the article there is a statement at the end that reads,
Heres how poverty negatively affects Americans health over the long term. (Mukherjee,
2013) There are four main paragraphs that are numbered and at the beginning of the main
paragraph the first sentence is bolded. The sentences that follow help support with credible
sources the bolded sentence. This helps the audience to understand the main ideas that contribute
to the statement mentioned earlier in this paragraph.
Unfortunately, the YouTube video was not as organized as the article yet the way that the
information was set up is understandable and readable. One of the limitations that it has is that
the video goes too fast and doesnt allow the audience to fully comprehend the information that
is given. The video had different questions followed by statements that supported and answered
the questions. Also, there were many visual representations that help support it. In addition, there
were visual effects in the video that could possibly distract the audience. This is a negative factor
because the audience is paying more attention to the effects than the information that is being
displayed. Fortunately, this type of genre allows the audience to replay the video several times to
see if there was any information that they happen to miss.
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Style/ Language
Sy Mukherjee uses formal and professional language throughout his article. There are
some words that he uses that maybe some readers wouldnt be able to decipher. Luckily, he
placed them in the content where you can make out the meaning of the word. Also, he uses
medical terminology e.g. asthma, diabetes, hormones, and hypertension. Regarding the style of
the article there is only one picture with dark colors to portray the sadness the woman is feeling.
It contains normal and readable font with some bolded words to emphasis their meaning.
Furthermore, the video uses simple but formal language. All of the statements that they
included in the video are understandable. They used big, bolded, and white font to make it easier
for the audience to read. The style on the video has more color but they still give off a gloomy
vibe. The background is a light brownish color and the effect that it has seems to be an old film.
Conclusion/Synthesis
Both of the genres conveyed the same message which is that poverty affects health
through different ways. The online article contains evidence that is authentic and reliable, but the
video doesnt. The article contained condensed yet sufficient information on the topic. Also, it
was neatly organized and it had its main points underlined so that they audience could know
what it was going to talk about. Furthermore, the YouTube video also has enough information on
the topic except that it wasnt easy to read. The video was very fast paced and the audience could
become overwhelmed with all the information that was thrown at them; but it did include
pictures to add visual effect. The online article had a bigger impact because they had credible
information and a little of visual appeal to it.

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References
Mukherjee, S. (2013, June 30). Four Ways That Poverty Hurts Americans Long-Term Health.
ThinkProgress RSS. Retrieved February 10, 2014, from
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/07/30/2381471/four-ways-poverty-impacts-
americans-health/
Shea, J., & Silva-Cadwell, M. (2008, October 19). Poverty and Health. YouTube. Retrieved
February 10, 2014, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Zs8HlQ6fVs